Subject: Feyerabend and Holderlin
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 19:02:28 +0100
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First posted this on the Feyerabend list of spoon, to get out of the box. May not be for everyone, hopefully
some will find it stimulating.
Feyerabend and Holderlin
Feyerabend is returning from a walk in the woods back to his cottage. It is not yet dusk. He runs into a madman. The madman is the famous German poet, Fredrich Holderlin. Holderlin waves his arms at Feyerabend and gestures for him to come over to a tree. Feyerabend is gracious, so he goes over to the tree where the German poet now waits. Holderlin points to the bark of the tree, and says, "Look." Feyerabend looks and he sees carved into the bark of the tree Bertrand Russel's famous formulation for descriptions: (($x) Fx & (("y) Gy iff x = y)). Holderlin, pointing at the carving in the tree, manages a sentence: "What a schizothemic thought!" he cries, although not outwardly distressed. Feyerabend is gracious and nods. Then he continues on his way home to his cottage, leaving the mad poet.
Shortly after the story is relayed to Chomsky. Chomsky remembers, Mark 8, 24, and thinks, upon this, that Holderlin's situation with regard to his encounter with Feyerabend, was pre-figured by the blind man whom Jesus cured, and who, in the story, had said, just upon gaining sight, "I see men as trees." Chomsky knew that Feyerabend had offered no salvation to the poet.
Patterson's brainchild was everpresent, and he reflected, on a Christian note which he had hoped Chomsky to take more openly, that salvation was part of physical matter, and in a state of quiesent messianicism at all times of human need, which included bread, water, shelter, love, touch, and thus pointed toward a non-crude form of marxist material implication, with the strictest of antecedent- consequent structures. Thereafter Patterson lay in a desert of his own making, Holderlin's encounter, and Holderlin himself, no longer clear in his mind, and he thanked God for it. For Patterson knew that there was no other way that the story could have been relayed to Chomsky.
HTML VERSION:
Feyerabend and Holderlin
Feyerabend is returning from a walk in the woods back to
his cottage. It is not yet dusk. He runs into a madman. The madman is the famous
German poet, Fredrich Holderlin. Holderlin waves his arms at Feyerabend and
gestures for him to come over to a
tree. Feyerabend is gracious, so he goes over to the tree where the German poet
now waits. Holderlin points to the bark of the tree, and says, „Look.“
Feyerabend looks and he sees carved into the bark of the tree Bertrand Russel’s
famous formulation for descriptions: (($x) Fx & (("y) Gy iff x = y)). Holderlin, pointing at the
carving in the tree, manages a sentence: „What a schizothemic thought!“ he
cries, although not outwardly distressed. Feyerabend is gracious and nods. Then
he continues on his way home to his cottage, leaving the mad poet.
Shortly after the story is relayed to Chomsky. Chomsky
remembers, Mark 8, 24, and thinks, upon this, that Holderlin’s situation with
regard to his encounter with Feyerabend, was pre-figured by the blind man whom
Jesus cured, and who, in the story, had said, just upon gaining sight, „I see
men as trees.“ Chomsky knew that Feyerabend had offered no salvation to the
poet.
Patterson’s brainchild was everpresent, and he
reflected, on a Christian note which he had hoped Chomsky to take more openly,
that salvation was part of physical matter, and in a state of quiesent
messianicism at all times of human need, which included bread, water, shelter,
love, touch, and thus pointed toward a non-crude form of marxist material
implication, with the strictest of antecedent- consequent structures. Thereafter
Patterson lay in a desert of his own making, Holderlin’s encounter, and
Holderlin himself, no longer clear
in his mind, and he thanked God for it. For Patterson knew that there was no
other way that the story could have been relayed to
Chomsky.
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