Sunday, August 7, 2011

Theory Of Choice and Philosophy Of History

The next section of my essay 'Relationships and Mediums' is supposed to be on the philosophy of history. But for some reason I can't bring myself to write about it. What kind of questions am I trying to answer by writing about history? What am I trying to get at?

And I think what I am really trying to get at is a theory or philosophy of choice. I want to know what it means to choose something, what it means to be free. And more specifically, what it means to choose something based on historical knowledge.

Part of it has to do with Zizek's work on the philosophy of The Act. His notion of retroactive freedom is a big part of it. I think a lot of what is going on with Zizek requires a more developed philosophy of history to really make sense.

I'm not really reading much right now except Naked Lunch. I'm not really writing a lot right now. I'm confused and sort of ruminating on my life and other things. Don't feel the need to really push myself to read.

I'm thinking about revisiting some books. Namely Decoding Clausewitz and Making The Social World. They are important books for me that I haven't studied enough yet.

Oh well.

I'll get back to this issue of choice and philosophy of history at some point. Foucault On Freedom will be a valuable book for thinking about that stuff, too.

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About Me

I spend most of my time working as a mental health professional. I have been preoccupied with philosophy, politics, healing, and many other questions for the last 15 years or so. I am currently working on putting together my study of Plato and Aristotle with contemporary work in philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy, and trauma research. I use this place primarily as a workshop for ideas. I welcome conversation with anyone working on similar problems. The major contours of my basic project have been outlined here

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