"Thus one sees that buildings undertaken and completed by a single architect are usually more attractive and better ordered than those by which many architects have tried to patch up by using old walls that had been built for other purposes...it is chance rather than the will of some men using reason that has arranged them thus."
If I may, I'd like to use the manner in which we as a class have been instructed to complete our Blogging assignments as an explanation towards what I believe Descartes is trying to explain. Let us suppose for a moment that the blog in which I am posting is the building being constructed. Now I, the architect, am able to piece together these words and ideas in a more understandable fashion. I have taken the writings of Descartes and single handedly put together what I believe he is speaking of. Now suppose this piece was to be discussed amongst the fellow members of my group and we were to come up with only one blog of explanation. It is in my belief that the ideas in which we would each come up with would create a jumble of words that would hold little insight to what we were attempting to interpret. Differing ideas, disagreements on interpretation and the lack of the ability to focus on an equal goal would leave our "committee" with a work that is "crooked and uneven" (I believe that if Sparta was at one time very flourishing..having been devised by a single individual, they all tended towards the same end).
Now being that it is by "chance" that we are to individually post the ideas out of the sections that we were assigned, we can use our "reason" on Descartes' work and come up with our own interpretations more clearly, from lessons in which we raised upon and that make us individuals ("And thus, too, i thought that, because we were all children before being men and women, and because it was necessary for us to be governed by our appetites and teachers..it is nearly impossible for our judgments to be as pure or as solid as they would have been if we had full use of our reason from the moment of our birth and if we had always been guided by it alone") What we are learning through Descartes work is also creating us as independently thinking persons.
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2 comments:
Astounding. Perhaps this was part of the lesson Thompson is trying to teach. But I'm amazed at the connection, excellent metaphor. Granted that unity can provide towards the greater good it takes a sole person to create the ideas that will eventually benefit everyone.
That is exactly what i was aiming for. While reading Descartes' second part of the discourse the easiest way to interpret it was by juxtaposing it with the method in which we were studying. But, i feel this writing goes a bit further than that. And if not further than there is another way to dissect what he was trying to explain. I haven't been able to make it quite clear in words but i believe that each individual "plays their part" yet also somehow this leads to the function of a "group", but not necessarily a "group" working together. I have not yet figured out how to put into words but it is quite clear in my mind.
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