Welcome to TiddlyWiki created by Jeremy Ruston, Copyright © 2007 UnaMesa Association
attented a lecture of Dr. Sloman today. check out his work at http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/
slides of todays lecture: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/cogaff/talks/#aisb08
this is realy good stuff!!!!
some notes: "helping chimp" and "helping child" - spacial and intentional representation - claim: evolving systems! not going directly to "adult systems" - understanding spacial competence - statistical learning not sufficient in order to practice true understanding - babys are not blank! - see: [[inqueries in AI - THE WELL-DESIGNED CHILD]]
Discuss critically whether rituals that divide
gender into two categories always divide into male and female.
hmmm...
- found TiddlyWiki. looks damn cool. will try to use it - non-linear souns cool to me - makes lots of clicks in my Brain right now actually!!!!!!!.
means here though that i need to type the terms I want to link as WikiWords. (more options?) wonder how to: say ArtHistory is easy, but what about Islam - truns to IsLam? hmmm... ok. gives a nice formatting twist while reading!
- TiddlyLearn
- trying to set up http://abdn-anthro.wikispaces.com/ @ wikispaces - see how it goes.
- posted http://sleeponit.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/sys_opti/ with StumbleUpon and visitors stats of my blog to this post are more then 126 views in less then 5 hours!!! and rising exponentialy!!!
added: [[dance, gender and embodiment]]
I'm adding this email because I'll be writing a review about Veiled Sentiments, Lila Abu-Lughod - dealing with the Honour/Shame complex in Muslim Societies. this email is also posted on http://anthrolog.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/honour-killings/
Dr. Marranci said he'll try to find time to reply...
Dear Dr. Marranci,
if I got you right, you were arguing at the end of the lecture today that we can observe a relation between honour-killings and land-owenership (or other strong bounds to a location) in certain Islamic cultures. And that therefore, if I got you right, honour-killings in the case of Islamic migrants are ad-hoc justifications for killings performed in affect - Not like the calculated killings that occur in the "homeland" environment.
Does this imply then that the idea of honour killing does not play any role in the considers of the killer as a possible solution for the conflict in question in order to uphold his family's honour? Isn't that what enables him to perform the act in the first place? His "familiarity" with the "nessecity" of upholding honour? Isn't this a circular argument?
does the fact that the killings in casas of immigrants occur "formally" in a different way mean that the whole notion can be droped? a reason for the "prozessual" change could have something to do with the fact that the new environment does not recognize/tolerate honour killings as a legitimate solution?
anecdote: I grew up in Israel, and I remember my best friend Anan, who was arab, telling me that if his cousin would sleep with me, he would killing her - and me as well of course :) he wasn't very sirious about this, but he said it. Why do children, and also migrant children talk about this then in such ways? they own no land. After that, I moved to Germany and I came across this subject the context of second- or third generation migrant Turks, Kurds and Palestinians.
I can see though that there is a relation to agricultural socities in all this, but...
As you pointed out, upholding honour is more a specific cultural than an "Islamic" notion. My question: wasn't the contribution of the pre-islamic sunna to Islamic law exactly that: a system based on upholding tribal and ancestral honour? and in regard to that: isn't it interesting that Bedouin cultures today do not go as far as honour-killings?
an argument against me: I know of some cases in which Arab Christian families have performed an honour-killing. But nevertheless, it does seem to be rooted in "Islamic" in diffrent ways. Isn't the origin and function of honour killing related to cultural, economic and religous factor?
The Noble Qur'an - Sâd 38:44
[To Job]: And take in your hand a bundle of thin grass and strike therewith (your wife),...
Sorry for the long email, -- but I would appreciate if you find the time for some comments,
Grazie,
Daniel
I gues what I’m driving at is trying to avoid both “culturalism” and “essentialism” and look more at the dynamic relation of esp. culture & religion but also environment, economy, history etc. in terms of a constant re-negotiation of individual behaviour within these ambivalent spaces. I’m not satisfied with the answer: “it’s cultural! not muslim!”
In an essay I wrote in 2007 I was trying to make a link between the pre-Islamic sunnah and the way this notion was rendered into Islam. I think that this link is relevant to understand the imporantance of upholding honour in Islamic law. read [[sunnah]].
Assignemnt 2 - Essay (1500-2000 words)
Deadline for this assignment is Monday,12th May.
Choose one title for your essay:
1. Is there such a thing as universal human nature?
2.a Explain, using one or more detailed examples, the kinds of misunderstandings that can occur in ‘first contact’ situations. Are they of any relevance to understanding our everyday lives?
