Comments on: More on the liber in Liberal

By: Richard Hall

Richard Hall — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:09:31 +0000

I’ve enjoy Rufus Fears’ lecture style too, really creates quite a visual scene.

It’s fascinating how the use of fMRI is providing some anatomical insight into choice, and therefore perhaps freedom. Here’s an interesting study http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2290971

Also, after reading ‘The Science of Shopping” article in the latest Economist, I’m not too sure I have any personal choice.

By: Mr. Crotchety

Mr. Crotchety — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:24:07 +0000

Can I edit my posts? (i.e., typos?) Ack! Luckily, I’m going off the grid again for a week. Cheers.

By: andreaskluth

andreaskluth — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:57:50 +0000

Ah, yes, that would be the "Unabomber Manifesto". Whack job or not, this might be interesting reading. I shall find time...

By: Mr. Crotchety

Mr. Crotchety — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:26:37 +0000

Theodore Kazynski comes to mind. His book, ‘Industrial Society and Its Future’ is really interesting. The idea is that freedom and techological progress are incompatible. Ayn Rand and others would disagree. Of course, Ted is considered to be a total whack job and a prototypical terrorists, so I can’t discuss it (because I’m afraid). The whole thing is on Wikipedia now.

By: andreaskluth

andreaskluth — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:29:11 +0000

I love your philological leanings, Christopher. The case of Angst has always cracked me up, because in German it means just plain fear, with no existential or philosophical connotation. I think Americans read that into the German word, as they read a romantic context into the French rendez-vous, which it does not have in French. The case of love is more interesting. If Eskimos really have hundreds of words for snow because they are so expert in it, this suggests that Anglo-Saxon/Germanic cultures don't know the first thing about love/Liebe because we only have one word for it. Personally, I really do find love confusing, so there is our first corroborating datum. Cidium and caedare: You have me thinking now. Deciduous trees are so because their leaves fall down--those leaves are cut and they also die, so both meanings are there. Incidentally, do you know if the name Caesar comes from that same caedare? That might explain the C-section (which was not how Gaius Julius came into the world) and the apparent hazing he got for being somewhat thinly haired.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:34:01 +0000

Your use of “angst” is a reminder of how foreign words fill gaps in the English language.

But how nice it would be if English could incorporate foreign words to fill another (and huge) gap surrounding the word “love”. Think of all the pain and misunderstandings we English-speakers would avoid if we had everyday words for the different kinds of love, like the Greek “eros” “philia” and “agape”.

What does this most restrictive word, “love”, which we think adequate for an extremely complex and conflicting emotion, say about Anglo-Saxon values and culture?

Regarding our multiplicity of product choices in the “developed” world, we must “decide” when we make our final choice. At first sight, “decide” looks like there’s killing involved (think “homiCIDE” “deCIDE”).

I do realise that the “cide” parts of the two words have different etymologies (cidium – “act of killing”, caedare – “to cut”). But, if we think about it, when we “decide” on something, we are killing all the alternatives which were presented to us.

And we wonder why we often experience “angst” when we “decide”?