English Science and Literature club🤓✍️📖

295.

November 21, 2024 (14265)
Let’s look at two powerful metaphors Descartes employs to push forward his conception of science. One of them is the metaphor of a journey, which he talks about in the following manner. “I could not choose any one person whose opinions struck me as preferable to those of others, and I found myself forced, as it were, to provide for myself my own guidance. But like a man walking by himself in the dark, I took the decision to go so slowly and exercise such caution in everything that even if I made very little progress, I would at least be sure not to fall.”
Another metaphor is that of building a house. Here is how he uses it to talk about science: “Just as it is not enough, before beginning to rebuild a house in which one lives, to do no more than demolish it, make provision for materials and architects, or become oneself trained as an architect, or even to have carefully drawn up the plans, but one must also provide oneself with another house in which one may be comfortably lodged while work is in progress.”
He also insists that “his project has never extended beyond wishing to reform his own thoughts and build on a foundation which is his alone.”
Apparently, he forgets that the languages he uses (French and Latin) to build his science belong to no one in particular, evolving throughout thousands of years. Whenever he wrote (and thought) in French, he was guided by the French grammar and its great thinkers with whom he struggled for power over this language, building a metaphysical house that was supposed to cast a shadow over other houses built out of French. When he wrote in Latin, he was guided by the Latin grammar. He fought with an army of other great thinkers united by the purpose to make Latin the most powerful language in psychopolitics. Was there any “I” behind his thoughts except “sicut cadaver”?

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7 viewsVladimir Svetashev, Nov 21 at 10:46

295.

November 21, 2024 (14265)
Let’s look at two powerful metaphors Descartes employs to push forward his conception of science. One of them is the metaphor of a journey, which he talks about in the following manner. “I could not choose any one person whose opinions struck me as preferable to those of others, and I found myself forced, as it were, to provide for myself my own guidance. But like a man walking by himself in the dark, I took the decision to go so slowly and exercise such caution in everything that even if I made very little progress, I would at least be sure not to fall.”
Another metaphor is that of building a house. Here is how he uses it to talk about science: “Just as it is not enough, before beginning to rebuild a house in which one lives, to do no more than demolish it, make provision for materials and architects, or become oneself trained as an architect, or even to have carefully drawn up the plans, but one must also provide oneself with another house in which one may be comfortably lodged while work is in progress.”
He also insists that “his project has never extended beyond wishing to reform his own thoughts and build on a foundation which is his alone.”
Apparently, he forgets that the languages he uses (French and Latin) to build his science belong to no one in particular, evolving throughout thousands of years. Whenever he wrote (and thought) in French, he was guided by the French grammar and its great thinkers with whom he struggled for power over this language, building a metaphysical house that was supposed to cast a shadow over other houses built out of French. When he wrote in Latin, he was guided by the Latin grammar. He fought with an army of other great thinkers united by the purpose to make Latin the most powerful language in psychopolitics. Was there any “I” behind his thoughts except “sicut cadaver”?

BY English Science and Literature club🤓✍️📖