Saturday, November 18, 2006

enlightenment as love of learning



So, I've been plodding onward toward that philosophical cognitive science (previous posting: October), going on many years now, as evolution of the literature vastly outpaces anyone's opportunities for mastering it.

I make philosophically informed choices (I hope, as any scholar must choose—philosophically or not—from the evolving library, no matter the degree of freedom won by income and talent), and I dare claim that I am attuned to the leading literature.

The inspiration from Habermas' essay on free will arises from the entrance of a mentor into a domain long dear to me. So, I revise the 20th century philosopher's assay of new territory (which is nonetheless so far beyond what John Searle's just-published Freedom & Neurobiology comprehends!), doing so at least in honor of his influence, but basically as collaborative engagement.

The microcosmic focus that is named a philosophical cognitive science (in postings emblematic of what is hardly yet defined by such postings!) could have no straightforwardly accessible bridge to a macrocosmic focus on "planetary logos" (ill-defined as well by merely a long posting).

So, postings are emblematic of venues, and the bridge is the writer portending clarification of both.

Or at least the two indications dramatize the real scale of philosophy, regardless of my capability of bridging—which here is not to tacitly withdraw from the challenge (my capability is in good form, thank you), but rather to exactly do what I'm doing: emblemize well the scale of my own endeavor, where an indicated microcosm and indicated macrocosm are not the scalar poles of the project, but loci of scale in a sphere of inquiry, beyond the classically-conceived "question of Being."

The particular scalarity here is emblematic of what belongs to interdisciplinarity altogether, as if philosophy might still argue a place for itself in the holism of epistemic life as the discourse of holism as such that may be implied by each discursive formation within epistemic life.

Pope Benedict's secret complementarity with Habermas on the relationship of Christian universalism and universalistic reason can be shown to imply a fullness of questioning the place of so-called "God" (mind?) in evolution that is a keynote of our self-mirroring nature, now articulated to the scale of governing the lovely planet (or so endeavoring, like herding cats).

Look what words can do, as if, in The Beginning was The Word, and it was that enlightenment of intelligence in nature that led to the articulated university—the planetary Archive—ever evolving purposes for learning and creating. Enlightening love of learning languages worlds, like a Logos of nature loving itself in our minding.

But poetic thinking won't bring health care and education to developing societies. Perpendicular to the micro-macrocosmic scalarity of discursive inquiry is the stark reality of actual lives, political economics, global society, intercontinental competitions, and the tragically ongoing primate character (in marriages, parenting, and work, let alone the streets of avarice)—the primativeness—of so many minds of our species, whose capacity for humanity died.

So, one way or another, we work for resurrection—and invest hope in Generation Next.