So what's this rationalism thing all about then?

[luka]

yeah i agree i must mustnt i

 

[luka]

but i think i dont do it consciously step by step

 

[luka]

i always liked this a lot

What has to be resisted at every level – and all the great thinkers of CR, from Schopenhauer to Freud to Lacan – is the idea that emotions are some ineffable and inexplicable slurry. The great breakthrough of Freud was to return to the Spinozist insight that all emotions have rationales. The devastating radical enlightenment thought is also astonishingly simple. Everything that happens – and crucially that has to include emotional reactions - has a cause. But a prior - or mechanical – cause, not a final cause or teleology.

ever since someone pointed out to me that i was feeling a bit highly strung cos of all the coffee and cigerettes. something like that can feel like a instant of illumination. there are causes, and you can change things by understanding what the causes are.

but its not always obvious or easy

 

[luka]

the problem with the poetry of the instant is that it forgoes the causal chain

 

[luka]

you can set up a causal chain just by adding the element of time

bird lands on branch

thats the poetry of the instant

but then you can add the tail as counter balance, you can add the curtain of water droplets that fall as the bird displaces the branch
the vibrations

 

[luka]

it depends on the time section youre cutting

 

[Mr. Tea]

but i think i dont do it consciously step by step

Well I don't actually write posts according to a flowchart or algorithm, you know.

That would be more Stan's style.

 

[luka]

i dont consider you to be a rationalist though. poetix is the person who i associate with it. this is part of the reason i find him fascinating