Tag: #philosophy

  • Tautology

    “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.

  • On Thoughts of Breaking a Plate

    I broke a plate this afternoon. I was putting away the dishes, and I wasn’t paying attention. It slipped out of my hand and crashed onto the floor. The sound of the plate shattering was much louder than I expected. It was almost ear pricing as the sound was in such a high register. The plate broke into a few large pieces, but the majority was made up of tiny shards that went everywhere.

    First, I was angry, as the plate I had broken was one we had received for our wedding, and I don’t think they make them anymore. I started to move to clean it up, but then I stopped.

    I stopped to look at the mess I had made, though by accident; The strange pattern all of the pieces had made. As our kitchen is central in the layout of the apartment, shards had made it to the living room, master bedroom, and even the dining room. The spread was impressive.

    What if I left it? It was a silly question and couldn’t be answered with a, yes, leave it. A child’s bare feet would be home soon. Messes are made to be cleaned up. As are accidents.

    And so, I cleaned the floor. Picked up the large pieces, swept up the tiny ones. Vacuumed the tiles, and then mopped. I would say that it now looked like it never happened, but the clean floors will give away that something happened.

    I was reminded of a question that a history professor posed to us, his class; If there is no evidence of a historical event happening, did it really happen?