Re: The uneducated

From: Wolff-Michael Roth (mroth@uvic.ca)
Date: Mon May 02 2005 - 21:36:52 PDT


Hi,
I am not sure why Hegel did not say "Rette sich wer kann," for this is
both literal and good as translation. In English it would be something
like "Find shelter those who can" or "Get away those who can". I think
if you read the "uneducated" in the way you read Kultur, then you are
too literal, at least today. I read it and meant it in my own writing
as those who are not familiar with or have developed a close S-O
relation through their agency. The more you get into a subject matter,
the more concrete and palpable it becomes--vectors when you don't know
them are abstract, out there, you can't do anything with them, they are
but scratches on paper. To an advanced physics student or statistician,
vectors are things that are as concrete as the veggies in my garden,
you touch them, you do things with them, they respond to your moves.
This changed knowledgeability with respect to vectors is indicative of
a process of learning, of "education," of expanded room to maneuver.

It is dangerous to read the great works literally, we know this
concerns the bible but also Hegel and others.

Michael

PS: I think it would be an interesting exercise to think through the
problem of ascension from abstract to concrete in the context of
mathematics where the movement appears to be from concrete to abstract
. . .

On 2-May-05, at 9:24 PM, bb wrote:

> Thanks Mike, for your reply. A concrete response to these
> contradictions needs more than you.
>
> bb
>
>
>
>
> From: Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com>
> Date: May 2, 2005 8:42:43 PM PDT
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: Re: The uneducated
>
>
> Language dummy that I am,  I do not know the translation of sauve. 
> Nor do I know the source of the Hegel quote that is apparently out
> there in google land.   Blush .
>
> However, I believe that the way "abstract" is being interpreted in
> the discussion of "rising to the concrete" is that abstractions are
> empty until filled with appropriate content. in this sense, "Only
> those who know nothing"  would be an appropriate response to the
> question "Who can think abstractly."  Given my long standing distrust
> of the notion of Kultur in the tradition that ranks people from
> without
> culture to Kultured, this might be incorrect to the specific case,
> bb. But my interpretation would at least link the ideas under
> discussion in
> a non-pejoritive way.
> mike
>
> On 5/2/05, bb <xmca-whoever@comcast.net> wrote:
>> >after saying in French "Sauve qui peut" answers his question, "Only
>> the
>> >uneducated."
>>
>> Interesting discursive move.  At once powerful and exclusive, and
>> while unsituated, ironic.  So many levels of meaning that I'm
>> wondering whether to embrace Hegel anymore.
>>
>> Thanks for sharing!
>> bb
>>



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