{"id":2679,"date":"2013-11-15T03:46:07","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T03:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2019-08-25T06:25:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T06:25:18","slug":"dear-diary-friday-november-15-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/15\/dear-diary-friday-november-15-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday November 15, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><strong>Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Dear Diary and Focus of\u00a0Journaling<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;What is this,&#8221; asked Mr. Self-Referential.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff &#8211; Take 2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">(In which I write a little bit about my previous [mis]understanding of Wolff, and lead into a discussion of his relationship with Leibniz)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yesterday I had initiated my intention. Today I hope to overcome these first, tottering steps, whose length and form indicate vector but no displacement. One important tool towards this end will be to supersede pseudo-intellectual semantic stuffing (e.g. this), to be replaced with contextual content (e.g. see below [I hope]).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I choose to begin by establishing the context from which I set out to understand this particular philosopher. I was aware of the name Wolff, and knew of him as the founder of the philosophical environment from which Kant&#8217;s critique was to eventually outgrow. It was also my understanding that Wolff&#8217;s own influence was dominated by Leibniz, and assumed that in following Leibniz he was also carrying on his most famous ideas (e.g. monads). It seems that this is a usual platform for those initiating a study of Wolff, or at least those comprising the intended audience of the SEP entry I am reading (i.e. my source for studying Wolff).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Accordingly, after the section on his biography, the SEP article continues by disambiguating the nature of Wolff&#8217;s relationship to Leibniz.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First of all, Yes, they did have a positive relationship. Thus Wolff (for instance) shared his works with Leibniz, and the latter was a sponsor of Wolff&#8217;s professorship at the University of Halle. But although the two had many intellectual correspondences, they were focused on mathematics (which would be no surprise to anyone were it not due to the change in intellectual fashion insofar as the study of each Leibniz and Wolff are concerned) and theology. Additionally, many of the works whose contents form the philosophies for which Leibniz is most famous today, were not yet published (including those that would only be published posthumously).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Instead, what the two intellectuals did share, philosophically speaking, was a general understanding of how basic philosophy was to be conducted. Philosophical ideas should be based on demonstrative a priori principles, and their treatment (e.g. the forming of a philosophical system) should heavily involve a methodology of definitions, and rigorous use of the principle of sufficient reason.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is thus no revelation when I write that I had misunderstood Wolff, and by consequence, misunderstood the intellectual heritage from which Kant was to break free. Nonetheless, at this very moment in time I still lack an understanding of what a Wolffian philosophy comprises, nor can I state what philosophical tools, armaments, or weights, were to become the property of Kant by virtue of studying German philosophy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I am however capable of adding some facts of interest to that last sentence: One of Wolff&#8217;s claims to fame was his choice of language for writing. He wrote philosophy in German at a time when Latin and French were commonly considered the only options. Additionally, he was among the first to write German for university, and in doing so was a pioneer of modern German philosophy at university. For this fact to be appreciated it first needs to be noted that the German universities were much slower than their other continental centres of study in reforming their education following the demise of recent centuries of scholasticism, and thus Wolff assisted in speeding their irrelevance and modernizing philosophy&#8217;s study.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Dear Diary; or, some stuff that I can write about,\u00a0that happened within the most recent day<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As I walked down to the Japanese garden, a few hours ago (from the point I now call &#8220;now&#8221;) I was pondering (in a tangential manner &#8211; it was but a topic that had derived from another and another) about how I can select what to write about, including the popular (and by some evaluations, cliche) approach to journaling that is diary keeping. In considering this theme I covered such micro-thoughts as &#8220;It is not a straight-forward task to assign future-value to present-event-recording,&#8221; or, &#8220;There is a major displacement between superficial value and potential value,&#8221; among others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As I review today, a principle that comes to mind is that, &#8220;The unusual (or, the non-everyday) may be expected to be of more interest than what isn&#8217;t,&#8221; to which I mentally link a whole host of related principles that relate interest (itself a theme for exploration) with correlative parameters (i.e. more territory to be explored).