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Literature Text
Ten Thousand Plateaus
A Brief History of Western
Philosophy In Haiku Format
1/7
this
is not
a poem–
one
two
three–
the ten thousand things!
2/7
everything
either being or nonbeing–
being!
is there something
or nothing–
something!
what
is is
what is
heh
on–
hen!
phenomen
on–
maya!
3/7
qua
ontos on–
arithmos!
write
on the
moon–
4/7
qua
ontos on–
eidos!
epekeina
tes ousia–
hen!
5/7
qua
ontos on–
ousia!
everything being
has substance–
matter and form!
6/7
aiton
meson–
aitation!
remaining
roaming–
returning!
qua
ontos on–
trias!
7/7
matter
distilled–
atoma!
shapes
ordered–
positions!
rhythmic
contact–
modality!
8/7
nothing
is ever created out of
nothing
atoms
live
forever!
universe
without a center–
9/7
space divided
by time–
velocity!
10/7
either perception
or matter–
perception!
esse
est
percipi
qua
ontos on–
phenomenon!
11/7
between the destruction of the universe
and the scratching of my finger–
indifference!
12/7
awakened–
I cannot distinguish
reality from the dream
bodies, shapes
extensions, motions–
all illusions!
no sky, no earth
no mind, no matter–
what is left? what is left?
shut your eyes
stop your ears–
tabula rasa!
esse
est
cogito
qua
ontos on–
no!
consciousness
therefore–
existence!
13/7
qua
ontos on–
phenomenoumenon!
either phenomenon
or noumenon–
phenomenon!
all phenomenon
in space and time–
transcendental analysis!
taijitu
space-time
catvāri āryasatyāni
quantities, qualities,
relations and modes–
transcendental synthesis!
1.
unity in
plurality–
totality!
2.
negation of
reality–
limitation!
3.
substances
in dependence–
community!
4.
the possibility
of existence–
necessity!
14/7
atoms
with souls–
monads!
inside the outside
outside the inside–
everything folds!
between
matter and mind–
origami!
all things contain
and are contained–
universes within universes within...
15/7
beyond
good and evil–
ethics!
the difference between
mind and body–
chimera!
God is nothing but
the absolute and eternal essence
of substance!
esse
est
essendai
qua
ousia on–
attributes and modes!
16/7
thesis
antithesis–
synthesis!
beyond subjectivity and
objectivity–
the absolute!
sensation
thought–
das ding!
master
slave–
revolution!
immanent
transcendence–
essence!
either being
or nonbeing–
becoming!
either something
or nothing–
dialectic!
17/7
subjectivity
is truth–
subjectivity is reality!
transcendental
immanence–
existence!
18/7
all consciousness
is consciousness
of something
acts
of thought–
noesis!
intentional
objects of thought–
noema!
to the
things
themselves!
19/7
the substance
of being–
one, two, three!
qualities
relations–
representations!
anything
meaning anything–
signs!
firstness
secondness–
thirdness!
20/7
all consciousness–
is something
between perception
and action–
affection!
both being
and nonbeing–
becoming!
no space
no time–
movement!
neither unity
nor multiplicity–
duration!
absolute
indifference–
intuition!
life as one
indivisible embrace–
elan vital!
creative
evolution!
21/7
signifier
signified–
signification!
all language
is
difference
linguists–
pinning down
ghosts
22/7
all
things
related!
between two lights–
time 's' pace
unravels
neither space
nor time–
spacetime!
mass at the
speed of light–
energy!
23/7
this machine
kills
fascists!
24/7
philosophy's
idle wheels–
language on holiday
whereof one
cannot speak–
thereof one must be silent
thank the bees for their honey
as if they were kind enough
to have prepared it for you
magicians
by the roadside–
conjuring words
how small a thought it takes–
to fill a whole life!
lingual paths–
everywhere
wrong turnings
metaphysical
landscapes–
frictionless ice
lucid
nonsense!
don't worry–
I know you'll
never understand
out of
the fly bottle–
into the rough
tell them
I've had a wonderful life–
25/7
let what shows itself
be seen from itself
just as it shows from itself
the essence
of dasein–
care!
between existence
and existing–
existenz!
thrown
into the world–
falling!
no matter
how far I get–
horizons!
thoughts
are
utensils!
dead
ends–
new beginnings!
26/7
if your life is
burning well–
poetry is just the ash
27/7
all consciousness
is perceptual
consciousness!
