I don't know which school of thought this would fall into, but your piece made me think of something Agnes Callard said on Ezra Klein's podcast a few months back-- basically that apparent contradictions are really just a lack of knowledge of the larger truth and that choosing to "live with the contradictions" is really just a way of swerving from our collective, multi-generational responsibility to seek truth. A quote from the podcast transcript below.
"AGNES CALLARD: So I think the difference there is just in thinking how far from knowledge we are. So I think the way I am is that I see a bunch of conflicts, and I don’t know how to resolve them. And that’s just my ignorance. If I had knowledge, I would know how to resolve them. But what I at least try to do is to not be under the illusion that I have the knowledge already. To say knowledge would involve resolving them is to acknowledge that we are very, very, very far from that. It’s not clear that it’s achievable within a human lifetime, but it is.
And so there’s a different question, which is, how do we make do without knowledge, right? And we have to do some of that. But once you see it that way, nothing can really look as attractive to you as just having knowledge. You have to make do without it while you’re looking for it.
But I guess I think the whole “living with contradictions, accepting contradictions” thing is just — it’s a way of swerving. It’s a way of dressing up your own ignorance as being somehow responsibility and realism. But I think I can see what it would be to know. And it would be something amazing that’s way better than where I am."
Hello! I'm somewhat of a new reader here. I've been following you silently for about a year now, Mr. Atkins, and I always find great wisdom in your words. As someone engages in "textual training" for his livelihood, I see your interests are of significant overlap to my own.
This essay makes some crucial points. Often fundamental contradictions exist between "subjects," let us say - the operations of particular fields or subfields, ways of seeing and being in the world. To be a platonist, as it were, I have to stick my head into the bucket of Platonist ideas and concepts and make them my own. The "Idea" then becomes a planet unto itself, amongst a solar system of ideas. And like any good planet, its orbit attracts and repels certain objects and sits in its track going round and round. You need to stick your head in another bucket to fly to mars!
One also has personal contradictions, as you say. My sub-selves and the modes required to be those selves can often be at odds. And when they are very contradictory, one can feel very unwell indeed. When I was first a young parent, I felt an overwhelming contradiction between my Work Habits (workaholic) and my burgeoning "fatherhood." It was a contradictory process that needed a lot of smoothing out. This process of contradiction plays itself out throughout our lives, of course, as you point out.
Your last point, which is pedagogical, is essential, and I was delighted to see it phrased so eloquently. Textual training - proper, classical textual training in the form of Great Books and rhetoric, writing, composition, etc - is significantly tied to how we interact with the world. It is one of the reasons schools often fail our children. Thank you for your posts!
I don't know which school of thought this would fall into, but your piece made me think of something Agnes Callard said on Ezra Klein's podcast a few months back-- basically that apparent contradictions are really just a lack of knowledge of the larger truth and that choosing to "live with the contradictions" is really just a way of swerving from our collective, multi-generational responsibility to seek truth. A quote from the podcast transcript below.
"AGNES CALLARD: So I think the difference there is just in thinking how far from knowledge we are. So I think the way I am is that I see a bunch of conflicts, and I don’t know how to resolve them. And that’s just my ignorance. If I had knowledge, I would know how to resolve them. But what I at least try to do is to not be under the illusion that I have the knowledge already. To say knowledge would involve resolving them is to acknowledge that we are very, very, very far from that. It’s not clear that it’s achievable within a human lifetime, but it is.
And so there’s a different question, which is, how do we make do without knowledge, right? And we have to do some of that. But once you see it that way, nothing can really look as attractive to you as just having knowledge. You have to make do without it while you’re looking for it.
But I guess I think the whole “living with contradictions, accepting contradictions” thing is just — it’s a way of swerving. It’s a way of dressing up your own ignorance as being somehow responsibility and realism. But I think I can see what it would be to know. And it would be something amazing that’s way better than where I am."
Hello! I'm somewhat of a new reader here. I've been following you silently for about a year now, Mr. Atkins, and I always find great wisdom in your words. As someone engages in "textual training" for his livelihood, I see your interests are of significant overlap to my own.
This essay makes some crucial points. Often fundamental contradictions exist between "subjects," let us say - the operations of particular fields or subfields, ways of seeing and being in the world. To be a platonist, as it were, I have to stick my head into the bucket of Platonist ideas and concepts and make them my own. The "Idea" then becomes a planet unto itself, amongst a solar system of ideas. And like any good planet, its orbit attracts and repels certain objects and sits in its track going round and round. You need to stick your head in another bucket to fly to mars!
One also has personal contradictions, as you say. My sub-selves and the modes required to be those selves can often be at odds. And when they are very contradictory, one can feel very unwell indeed. When I was first a young parent, I felt an overwhelming contradiction between my Work Habits (workaholic) and my burgeoning "fatherhood." It was a contradictory process that needed a lot of smoothing out. This process of contradiction plays itself out throughout our lives, of course, as you point out.
Your last point, which is pedagogical, is essential, and I was delighted to see it phrased so eloquently. Textual training - proper, classical textual training in the form of Great Books and rhetoric, writing, composition, etc - is significantly tied to how we interact with the world. It is one of the reasons schools often fail our children. Thank you for your posts!