Monday, June 27, 2011
Getting Somewhere. Fantasy. Desire.
Very simple message for the evening/morning/cup of tea time. Desiring something is the best way to know something, i.e. the purest way, for once we know something, it is never as pure. It can never be that thing we imaged. It can never join the recesses of our minds and outlast our expectations. And it can always, always, let us down once we get used to the idea that we had it all along.
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4 comments:
I have to disagree. Some time ago, in some book I've long since forgotten I've stumbled onto a statement of 'Tarski's undefinability theorem:' For any formal language complex enough to be of any interest, it is impossible to define, using that language, which of its sentences are true and which are not, even for sentences which we otherwise know to be true or not. I was intrigued and, knowing nothing about formal logic, somewhat incredulous, because I could not fathom how mathematics could possibly be used for something I though belonged squarely in the realm of speculation. So a desire was born: I just had to know, had to learn, if it was an exaggeration or not and if not, exactly how this Tarski character did it. It took lots of studying before I could actually begin to try to understand the original argument, but when I did, it turned out to be much more than I'd expected it to be. More intricate, more clever, but also more profound, inevitable, and beautiful beyond words. Sure enough it wasn't that thing I imagined-it was so much more, so much better. And since then I've learned more truths which, even though I understand them, somehow seem amazing to me every time I really think about them hard enough.
I'm using mathematical truth here as an example of the thing you will still desire even after knowing it because that's the realm where I've experienced this phenomenon most clearly; but I'm sure this is not the only such realm.
You're right. Allow me to restrict this blog post's applicability to people and things material.
Ooops, misunderstood the post. How was that for a long off-topic...
No no no. In fact, you've given me hope that hard work can be immensely and uniquely rewarding.
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