Everyday puzzles
Daily life presents puzzles and problems of all kinds: generally they fall by the wayside or unravel of their own accord; but once in a while a particular puzzle lingers and takes root. For some reason, it presses with a special urgency.
Working out such a problem for my own satisfaction means either figuring out something concrete (giving the concept its proper figure) or digging behind a discovered piece of logical or cultural flotsam to reveal the paradox it expresses (giving the figure its proper concept). In other words, Kant was right:
Gedanken ohne Inhalt sind leer, Anschauungen ohne Begriffe sind blind. (SEP)
Of course Kant is also wrong, insofar as emptiness and blindness are in fact the undeniable marks of virtuosity. (Who is a master, if not one who finds the right path without seeing where it leads? And what is a masterpiece, if not one that shows a high level of distillation or a finely tuned sense of timing and space – in other words, a high degree of emptiness?)
In these posts, I strive to give concrete figures and explicit concepts – but also to do so with the openness of empty thought and the confidence of blind intuition. These elaborations are the products of chance – based as they are on whatever problem happened to find its way into my head – and are worked out mostly for my own satisfaction. However, dear reader, I do hope you find something worth your while.
Yours truly,
Concepts and Figures 