tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021093338117463763.post5798506685199097018..comments2023-04-10T07:59:42.815-04:00Comments on T-ruth and beauty: The thesaurus, continuedt-ruthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07518676883625530384noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021093338117463763.post-69900716359292619822008-03-18T10:57:00.000-04:002008-03-18T10:57:00.000-04:00That is one of the points Borges touches on at the...That is one of the points Borges touches on at the end of the story. I translate:<BR/>I suspect, however, that he was not too able to think. To think is to forget differences, to generalize, abstract. In Funes' cluttered world there was nothing but almost immediate details.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021093338117463763.post-64589343443251537182008-03-18T10:13:00.000-04:002008-03-18T10:13:00.000-04:00Yes! That's it! Yay.I loved that story because I...Yes! That's it! Yay.<BR/><BR/>I loved that story because I so completely cannot imagine what it would even mean to think of a thing, any thing (I almost wrote "any kind of thing") and not think of it as one kind of thing rather than another kind. I know, I know: all you have to do is say that there is only one instance of each kind -- and you can almost imagine Aristotle having been able to say that, I guess. But even to say it presupposes the concept. Of a kind, I mean. I can't imagine not having the concept. Literally; I don't think that I could think without making use of it, even if implicitly. It seems like I can't be alone in this regard. I think that this is Plato's point. It's interesting.t-ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07518676883625530384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021093338117463763.post-18192180109660687052008-03-18T08:07:00.000-04:002008-03-18T08:07:00.000-04:00The story is called "Funes el Memorioso" it is inc...The story is called "Funes el Memorioso" it is included in my Spanish edition of "Ficciones" which is a compilation of 2 books,"Artificios" being the one in which it originally appeared. But unlike Funes' my memory is leaky as a sieve and the story had already slipped it. So while I was at looking for it I re-read it. The interesting thing is that Funes does without generals because he has access to all particulars he has ever encountered, as a result of his inability to forget anything at all.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021093338117463763.post-28040382698723025822008-03-17T22:06:00.000-04:002008-03-17T22:06:00.000-04:00I read a Borges story once about a guy who could o...I read a Borges story once about a guy who could only deal with particulars, had no access to universals. Funes, maybe, was his name? I liked it, and would like to find it again. Do you know it?t-ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07518676883625530384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8021093338117463763.post-42810202320191365892008-03-17T18:49:00.000-04:002008-03-17T18:49:00.000-04:00Have you ever read "The Analytical language of Joh...Have you ever read "The Analytical language of John Wilkins" by Jorge Luis Borges? Or Umberto Eco's "The search for the perfect language"? Borges' is an excellent satire, Eco's contains some quite interesting essays on the subject. I think systems of the kind of Rogets are much too susceptible to erosion because language is constantly mutating. But I do share your suspicion that he might have gotten something right at a deeper level, in spite of the fact that such a suspicion contradicts my convictions. I had not been aware of Roget's Thesaurus, I shall get myself a copy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com