APORIA

I read somewhere (in the Saint John’s Review, I think)
that in classical terms, “philosophy” could not even be
said to begin until the “players” bottomed-out.

aporia —

no pores,
no opportunities,
no openings,
no exit),
or, as you suggest:

we come to know that we don’t know (damnit).

And the process that gets us there is called elenchus,
what folks nowadays might call “deconstruction,”—
under-cutting, undermining all the props of knowing:
biases, beliefs, prejudices, convictions, assumptions,
hypotheses, presuppositions, controlling & operating
metaphors.

Purgatory, yes? Emptying. Nirvana-zing.
Purifying & scouring & rub-a-dub scrubbing—
washing in the blood of the lamb so to speak
if you don’t mind my mix of meta force.

I’ve also heard it said that (in classical terms) Philosophy
never did “get started”—and that all the “Socratic” dialogues
were really only foreplay—prelude: seeing as reaching the
state of APORIA was impossible. (Again, as you say: who
wants to admit “my knowing is really unjustified belief,"
especially after all my PhDegree training and doctorial
status?)

The ends of Socratic dialogues seem to peter off—all that
undercutting and deconstructing and questioning ending
in almost-aporia-but-not-quite. Damnit.

Now if you and me and any others wanted to practice a
little DIALECTIC –try to come up with a shared image
of the Warren Wilson NOUMENON...

(spirit of the whole which we presume present and
surrounding us but un- nameable because “beyond
experience.” –or, say “nameable”—sure—but knowing
the Name we give it is always inadequate and even
misleading, likely to be reified or personified or even
deified and leave us worse off than before we “named”
it…slaves to our designations. Determined by our terms
and terminologies)

...as I was saying: if you and me and Ed Raiola who got us
started on this name-the-spirt notion—wanted to practice
dialectic so as to indicate the WWC NOOUMENON, then
the faster we approached a shared sense of APORIA, the
better —true?

Come to admit we didn’t know, couldn’t know
—and that right there would be pre-requisite for the practice
of liberal art (dialectic) & the beginning of philosophy. And
even if we never could come up with a shared designation,
image, representation : wouldn’t the process itself be revealing?

Doing Philosophy?
All us PhDegreed: reinventing the wheels. Zero basing up from
Old Scratch. Awesome.

It would be good for ME, I’m sure.
Whether it’d be good for you other guys, I can’t say.
It’d be expressing something other than our housekeeping
(economical and ecological) concerns at least. Primary concerns
Primordial. Sustainable.

Thanks for your response, Tony.
Guess you know how it feeds my addiction.

Best, Sam