Sunday, February 8, 2015
Fortitude
There's not much to say about this, but I've started watching a tv series that's set in a fictionalized version of Svalbard, home of vh and his blog Orienteringsforsøk. So far there's been a disappointing lack of philosophers in the show, but that also means that no philosophers have been murdered or eaten by polar bears. Which is good.
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thanks for the rec enjoyed the first few, interesting perhaps to think about how much of philosophy is like detective work in that it seems best to work after the fact, more descriptive than prescriptive if you will.
ReplyDeleteBut than what about judging?
-dmf
Yes. And judging is something that I think philosophy might situate you well to do, but it won't tell you what you ought to judge. At least the kind of detective work that philosophers do should be good practice for the kind of thinking required when making a judgment. But the judgment still needs to be made, not discovered.
Deleteone might even say invented/assembled
DeleteOne might.
DeleteAlthough I might add that when you know the facts, when you have done the relevant detective work, there are certain judgments that you will not make.
Deleteto me that sounds more wishful than actual, here I'm with Derrida/Rorty/Fish that anything can be (and probably has been) re-contextualized, we cannot literally be fact-driven or evidence-based.
DeleteI agree that we can't literally be fact-driven, but I still think knowing the facts can make a difference. Not that it will necessitate this or that, but it might make some judgments more likely (or less) than others. It depends on the person, of course, but perhaps some are more reasonable or normal than others.
DeleteThere are indeed strong similarities between Fortitude and Longyearbyen. But I agree, there is an eerie lack of philosophers in this series. This, for me, is what gives Fortitude away as fiction.
ReplyDelete(I am sad to say that Svalbard won't be my home for much longer. In fact, I have been commuting from Trondheim ever since new year. But so long as my family is stationed there, I will with a clear conscience keep priding myself of having the world's northernmost philosophy blog.)
It's a shame that you're leaving, but it has been fun for me thinking that I know (in some sense) someone from there (or a version of there).
DeleteIt's the eerie lack of philosophers that gives the series its atmosphere.