Philosophy as clarity

Oscar Brenifier has an interesting approach to philosophy and its practice. One of his basic tenets is that philosophy is about creating concepts; an idea he connects to Deleuze. To create concepts we need to think. In order to think we need to be clear. If we have an idea we can put words to it; a useful thought can be put in one sentence or one word. If you are unable to formulate your thoughts clearly your thoughts are confused. If you think you understand something but are unable to say it, find words for it, you have not understood it. Thinking is difficult so people avoid it as hard as they can, hiding behind feelings, authority and whatnot.

And taking it further; thinking demands that you abandon your self, that you die and move into the sphere of thinking. This actually works and working in this manner gives interesting and weird moments of clarity.

My next step will be to revisit philosophy texts with this methodology and idea in mind.

Experience - reading

Well, now I'm in France and then all the environment in Blogger turns French - c'est ci bon! Anyway, now I have two blogs to write and the first one is very simple. I find that development, personal, professional, whatever is achieved through experiences and challenges - well of course this is rather a platitude I suppose, but my idea is that these experiences can not be planned and organised, they arise as a kind of a, well, cooperative process of self and being - I can not express it more clearly - Feyerabend somewhere says that if address Being it answers - interesting from that profoundly atheist and materialist guy - .... a rather convoluted introduction to explain my presence in a house in Argenteuil outside Paris preparing to enter a few days of fierce introduction of Philosophical Practice with people from all over the world under the guidance of Oscar Brenifier and Isabelle Millon ....

I'll fill you in on this as we proceed....

Now on a different note I have a similar concept of reading. I for example went to the library to find a specific book (incidentally on Philosophical Practice) but decided to pick up a copy of Colin Wilson's book on Jung. A rather weird but highly readable book - I'm almost finished with it - I find Jung to be rather obnoxious guy, but I admit to being deeply intrigued by his thinking - and - as Wilson clearly makes the case and sentences Jung to be  a Romantic, I'm afraid am guilty of that same charge.

Part of what explains my lack of patience and even fear of the modern version of atheism ....

More, or not, on all these things at a later date....