“Tautology” is my word of the day. In fact, I can admit that today happens to be the first time I have ever heard the word “tautology.” I read the word in a response someone was making to why libertarianism is a failed political philosophy; it was full of tautology, the person said.
What the hell is “tautology,” I wondered?
And Google told me:
“noun – the saying of the same thing twice in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style (e.g., they arrived one after the other in succession).
In logic, it is a statement that is true by necessity or by virtue of its logical form. (e.g., All logical propositions are reducible to either tautologies or contradictions.)”
Who knew, right!?!?
I had taken a couple of philosophy classes in college, and I really enjoyed it. I got rather lost when it came to Spinoza and Kant, but on the whole I thought I did well with grasping concepts. I felt that philosophy helped me as a theatre major by giving me a different type of context to put the characters I played in.
So when I saw “tautology” today, I had a little bit of a learning thrill come over me. You know when you were a kid and you’d get all excited about learning something new; it was a little like that. This is a new concept that I was fascinated to start learning more about, and the philosophical implications of it.
It’s been awhile since I had a feeling of wonder come over me. As I started getting older, I came to believe that those opportunities of experience were no longer possible. I have become more jaded than I would like to admit, and some experiences have left me feeling cold.
Not sure what changed in me today. Maybe it was just as simple as being curious and wanting to learn.