I am
my
body
here
where
eye am–
the world is
wholly inside–
and I am wholly outside myself
my two hands meet–
which touches
and which is touched?
between perception
and expression–
chiasm!
neither present
nor absent–
visible and invisible!
subjective objectivity
objective subjectivity–
intersubjective existence!
philosophy–
yrteop in
reverse
language is everything
since it is the
voice of no-one
all things
speak
waves, forests...
folded
into the universe–
flesh to flesh
28/7
knowledge
is
power
those called "mad"
sent to sea–
so the "sane" may forget
schools, prisons, asylums–
discipline and punish
subjects
of the state–
subjected to the state
violence
breeds violence
breeds violence...
judgment
limits
compassion
unity
is an
illusion
rea
lity is disco
ntinuous
unknow
the
self
29/7
beyond images
and symbols–
the real!
30/7
memories
of a
sorcerer–
neither either
nor or–
both and! both and!
multiplicity!
multiplicity!
multiplicity!
a stream
without
beginning or end
never cease
changing–
leaves of grass!
all the while
I know nothing–
I am nothing
drunkenness
is a triumphant irruption
of the plant in us
no matter how
homogeneous it seems–
reality is heterogeneous!
statements
sentence by sentence–
forest for the trees
tracing–
leaves
in the wind
don't go for
the root–
follow the canal!
movement line by bro
ken line–
rhizomatic fungus!
mapping–
spores
in the rain
rats are
rhizomes–
burrows are too
the orchid forms
a map
with the wasp
layers
upon layers upon
layers upon...
there is
no ideology–
and there never has been
never ask
what a thing means–
what does it do?
control with
messages–
create with assemblages!
folding
texts–
read pages at random!
words–
each a little
machine
since each
of us are several–
there is quite a crowd
why keep
our own names–
out of habit
the one
is the many
is the one–
etre
est–
et et et
and and and
and and and and
and and...
no signifier–
never
interpret!
replace
history
with becoming
7000 years
of being man–
become woman!
wasp becomes
the orchid
becomes the wasp...
become your molecules
become your atoms–
become imperceptible!
roaming in packs–
dogs
and children
every time
we are betrayed
a priest is behind it
first betrayal–
desire is
lack
you can
fail twice–
both in the same way
instead
of a sledgehammer–
use a fine file
paranoia and
blockages–
outburst of delirium!
talking to myself–
aren't we all
schizophrenic?
Freud knew
nothing about
wolves–
empty
yourself–
full
you can't reach it–
you are forever
attaining it
desert traveler–
nomad on the
steppes
nothing
more useless
than an organ
disorganise
deorganise–
reorganise!
enemy
of the organism–
Body without Organs!
populated only by
intensities–
Body without Organs!
refrigerator
waves–
Body without Organs!
Spinoza's
ethics–
Body without Organs!
cool
cooler, cold–
Body without Organs!
philosophers aside–
aren't you fed up
seeing
with your
eyes
breathing
with your
lungs
swallowing
with your
mouth
talking
with your
tongue
thinking
with your
brain?
why
not–
walk
on your
head!
sing
with your
sinuses!
see
with your
skin!
breath
with your
belly!
31/7
we are but a way
for the cosmos
to know itself
we
are
starstuff
...
A Brief History of Western
Philosophy In Haiku Format
1/7
this
is not
a poem–
one
two
three–
the ten thousand things!
2/7
everything
either being or nonbeing–
being!
is there something
or nothing–
something!
what
is is
what is
heh
on–
hen!
phenomen
on–
maya!
3/7
qua
ontos on–
arithmos!
write
on the
moon–
4/7
qua
ontos on–
eidos!
epekeina
tes ousia–
hen!
5/7
qua
ontos on–
ousia!
everything being
has substance–
matter and form!
6/7
aiton
meson–
aitation!
remaining
roaming–
returning!
qua
ontos on–
trias!
7/7
matter
distilled–
atoma!
shapes
ordered–
positions!
rhythmic
contact–
modality!
8/7
nothing
is ever created out of
nothing
atoms
live
forever!
universe
without a center–
9/7
space divided
by time–
velocity!
10/7
either perception
or matter–
perception!
esse
est
percipi
qua
ontos on–
phenomenon!
11/7
between the destruction of the universe
and the scratching of my finger–
indifference!
12/7
awakened–
I cannot distinguish
reality from the dream
bodies, shapes
extensions, motions–
all illusions!
no sky, no earth
no mind, no matter–
what is left? what is left?
shut your eyes
stop your ears–
tabula rasa!
esse
est
cogito
qua
ontos on–
no!
consciousness
therefore–
existence!