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I could write in my diary about my doctor&#8217;s appointment (nb. I went to see a doctor for a second opinion). There is undoubtedly data related to the scene itself, or related emotional content, or ideas that flowed from that particular encounter, all of which are ripe for recording. But I don&#8217;t want to. (It is incidental that it was directly from that medical visit that I went to another outing) I went also to an event called (IIRC) Access, in which mentally disabled individuals worked at a specially (micro) managed cafeteria. (Again an incidental joining of destination by a singular outing) I went to the park where mum saw a chicken as we walked around the duck pond looking for turtles. None of these events is momentous in any obvious sense, and could even be described as being mundane. But (and this is a major caveat to the aforementioned hackneyed nature of such thing) perception is reality, and to write is to create the map whose semantic contours impress themselves upon the mind&#8217;s eye as a territory.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Thus, all things can be considered as specks that float across the sky and block the passage of a star&#8217;s light. Size is nothing, and stories are beyond measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contents: Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff Dear Diary and Focus of\u00a0Journaling &#8220;What is this,&#8221; asked Mr. Self-Referential. Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff &#8211; Take 2 (In which I write a little bit about my previous [mis]understanding of Wolff, and lead into a discussion of his relationship with Leibniz) Yesterday I had initiated my intention. Today I hope [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,302,242,128,256,20,243,254],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-2679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-classicalphilosophers","category-evernote-entries","category-journal","category-kant","category-philosophy","category-philosophy-briefs","category-wolff"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2776,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/14\/thursday-november-14-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2679,"position":0},"title":"Thursday November 14, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is, QED. Philosopher Briefs: Christian Wolff And so I begin another entry in my potentially splendid (although insufficiently sordid) intended series that will be an edifying collection of summarised...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2711,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/26\/tuesday-november-26-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2679,"position":1},"title":"Tuesday November 26, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A list that is not random and that refers to things beyond itself qua list-only: Content: What became known as the Dream-Words. Scaruffi: Chapter 4: Part 3. Thoughts as I study through WiBit. Philosopher Brief: Christian Wolff - Take 4. What became known as the Dream-Words Let's begin by saying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2697,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/25\/monday-november-25-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2679,"position":2},"title":"Monday November 25, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Now\" keeps changing, leading me to doubt whether it ever is. Contents: Philosopher Brief: Christian Wolff - Take 3\u00a0 Diary: Studying Java and Wibit on programming\u00a0 Some words on Scaruffi: Gaining perspective on chapter 4 - Part 2 Philosopher Brief: Christian Wolff - Take 3 Meta: Title notwithstanding, and long-story\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2826,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/29\/friday-november-29-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2679,"position":3},"title":"Friday November 29, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I woke up from a passing loss of conscious motor control. I had dreamt, which is one thing I have severely preferred to avoid. Oh my, how time does pass me by as I stare off into the dreamless horizons, which promise stagnant vistas and microcosm by which one could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2824,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/12\/18\/index-philosophy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2679,"position":4},"title":"Index: Philosophy","author":"Pala","date":"December 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This list contains the Philosopher Briefs\u00a0written up in the black notebook. Those crossed out (e.g.) have been copied (with details to be provided in brackets). \"MM et al.\" refers to what is broadly a MM, but in any case, is located in the same folder. Thomas More\u00a010-12 Thomas Malthus\u00a019 Susan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2425,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/02\/06\/philosophy-readings-through-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":2679,"position":5},"title":"Philosophy readings through time","author":"Pala","date":"February 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: In February 2013, Shai adds\u00a0Evernote\u00a0to his suite of repositories. This is an application designed specifically for note-taking, organising, task lists and archiving. This proves to be the ideal tool for him to better control his ever-growing research notes, stored primarily up to this point, in handwritten notebooks and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;All Posts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-Hd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}