2b. What killed Captain Cook?
3. To have little does not mean to be poor. Explain this statement using examples from hunter-gatherers’ societies.
4. The environment is never static, it is always developing through the activities of people. Discuss this statement using ethnographic examples.
5a. Discuss two or more ways of understanding time. Relate that understanding to other aspects of the social and cultural life of the people you describe.
b. What constitutes an Event? How does that relate to notions of history and notions of culture?
6. The eyes can hear and the ears can see. Argue for or against this view.
7. Language shapes the way people think. Critically evaluate the statement.
8. Hobbes based his political philosophy on the assumption that human beings were naturally aggressive and violent creatures. Was he right to do so?
9. What is the link that anthropologists have made between moral norms and social expectations, and the belief in witchcraft and sorcery?
10. Compare and contrast Clifford Geertz’s understanding of culture to Tim Ingold’s understanding of culture.
11. ‘Film gives its viewer an undistorted picture of reality’. For what reasons might this statement be untrue? Discuss using Asch and Chagnon’s film about a fight among Yanomami as your focus.
12. ‘Nature and culture are universal categories of human thought’. How true is this statement? What difference does it make if it is untrue?’
*wonder how soon how messed up the structure of this document will get... or can I keep it up? do I need to? - here http://webscripts.softpedia.com/script/Wikis/ccTiddly-36394.html - not sure! does this solve anything?? - this might though! http://ask.metafilter.com/58375/faster-d3-tiddlywiki
*ok I'm starting this. Let's see where it's going -> :)
*imported and reorganized tiddlers from http://pakua.tiddlyspot.com
*got new theme: http://tiddlythemes.com/empties/Blackicity.html
*where is this going????????????????????
*can't fucking import tiddlers from local file. why not??
*file size problem!: the IncludePlugIn by Udo will do the thing! http://tiddlywiki.abego-software.de/#%5B%5BIncludePlugin%20Documentation%5D%5D but maybe so does this server-side tiddlywiki anyway???
[>img[http://sleeponit.wordpress.com/files/2008/01/screenshot001.jpg]]
I have been observing seals coming up the river Don lately. I've been trying to figure out a couple of things about them: if they come up the river from the sea only at high tide, (''tide-tables'' for Aberdeen are here: ''http://tinyurl.com/ytrvha'') and if they're not, then how far do they go up the river at high/low tide? where do they hang out? do they dive longer in the river than they do in the sea? how long can they dive anyway?
here's a first graph I jotted down in my notebook - in case you've ever wondered. I enjoy watching their diving habits. Apparently they can dive up to 10 minutes - but the one's I've been timing so far haven't. Hanna has been wondering though how often they can do that in a row? Do they make a couple of long dives and than a couple of short ones to recover?
.
''01 - A Tribe Called Quest - Can I kick it?'' 1991
*from debut album ''People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm''
*A Tribe Called Quest very influential American hip-hop group, formed in 1988. disbanded in 1998.
*The group is generally regarded as pioneers of alternative rap music
*The song was not a hit at the time of its release but has become much more popular over the years.
*theme music for the Nike commercial which launched the company's famous tagline, "Just Do It".
*It is also well known for containing a sample from Lou Reed's 1972 single, "Walk on the Wild Side".
*In 2006, the group reunited and toured the US and plan to release an album after some works in the studio.
''02 - Kriss Kross - Jump'' 1992
*album: ''Totally Krossed Out''
*Kris Kross was a teenage rap duo of the early 1990s. The duo is most famous for their 1992 hit "Jump," and their fashion styling—consisting of wearing their clothes backwards.
*my first CD
''03 - Snow - Informer'' 1993
* Canadian reggae musician Snow,
*album: 12 Inches of Snow.
*The single was released shortly before Snow was imprisoned for a year on an assault charge.
*No one has ever worked out what Snow says in the breakdown in the middle eight with the most popular estimate as "Come with a nice young lady, intelligent? yes, she gentle and irie".
''04- Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's delight'' 1979
* the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit.
*sample the bass line from "Good Times" by Chic. some trouble with that.
*'The members: Wonder Mike, Big Bank Hank, and Master Gee.
*Some claim that "Rapper's Delight" is the first hip hop single ever, but it was actually preceded by "King Tim" by the Fatback Band. The Sugarhill Gang's place in music history seems secure as the first hip hop group to have a gold single.