13/7
qua
ontos on–
phenomenoumenon!
either phenomenon
or noumenon–
phenomenon!
all phenomenon
in space and time–
transcendental analysis!
taijitu
space-time
catvāri āryasatyāni
quantities, qualities,
relations and modes–
transcendental synthesis!
1.
unity in
plurality–
totality!
2.
negation of
reality–
limitation!
3.
substances
in dependence–
community!
4.
the possibility
of existence–
necessity!
14/7
atoms
with souls–
monads!
inside the outside
outside the inside–
everything folds!
between
matter and mind–
origami!
all things contain
and are contained–
universes within universes within...
15/7
beyond
good and evil–
ethics!
the difference between
mind and body–
chimera!
God is nothing but
the absolute and eternal essence
of substance!
esse
est
essendai
qua
ousia on–
attributes and modes!
16/7
thesis
antithesis–
synthesis!
beyond subjectivity and
objectivity–
the absolute!
sensation
thought–
das ding!
master
slave–
revolution!
immanent
transcendence–
essence!
either being
or nonbeing–
becoming!
either something
or nothing–
dialectic!
17/7
subjectivity
is truth–
subjectivity is reality!
transcendental
immanence–
existence!
18/7
all consciousness
is consciousness
of something
acts
of thought–
noesis!
intentional
objects of thought–
noema!
to the
things
themselves!
19/7
the substance
of being–
one, two, three!
qualities
relations–
representations!
anything
meaning anything–
signs!
firstness
secondness–
thirdness!
20/7
all consciousness–
is something
between perception
and action–
affection!
both being
and nonbeing–
becoming!
no space
no time–
movement!
neither unity
nor multiplicity–
duration!
absolute
indifference–
intuition!
life as one
indivisible embrace–
elan vital!
creative
evolution!
21/7
signifier
signified–
signification!
all language
is
difference
linguists–
pinning down
ghosts
22/7
all
things
related!
between two lights–
time 's' pace
unravels
neither space
nor time–
spacetime!
mass at the
speed of light–
energy!
23/7
this machine
kills
fascists!
24/7
philosophy's
idle wheels–
language on holiday
whereof one
cannot speak–
thereof one must be silent
thank the bees for their honey
as if they were kind enough
to have prepared it for you
magicians
by the roadside–
conjuring words
how small a thought it takes–
to fill a whole life!
lingual paths–
everywhere
wrong turnings
metaphysical
landscapes–
frictionless ice
lucid
nonsense!
don't worry–
I know you'll
never understand
out of
the fly bottle–
into the rough
tell them
I've had a wonderful life–
25/7
let what shows itself
be seen from itself
just as it shows from itself
the essence
of dasein–
care!
between existence
and existing–
existenz!
thrown
into the world–
falling!
no matter
how far I get–
horizons!
thoughts
are
utensils!
dead
ends–
new beginnings!
26/7
if your life is
burning well–
poetry is just the ash
27/7
all consciousness
is perceptual
consciousness!
I am
my
body
here
where
eye am–
the world is
wholly inside–
and I am wholly outside myself
my two hands meet–
which touches
and which is touched?
between perception
and expression–
chiasm!
neither present
nor absent–
visible and invisible!
subjective objectivity
objective subjectivity–
intersubjective existence!
philosophy–
yrteop in
reverse
language is everything
since it is the
voice of no-one
all things
speak
waves, forests...
folded
into the universe–
flesh to flesh
28/7
knowledge
is
power
those called "mad"
sent to sea–
so the "sane" may forget
schools, prisons, asylums–
discipline and punish
subjects
of the state–
subjected to the state
violence
breeds violence
breeds violence...
judgment
limits
compassion
unity
is an
illusion
rea
lity is disco
ntinuous
unknow
the
self
29/7
beyond images
and symbols–
the real!
30/7
memories
of a
sorcerer–
neither either
nor or–
both and! both and!
multiplicity!
multiplicity!
multiplicity!
a stream
without
beginning or end
never cease
changing–
leaves of grass!
all the while
I know nothing–
I am nothing
drunkenness
is a triumphant irruption
of the plant in us
no matter how
homogeneous it seems–
reality is heterogeneous!
statements
sentence by sentence–
forest for the trees
tracing–
leaves
in the wind
don't go for
the root–
follow the canal!
movement line by bro
ken line–
rhizomatic fungus!
mapping–
spores
in the rain
rats are
rhizomes–
burrows are too
the orchid forms
a map
with the wasp
layers
upon layers upon
layers upon...
there is
no ideology–
and there never has been
never ask
what a thing means–
what does it do?
