Sunday, March 08, 2009

Irony

In the absence of an effective general mythology or religion, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of Fourty-second Street and fifth Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change.

2 comments:

  1. Speaking of Irony, you might want to check out Kierkegaard's "On the concept of Irony with constant reference to Socrates". It's an amazing book (his dissertation actually).

    Here's a description from SEoP: "In this undertaking Kierkegaard was inspired by the figure of Socrates, whose incessant irony undermined all knowledge claims that were taken for granted or unreflectively inherited from traditional culture. In his dissertation On the Concept of Irony with constant reference to Socrates, Kierkegaard argued that the historical Socrates used his irony in order to facilitate the birth of subjectivity in his interlocutors. Because they were constantly forced to abandon their pat answers to Socrates' annoying questions, they had to begin to think for themselves and to take individual responsibility for their claims about knowledge and value."

    Anyway, I had to read most of it for a class entitled "19th Century Philosophy" - don't ask..., I have no idea why he called it that. It should have been called 18th century philosophy if you ask me.

    Oh, and by the way, I posted my instructors critique of my argument that we were debating (in the comment section), just in case you're interested.

    Sorry I was such a dick. I just really loath SyeTenB, so I got all defensive. I'm quite aware that my argument was invalid (that's why I just listed my premises instead of claiming it deductive), but nevertheless, I thought the gist of it had good intentions.

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  2. PD,
    don't mention it...

    Before anything else, I'm a smartass.

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