*"if your girl acts up, then you take her friend"
''05 - Alliance Ethnic - Respect'' (1995)
*great album hiphop and funk: ''Simple & Funky''
*French hip hop group - five members of diverse origins; from Algeria, Congo, and Italy
''06 - Fugees - FugeeLa'' 1996
*album ''THE SCORE'' one of the best-selling hip hop albums of all time
*soul and Caribbean music, particularly reggae.
*members: Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and rapper Pras Michel.
*solo projects from 1997.
**Hill: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill;
**Wyclef recorded his debut album The Carnival;
**Michel, with Ol' Dirty Bastard, recorded the single "Ghetto Supastar"
''Wu-Tang Clan'' tracks 7 and 8
*cousins
*added six more friends to the Clan,
*debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993.
*36 Chambers received enormous critical praise, and is now widely regarded as one of the best and most influential albums of any genre to be released in the 1990s, as well as one of the best hip hop albums of all time.
''07 - Ol' Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya'' 1995 (Wu Tang)
*died 2004
*(often shortened to ODB).
*He was one of the founding members of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
''08 - Method Man feat.Mary J. Blige - You're All I Need'' 2003 (WU Tang Clan)
*this version: remixed for comedey film HowHigh 1991
''09 -Cypress Hill - Insane in the Brain'' 1993
*album: Black sunday
*mostly-Latin American hip hop group from California.
*Their consistent advocacy around the legalization of cannabis -
*"I Wanna Get High" another great track
''10 - House of Pain - Jump Around'' 1992
*Irish-styled American hip-hop group
*Everlast decided to pursue his solo career again.
*The group is best known for its 1992 hit single "Jump Around".
''11 - Luniz - I got five on it'' 1995
*album: Operation Stackola
*"I got 5 on it" is a phrase used to mean putting in five dollars along with another person to buy a dime bag, i.e. ten dollars worth of marijuana. The lyrics in the original song clearly convey this meaning.
“Kinda broke so ya know all I gots five, I got five”
“Unless you pull out the phat, crispy five dollar bill on the real before its history”
“I got 5 on it, let's go half on a sack”
about ''G-Funk''
or "Gangsta Funk", is a type of hip hop music that emerged from West Coast gangsta rap in the early 1990s. G-funk (largely derived from slowing the tempo down of funk music) incorporates multi-layered and melodic synthesizers, slow hypnotic grooves, a deep bass, background female vocals, the extensive sampling of p-funk tunes, and a high portamento sine wave keyboard lead—a feature that became the genre’s notable trademark. Additionally, unlike other earlier rap acts that also utilized funk samples(such as EPMD or The Bomb Squad), G-funk often utilized fewer, unaltered samples per song [1].
''12 - Waren G - Regulate'' 1994
*album: Regulate...G Funk Era
*intressting backgorund: in 1991, Warren G formed the group 213 with Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg. In 1992, Warren G introduced the group to his stepbrother Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre was impressed and signed Snoop Dogg to his record company, Death Row Records. But 213 broke up before releasing any records, and the three artists pursued separate careers. Even though Death Row Records did not sign Warren G, his career began with some contributions to Dr. Dre's album The Chronic, released 1992. Warren G was a regular contributor to many Death Row albums.
''13 - Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang - Dr. Dre & Snoop Dog'' 1993
*debut solo album: The Chronic.
*one of the most important and influential albums of the 1990s and maybe best produced hip-hop album of all time
*All Music Guide named the song as "the archetypal G-funk single" and added "The sound, style, and performances of "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" were like nothing else on the early-'90s hip-hop scene".
''optional 13.1 - Still D.R.E'' 2001
*Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog
''14 - MC's Act Like They Don't Know - KRS-One'' 1995
*album: KRS-One
*probably most succesful track
*critic of commercial hiphop and not "keeping it real" and criminality
''15 - The Roach - Dr. DRE'' 1993
album: The Chronic (outro)
The Quiet World
In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly a hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.
When the phone rings, I put it to my ear
without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.
Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.
When she doesn't respond,
I know she's used up all her words,
so I slowly whisper I love you
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.