control with
messages–
create with assemblages!
folding
texts–
read pages at random!
words–
each a little
machine
since each
of us are several–
there is quite a crowd
why keep
our own names–
out of habit
the one
is the many
is the one–
etre
est–
et et et
and and and
and and and and
and and...
no signifier–
never
interpret!
replace
history
with becoming
7000 years
of being man–
become woman!
wasp becomes
the orchid
becomes the wasp...
become your molecules
become your atoms–
become imperceptible!
roaming in packs–
dogs
and children
every time
we are betrayed
a priest is behind it
first betrayal–
desire is
lack
you can
fail twice–
both in the same way
instead
of a sledgehammer–
use a fine file
paranoia and
blockages–
outburst of delirium!
talking to myself–
aren't we all
schizophrenic?
Freud knew
nothing about
wolves–
empty
yourself–
full
you can't reach it–
you are forever
attaining it
desert traveler–
nomad on the
steppes
nothing
more useless
than an organ
disorganise
deorganise–
reorganise!
enemy
of the organism–
Body without Organs!
populated only by
intensities–
Body without Organs!
refrigerator
waves–
Body without Organs!
Spinoza's
ethics–
Body without Organs!
cool
cooler, cold–
Body without Organs!
philosophers aside–
aren't you fed up
seeing
with your
eyes
breathing
with your
lungs
swallowing
with your
mouth
talking
with your
tongue
thinking
with your
brain?
why
not–
walk
on your
head!
sing
with your
sinuses!
see
with your
skin!
breath
with your
belly!
31/7
we are but a way
for the cosmos
to know itself
we
are
starstuff
...
Suggested Collections
This was the Solarts entry for the July HaikuWrimo (one month of haiku in which the poets write one haiku a day for a month).
Please favourite and comment on the original here: [link]
IMPORTANT NOTE: These are not meant to teach philosophy, or anything like that. We were interested in taking philosophical words and ideas and making poems from them. We do not want them to suggest the philosophers ideas to you necessarily - in fact, we would rather you forgot this side altogether and attempted to read them just as poems. Otherwise it may feel like you "don't understand" when, in fact, there is nothing to understand (see 24/7). These are meant to be read as POEMS, rather than as PHILOSOPHY.
This poem remains the property of Dick Whyte and Solarts.
Notes and translations-
1/7
Philosopher: Solar, Rene Magritte and Lao-Tzu.
2/7
Philosopher: Parmenides
Heh = Eternal (Egyptian)
On = Being (Greek)
Hen = The One (Greek)
Phenomen = Appearances (Greek)
On = Being (Greek)
Maya = Illusion (Sanskrit)
3/7
Philosopher: Pythagoras
qua = what/question (Latin)
ontos on = real being/really real (Greek)
arithmos = number (Greek)
translation:
what is
really being-
number!
4/7
Philosopher: Plato/Socrates
eidos = ideas (Greek)
epekeina = beyond (Greek)
translation:
what is
really being-
ideas!
translation:
beyond
substance-
the one!
5/7
Philosopher: Aristotle
ousia = substance/essence
6/7
Philosopher: Proclus
aiton = cause
meson = mean-point
aitation = effect
the ten thousand things = remembering!
trias = logic of the three
7/7
Philosopher: Democritus
No comment.
8/7
Philosopher: Lucretius
No comment.
9/7
Philosopher: Galileo Galilei
No comment.
10/7
Philosopher: George Berkeley
esse = to be
est = is (to be)
percipi = perceived
translation:
to be
is to be
perceived
translation:
what is
really being-
appearances!
11/7
Philosopher: David Hume
No comment.
12/7
Philosopher: Rene Descartes
"The verb noeo means: to realize, to understand, to think." [link] It is from the Greek root "No-" that "to know" and "consciousness" are derived in English.
translations:
to be
is to be
conscious
what is
really real?
consciousness
"Consciousness, therefore existence" is an alternative (mis)translation of Descartes famous statement "cogito ergo sum." Traditionally this has been translated as "I think therefore I am," but there is no "I" in the Latin. Cogito is also closer to consciousness/conscious rather than the mental activity of thinking (remember - Descartes clearly says: "No mind," as in the Taoist "No space, no mind"). It can also be translated as "experience" (see Elizabeth Anscombe and Peter Thomas Geach's translations of Descartes).
13/7
Philosopher: Immanuel Kant
Taijitu is the singular name of the "yin-yang" and roughly means "diagram of the supreme ultimate," or "concept of time from beginning to end without difference." The "yin-yang" is essentially a pictorial representation of "unity in plurality" (see "transcendental synthesis").
