We have a state of affairs.
Originally posted 2008-04-16 20:37:54. Republished by Old Post Promoter
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The simulacrum has long been of interest to philosophers. Although I stumbled upon this concept myself, it has a long and distinguished lineage, including Plato, Nietzsche, Deleuze, and Baudrillard, of which I am only the latest.
Last but not least, indeed, the concept comes full circle. For the simulacrum is the model of history itself (and a properly non-linear one). It is fitting that the concept the philosopher’s who launched it, hacked it, and later during WWII were despondent about it (Baudrillard lamented the end of history), now rises anew: for with the singularity, history can be reborn.
Nietzsche himself represents philosophy coming full circle since Plato; he is a dialectical antithesis, taking up the reigns of the arguments of Glaucon and Callicles in Plato’s Republic, playing chaos to Plato’s order. Indeed, he represents the decay, or break down of philosophy, a sign that it is completing a lifecycle (and ready to be born anew.
Wikipedia sums up the lineage of our discussion on this philosophical topic, the simulacrum. This will be useful to you integral theorists who are trying to grasp how the simulacrum fits into all this:
In his Sophist, Plato speaks of two kinds of image-making. The first, faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original. The second distorted intentionally in order to make the copy appear correct to viewers. He gives an example of Greek statuary, which was crafted larger on top than bottom so that viewers from the ground would see it correctly. If they could view it in scale, they would realize it was malformed. This example from visual arts serves as a metaphor for philosophical arts and the tendency of some philosophers to distort truth in such a way that it appeared accurate unless viewed from the proper angle.
Nietzsche addresses the concept of simulacrum in The Twilight of the Idols, suggesting that most philosophers, by ignoring the reliable input of their senses and resorting to the constructs of language and reason, arrive at a distorted copy of reality.
Modern French social theorist Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal. Where Plato saw two steps of reproduction — faithful and intentionally distorted (simulacrum) — Baudrillard sees four: (1) basic reflection of reality, (2) perversion of reality; (3) pretense of reality (where there is no model); and (4) simulacrum, which “bears no relation to any reality whatever.”
Baudrillard uses the concept of god as an example of simulacrum. In Baudrillard’s concept, like Nietzsche’s, simulacra are negatively perceived, but another modern philosopher who addressed the topic, Gilles Deleuze, takes a different view, seeing simulacra as the avenue by which accepted ideals or “privileged position” could be “challenged and overturned.”
Simulacra are in fact, the model we collectively use for our reality. If we’re revealing the symbol now, that’s pretty apolcalyptic. Cicero uses it as the model for the republic, and after hearing my Cicero professor mention it a number of times in class, I was surprised when he greeted my paper topic with the question, “What is the simulacrum?”
My first piece to answer him, I felt, did not do his question justice. And so, I used the simulacrum to historiography my history of Rome. My reviewers wrote, “Professor Billows thought you were doing something new, using the simulacrum as an analytical tool,” the head of the History Department at Barnard wrote in her revivew, referring to the head of the Ancient Studies Department at Columbia. “He said, ‘there she does something which isn’t just what you’ll find on the better modern literature on the topic.”
For more on the import of this, check out Simulacrum and Singularity, in which it is expounded how we should NOT despair, for these world wars are indeed the dialectical argument of the republic playing itself out, and until we will learn the lesson of the republic (in doing so, we will learn how to bring the wisdom of the last age into the next one), thus launching the next epoch.
Actually, maybe that article relates it to the launch of the next aeon.
Originally posted 2007-09-09 23:39:03. Republished by Old Post Promoter
Category: Integral Theory, Simulacra
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23
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2009
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Yup, Spitzer’s fall came right after he ousted the federal government in the Washington Post for interfering in state’s abilities to combat the mortgage crisis.
According to Satcha, (in a comment since conveniently deleted from The Washington Post, quoting that paper itself the true reason Spitzer was busted for prostitution (and then judged by his hypocrisy), is because he came out with his dirt on the federal government
This is why Patterson is whipping out his dirt before it can be used to blackmail him should he get out of hand. After watching Spitzer’s credibility destroyed, who could blame him? With the perfect aplomb of a statesman, he has levelled the playing field (but he still has the advantage.
Originally posted 2008-03-27 03:17:18. Republished by Old Post Promoter
Category: News
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2009
I was talking to a geometrician this weekend, and the conversation had interesting implications for our system. If you thought that our country’s education system was bad due only to lack of funding, think again. The problems began with the crusade on geometry in the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Likewise, the deeper problems within our system do not necessarily reach back to the inception of civilization itself with civilizations like Babylon.
History was not intended to go this way. Christianity was hijacked forty days after its inception, just as Neal Stephenson asserts, but it was hijacked from Rome.
St. Paul stole the ideas from Cicero, but although the form is familiar, the meat of them could not be more different. While Cicero, evokes “terror” of the flame and the sword besieging the republic, Paul pillaged his techniques not for the integrity of the republic but to the detriment of suckers.
Meanwhile, Augustine actually wrote his City of God right over Cicero’s Republic (note the similarity of titles: The usage is not accidental – Augustine was actually using Cicero’s geometrical margins for his own purposes without the knowledge of how to do it himself), a fact that wasn’t discovered until the 18th century, when the forgery was discovered and the work was reinstated, not as a piece of superstition or metaphysical rhetoric, but as a guiding force for our civilization.
Likewise, Descartes’ proof of god, for example, is very disappointing to read, at least for the enlightened eye. It’s all “there was a mountain, and triangles,” but the proof is not well-rounded, and in fact is just rhetoric. The current disdain for proofs of god that stemmed from that is disturbing.
Cicero was a big proponent of an educated populace until he despaired of the fickleness of the public towards the republic. However, in this country the government not only realized that education was the stepping stone to enlightenment, but they took away the primary keys. Geometry was the first to go.
The current basis for teaching math, including calculus, has no basis in how math is supposed to be taught. All enlightened concepts correspond to math, and any enlightened person can easily understand math and mathematical concepts almost instantaneously. That is because they work from the concept to the formula, rather than the other way around.
For over two millennia, Euclid was the de facto geometry teacher. Why? Because in his enlightened state he invented the methodologies, and thus was the perfect person to introduce them. Becoming enlightened is difficult enough when exposed to the proper educational and mind-opening processes. Moreover, much of our symbolic body is comprised of geomtetrical symbols (the pyramid and the eye, for example); geometry is fundamental to both the world and our minds, and no doubt this is why it was the first thing to go.
Not only can’t the lack of education continue, but in fact it is one of the key components to a proper democracy, as the Athenians well knew. Moreover, those who are not properly educated (lead out) are misled, and their entire persons go awry, and lack sustainability.
To have an entire country purposely mis-raised to be slaves bodes questionably for posterity, as an educated populace is one integral aspect of a true democracy. Moreover, an actual conspiracy against education on this scale cannot be tolerated, and perhaps the best way to oppose the trend of ignorance in this country is to begin again at the beginning, with the reinstatement of geometrical learning tools like Zome “toys,” multi-dimensional geometrical modeling pieces.
Originally posted 2007-06-12 06:52:38. Republished by Old Post Promoter
Category: Uncategorized
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