The term "catvāri āryasatyāni" (Sanskrit) means "The Four Noble Reals" or the "Quad Ontos On" (four that are really being). The "Four Noble Truths" (as they are traditionally known in English) are one of the most fundamental aspects of Buddhas teachings. This is also known as the "quadrivium" (the place where four roads meet).
Kant is the most complete of the philosophical systems in many respects. He maps only half the equation (that of phenomena) and leaves the noumenon emptied. Loosely, phenomenon is "appearances of being" or "experienced things" while noumenon is the "unknown" or "that which is not experienced." Given that the noumenon cannot be experienced directly, Kant discards it - though he clearly leaves a place in his philosophy for its emergence.
14/7
Philosopher: Gottfried Leibniz
“The outside is not a fixed limit but a moving matter animated by peristaltic movements, folds and foldings that together make up an inside: they are not something other than the outside, but precisely the inside of the outside.” (in Gilles Deleuze, "The Fold, Leibniz and The Baroque")
“Folding-unfolding no longer simply means tension-release, contraction-dilation, but enveloping-developing, involution-evolution… The simplest way of stating the point is by saying that to unfold is to increase, to grow; whereas to fold is to diminish, to reduce, to withdraw into the recesses of a world.” (Gilles Deleuze, "The Fold, Leibniz and The Baroque")
“It is not the line that is between two points, but the point that is at the intersection of several lines.” (Gilles Deleuze)
These quotes are taken from an excellent article on Deleuze, space and architecture by Mathew Krissel which can be seen here: [link]
As The San Francisco Bay Guardian writes, "The scope of Deleuze's understanding makes this book pertinent to artists, writers, architects, or anyone generally interested in ideas. The Fold attests to Deleuze's status as one of the most relevant and insightful philosophers." See a review of "The Fold" on-line here: [link]
15/7
Philosopher: Benedict Spinoza
translation:
to be
is to be
being
Although there is no word for the gerund "Being" in Latin Spinoza coins the term, and single-handedly developed a tool for breaking with a transcendental, punishing, disciplining God. In his time, to be a Spinozaist was equivalent to being an athiest (in the sense that it was not Christianity, and therefore heretic). Some even accused him of a form of pantheism.
translation:
what is
substance being-
attributes and modes
16/7
Philosopher: Johann Fichte and George Hegel
"In its original German, das Ding suggests Kant's famous concept of the ding-an-sich or the thing-in-itself - the concept referring to the non-phenomenal source of all intuitions, or the world as it hypothetically existed outside of our particular way of cognizing it." [link] This is also what Kant calls the "noumenon."
17/7
Philosopher: Soren Kierkegaard
"Found poem" from Keirkegaard's wonderful "Concluding Unscientific Postscript" (isn't that just the best name you ever heard for a book!). The subject of this book is the "subjective thinker" and the multiplicitous "layers" of subjective thought. Keirkegaard is often considered the father of "existentialism."
18/7
Philosopher: Edmund Husserl
"Found poem" based on the most famous of all Husserl's quotes - often referred to as a war cry! Te most famous of the phenomenologists after Hegel.
19/7
Philosopher: C.S. Peirce
No comment.
20/7
Philosopher: Henri Bergson
Updated 25/7 with new poems.
21/7
Philosopher: Ferdinand Saussure
Saussure was responsible for the development of "the science of signs" (semiotics) independently of Peirce. His definition of a sign differs radically from Peirce's. Peirce believed that a sign was "anything which signified something to someone." For Saussure a sign was a "communication between two who are aware of a common system and storehouse of signs."
22/7
Philosopher: Albert Einstein
No comment.
23/7
Philosopher: Woody Guthrie
Ostensibly a "found poem." This was written on a sticker on Woody Guthrie's guitar and sums up my feelings about philosophy/metaphysics/taoism. As Deleuze writes philosophy is a series of machines, and those machines have the power to end fascism. Woody's guitar and songs might be called a "war machine," capable of producing pure "images of thought" (as in noology).
24/7
Philosopher: Ludwig Wittgenstein
Poems #2, 5, 9 and 11 (the last one) are all “found poems” and are direct quotes from Wittgenstein. While writing this set tonight I was constantly AMAZED at the poetic nature of Wittgenstein's writing and thought. Everything he wrote sounds like a damn poem – I could have kept composing these for ages but I had to stop somewhere so this is what I ended up with. Poem 3 is a slight condensation of another direct Wittgenstein quote (see below). “Idle wheels,” “frictionless ice” and “way out of the fly bottle” are all phrases from Wittgenstein. Because of the nature of this set (24/7) we feel more comfortable calling this an unwilling collaboration between Wittgenstein and us.
Betrand Russell supposedly said of Wittgenstein that he “obstinate and perverse, but I think not stupid.” [link] And you wonder why I haven't done a set for Russell.
Wittgenstein: “Rules of life are dressed up in pictures. And these pictures can only serve to describe what we are to do, not justify it. Because they could provide a justification only if they held good in other respects as well. I can say: "Thank these bees for their honey as though they were kind people who have prepared it for you"; that is intelligible and describes how I should like you to conduct yourself. But I cannot say: "Thank them because, look, how kind they are!"--since the next moment they may sting you.” [link]
25/7
Philosopher: Martin Heidegger
Poem #1 in this set is a paraphrasing of a Heidegger quote (not a "found poem" as such, but very close to the original - I simply changed the tense of the statement into the present, rather than the past).
26/7
Philosopher: Leonard Cohen
Ostensibly a "found poem," this is a truncation of a direct quote from Leonard (who is a poet in his own right - though I don't much like his poetry, but I love his music). The original runs: "Poetry is just the evidence of life, if your life is burning well (etc.)." I simply cut the first line. I bumped Jacques Lacan for Leonard here because this quote BLOWS ME THE FUCK AWAY. I don't know why Leonard couldn't write poetry (his books really are BAD) - but his quotes and song lyrics are SO DAMN GOOD. Also Lacan is a psychoanalyst and not a metaphysician and I didn't include Freud, so I thought I'd leave them for another poem altogether (haiku does psychoanalysm anyone?).
27/7
Philosopher: Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Poems #1, 2 and 3 are "found poems" directly lifted from Merleau-Ponty's work.
28/7
Philosopher: Michel Foucault
Foucault is largely negative in his propositions but his work uncovers many basic principles of modern society and brings to light the problems with judgment.
29/7
Philosopher: Jacques Lacan
So Lacan made it in anyway. Given that we only perceive "images" with the senses (and do not necessarily experience anything which really exists - colour for example, does not technically exist, it is an affect of the brain) and that we express using "symbols" (words, facial expressions) how do we experience "the real"??? This is the central problem of metaphysics in general and has dominated Western philosophical thought for centuries. How do we experience the real?? What is real in terms of what we can know of the world?? Obviously things are "real" but how do we experience their "realness."
30/7
Philosopher: Gilles Deleuze (with Felix Guattari)
Poems #4, 6, 7, 11, 17, 27, 34, 39, 42, 43 and 44 are all "found poems" which can be located in "A Thousand Plateaus." The last section (the "philosopher's aside") is a paraphrasing from the "BWO." To see the full text "How do you make yourself a Body without Organs" (a chapter from "A Thousand Plateaus") see here: [link]
Love you Deleuze!!
31/7
Philosopher: Carl Sagan
This is a "found poem" comprising of two Carl Sagan quotes (which might be slightly paraphrased as I got them from Brady, rather than Sagan). Cosmos is the best TV show ever.
*experimental/minimalist haiku*
Please favourite and comment on the original here: [link]
IMPORTANT NOTE: These are not meant to teach philosophy, or anything like that. We were interested in taking philosophical words and ideas and making poems from them. We do not want them to suggest the philosophers ideas to you necessarily - in fact, we would rather you forgot this side altogether and attempted to read them just as poems. Otherwise it may feel like you "don't understand" when, in fact, there is nothing to understand (see 24/7). These are meant to be read as POEMS, rather than as PHILOSOPHY.
This poem remains the property of Dick Whyte and Solarts.
Notes and translations-
1/7
Philosopher: Solar, Rene Magritte and Lao-Tzu.
2/7
Philosopher: Parmenides
Heh = Eternal (Egyptian)
On = Being (Greek)
Hen = The One (Greek)
Phenomen = Appearances (Greek)
On = Being (Greek)
Maya = Illusion (Sanskrit)
3/7
Philosopher: Pythagoras
qua = what/question (Latin)
ontos on = real being/really real (Greek)
arithmos = number (Greek)
translation:
what is
really being-
number!
4/7
Philosopher: Plato/Socrates
eidos = ideas (Greek)
epekeina = beyond (Greek)
translation:
what is
really being-
ideas!
translation:
beyond
substance-
the one!
5/7
Philosopher: Aristotle
ousia = substance/essence
6/7
Philosopher: Proclus
aiton = cause
meson = mean-point
aitation = effect
the ten thousand things = remembering!
trias = logic of the three
7/7
Philosopher: Democritus
No comment.
8/7
Philosopher: Lucretius
No comment.
9/7
Philosopher: Galileo Galilei
No comment.
10/7
Philosopher: George Berkeley
esse = to be
est = is (to be)
percipi = perceived
translation:
to be
is to be
perceived
translation:
what is
really being-
appearances!
11/7
Philosopher: David Hume
No comment.
12/7
Philosopher: Rene Descartes
"The verb noeo means: to realize, to understand, to think." [link] It is from the Greek root "No-" that "to know" and "consciousness" are derived in English.
translations:
to be
is to be
conscious
what is
really real?
consciousness
"Consciousness, therefore existence" is an alternative (mis)translation of Descartes famous statement "cogito ergo sum." Traditionally this has been translated as "I think therefore I am," but there is no "I" in the Latin. Cogito is also closer to consciousness/conscious rather than the mental activity of thinking (remember - Descartes clearly says: "No mind," as in the Taoist "No space, no mind"). It can also be translated as "experience" (see Elizabeth Anscombe and Peter Thomas Geach's translations of Descartes).
13/7
Philosopher: Immanuel Kant
Taijitu is the singular name of the "yin-yang" and roughly means "diagram of the supreme ultimate," or "concept of time from beginning to end without difference." The "yin-yang" is essentially a pictorial representation of "unity in plurality" (see "transcendental synthesis").
The term "catvāri āryasatyāni" (Sanskrit) means "The Four Noble Reals" or the "Quad Ontos On" (four that are really being). The "Four Noble Truths" (as they are traditionally known in English) are one of the most fundamental aspects of Buddhas teachings. This is also known as the "quadrivium" (the place where four roads meet).
Kant is the most complete of the philosophical systems in many respects. He maps only half the equation (that of phenomena) and leaves the noumenon emptied. Loosely, phenomenon is "appearances of being" or "experienced things" while noumenon is the "unknown" or "that which is not experienced." Given that the noumenon cannot be experienced directly, Kant discards it - though he clearly leaves a place in his philosophy for its emergence.
14/7
Philosopher: Gottfried Leibniz
“The outside is not a fixed limit but a moving matter animated by peristaltic movements, folds and foldings that together make up an inside: they are not something other than the outside, but precisely the inside of the outside.” (in Gilles Deleuze, "The Fold, Leibniz and The Baroque")
“Folding-unfolding no longer simply means tension-release, contraction-dilation, but enveloping-developing, involution-evolution… The simplest way of stating the point is by saying that to unfold is to increase, to grow; whereas to fold is to diminish, to reduce, to withdraw into the recesses of a world.” (Gilles Deleuze, "The Fold, Leibniz and The Baroque")
“It is not the line that is between two points, but the point that is at the intersection of several lines.” (Gilles Deleuze)
These quotes are taken from an excellent article on Deleuze, space and architecture by Mathew Krissel which can be seen here: [link]
As The San Francisco Bay Guardian writes, "The scope of Deleuze's understanding makes this book pertinent to artists, writers, architects, or anyone generally interested in ideas. The Fold attests to Deleuze's status as one of the most relevant and insightful philosophers." See a review of "The Fold" on-line here: [link]
15/7
Philosopher: Benedict Spinoza
translation:
to be
is to be
being
Although there is no word for the gerund "Being" in Latin Spinoza coins the term, and single-handedly developed a tool for breaking with a transcendental, punishing, disciplining God. In his time, to be a Spinozaist was equivalent to being an athiest (in the sense that it was not Christianity, and therefore heretic). Some even accused him of a form of pantheism.
translation:
what is
substance being-
attributes and modes
16/7
Philosopher: Johann Fichte and George Hegel
"In its original German, das Ding suggests Kant's famous concept of the ding-an-sich or the thing-in-itself - the concept referring to the non-phenomenal source of all intuitions, or the world as it hypothetically existed outside of our particular way of cognizing it." [link] This is also what Kant calls the "noumenon."
17/7
Philosopher: Soren Kierkegaard
"Found poem" from Keirkegaard's wonderful "Concluding Unscientific Postscript" (isn't that just the best name you ever heard for a book!). The subject of this book is the "subjective thinker" and the multiplicitous "layers" of subjective thought. Keirkegaard is often considered the father of "existentialism."
18/7
Philosopher: Edmund Husserl
"Found poem" based on the most famous of all Husserl's quotes - often referred to as a war cry! Te most famous of the phenomenologists after Hegel.
19/7
Philosopher: C.S. Peirce
No comment.
20/7
Philosopher: Henri Bergson
Updated 25/7 with new poems.
21/7
Philosopher: Ferdinand Saussure
Saussure was responsible for the development of "the science of signs" (semiotics) independently of Peirce. His definition of a sign differs radically from Peirce's. Peirce believed that a sign was "anything which signified something to someone." For Saussure a sign was a "communication between two who are aware of a common system and storehouse of signs."
22/7
Philosopher: Albert Einstein
No comment.
23/7
Philosopher: Woody Guthrie
Ostensibly a "found poem." This was written on a sticker on Woody Guthrie's guitar and sums up my feelings about philosophy/metaphysics/taoism. As Deleuze writes philosophy is a series of machines, and those machines have the power to end fascism. Woody's guitar and songs might be called a "war machine," capable of producing pure "images of thought" (as in noology).
24/7
Philosopher: Ludwig Wittgenstein
Poems #2, 5, 9 and 11 (the last one) are all “found poems” and are direct quotes from Wittgenstein. While writing this set tonight I was constantly AMAZED at the poetic nature of Wittgenstein's writing and thought. Everything he wrote sounds like a damn poem – I could have kept composing these for ages but I had to stop somewhere so this is what I ended up with. Poem 3 is a slight condensation of another direct Wittgenstein quote (see below). “Idle wheels,” “frictionless ice” and “way out of the fly bottle” are all phrases from Wittgenstein. Because of the nature of this set (24/7) we feel more comfortable calling this an unwilling collaboration between Wittgenstein and us.
Betrand Russell supposedly said of Wittgenstein that he “obstinate and perverse, but I think not stupid.” [link] And you wonder why I haven't done a set for Russell.
Wittgenstein: “Rules of life are dressed up in pictures. And these pictures can only serve to describe what we are to do, not justify it. Because they could provide a justification only if they held good in other respects as well. I can say: "Thank these bees for their honey as though they were kind people who have prepared it for you"; that is intelligible and describes how I should like you to conduct yourself. But I cannot say: "Thank them because, look, how kind they are!"--since the next moment they may sting you.” [link]
25/7
Philosopher: Martin Heidegger
Poem #1 in this set is a paraphrasing of a Heidegger quote (not a "found poem" as such, but very close to the original - I simply changed the tense of the statement into the present, rather than the past).
26/7
Philosopher: Leonard Cohen
Ostensibly a "found poem," this is a truncation of a direct quote from Leonard (who is a poet in his own right - though I don't much like his poetry, but I love his music). The original runs: "Poetry is just the evidence of life, if your life is burning well (etc.)." I simply cut the first line. I bumped Jacques Lacan for Leonard here because this quote BLOWS ME THE FUCK AWAY. I don't know why Leonard couldn't write poetry (his books really are BAD) - but his quotes and song lyrics are SO DAMN GOOD. Also Lacan is a psychoanalyst and not a metaphysician and I didn't include Freud, so I thought I'd leave them for another poem altogether (haiku does psychoanalysm anyone?).
27/7
Philosopher: Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Poems #1, 2 and 3 are "found poems" directly lifted from Merleau-Ponty's work.
28/7
Philosopher: Michel Foucault
Foucault is largely negative in his propositions but his work uncovers many basic principles of modern society and brings to light the problems with judgment.
29/7
Philosopher: Jacques Lacan
So Lacan made it in anyway. Given that we only perceive "images" with the senses (and do not necessarily experience anything which really exists - colour for example, does not technically exist, it is an affect of the brain) and that we express using "symbols" (words, facial expressions) how do we experience "the real"??? This is the central problem of metaphysics in general and has dominated Western philosophical thought for centuries. How do we experience the real?? What is real in terms of what we can know of the world?? Obviously things are "real" but how do we experience their "realness."
30/7
Philosopher: Gilles Deleuze (with Felix Guattari)
Poems #4, 6, 7, 11, 17, 27, 34, 39, 42, 43 and 44 are all "found poems" which can be located in "A Thousand Plateaus." The last section (the "philosopher's aside") is a paraphrasing from the "BWO." To see the full text "How do you make yourself a Body without Organs" (a chapter from "A Thousand Plateaus") see here: [link]
Love you Deleuze!!
31/7
Philosopher: Carl Sagan
This is a "found poem" comprising of two Carl Sagan quotes (which might be slightly paraphrased as I got them from Brady, rather than Sagan). Cosmos is the best TV show ever.
*experimental/minimalist haiku*
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