Jeffrey McDaniel
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OK. So I did this HipHop Easter Special with my mate Cearuil today. It was really good fun, a two hour show with all -or at least some of the more essential - hiphop tracks we grew up with in da 90z. We were bouncing all over the studio! tune in! hope you enjoy it. And have a good Pesach / Easter or whatever is comming up for you and gime a shout and tell me how you're doin :) be happy PeeaaaassssseYo
download here: http://www.divshare.com/download/4070643-762
show-notes here: [[19 March 2008 - HipHop from daYoot track-list and show-notes]]
<html><a href="http://www.divshare.com/download/4092074-744"><img src="http://www.divshare.com/img/4092074-744.jpg" border="0" /></a></html>
[>img[http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2234/2202078091_6d7e81ca5b_o.jpg]] Ello Ello! This web-page is an attempt to construct an interrelated, non-linear documentation of my ongoing studies in AnthropoLogy, (and ReligiOns, PhilosoPhy, ArtHistory and other subjects). While you're reading you'll be creating your own path according to the jumps and links you'll be intressted in - thus reconnecting my [[journal]]-entries, [[essays]], [[articles]] and RandomJots - creating variable connections and patterns which you can than, if you wish, expand, edit, comment and re-explore. I know it might be a bit confusing at first, but as soon as you get the concept behind the TiddlyWiki and some orientation you'll see it is worth the effort and it might reward you with a new kind of reading/writing expierience and a new way to access information. EnjoY.
[[greeeni]]
stumbled upon this: <html><a href="http://www.stopwebpollution.org"><img src="http://www.stopwebpollution.org/butterfly/medium.png" alt="stop web pollution" title="STOP WEB POLLUTION!" width="120" height="70" style="border:0" about=blank /></a></html>
added: [[Islam - Origin and Originality]], [[Ian Vermeer - The Geographer]]
I've been doing some bird watching lately around here in Aberdeen. Especially around the mouth of the River Don.
here are some of the BirDs I've been watching and some of the notes I've been talking.
<html><iframe src="http://jyte.com/widget/claim/thinking-too-much-about-things-and-too-little-about-relations" style="width:400px;height:60px;border:1px solid #777;" scrolling="no"></iframe></html>
''The Story Effect''
I think that our library system - http://becycle.wordpress.com/library/ - has an interesting side effect. Think about it: we’re not only giving each bicycle a mini-blog (@ Twitter) through which people can contact each other and exchange the bicycles (that’s the functional side of it), but we’re also giving them a certain //independence//, a ("personal") name and the possibility to tell their own //stories// - a story which gradually creates //itself// over time.
Take a look at [[SturdyRalfi’s blog|http://twitter.com/sturdyRalfi]] for example (in a slightly modified version here):
**I’m ready to go. contact becycle [25 days ago]
**I think Helena’s got me now. Have to find out her email address though [23 days ago]
**Oh no. I’m actually back in the shed. Can have me straight away! contact becycle [21 days ago]
**I got a bit lost because some CouchSurfer I was given to didn’t bring me back. But I should be back in the shed today. contact becycle [7 days ago]
**a guy called Fabio is riding me around campus. Want me? contact u02fl5. [1 day ago]
''Get Creative''
So what we’d like to encourage you to do is to get creative and assume that you are the bicycle’s voice while you are using it. When you update the bicycle’s blog, write the post in the first-person (as the bicycle) and think of yourself in the third-person (as the bicycle’s user). Let the bicycle write and continue it’s own story. Just for the fun of it. And you could also post a photo and other bits of narrative, say if you had a really exciting day on the bicycle for example.
Now, you don’t have to do this if you think this is silly, but consider this somewhat philosophical idea I have in mind, which we could call
''The Community Effect''
Think about the relation of the person = the bicycle = the story = the community
in which the bicycles and their stories become part of the community.
Now, because the library works the way that it does, it is “decentralized” so to speak, people who exchange the bicycles among themselves not only get to know and interact with each other but also //to write a story with each other//. And this in a sense creates a new understanding of what a community is.
We mentioned in the [[guideline|http://becycle.wordpress.com/library/terms-and-conditions/]] that one way to understand what a community is, a notion on which this whole project is based upon, is in an ecological sense. Meaning that a community is “a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other”. But now a new element comes into the game: a community is based not only on “shared space”, “interdependence” and “interaction” but also on the “story” which links the members of a community to each other over time.
So by creating these blogs, by creating and writing these stories, we might come to see that the same thing that links us to ourselves is what links us to one another: a story! But not only the stories we tell about ourselves and about others, but also the stories that //things// tell about us - the pathes of interaction and expirience we create behind and around us, which are not only embodied in us but also in the //things// which become part of us.
By recording the stories in those blogs, which in other cases might be somehow recorded somewhere “out-there” (but not verbaly recorded), we might be manifesting a hidden dimension of our own identity which has something to do with //sharing// and something to do with //community// and someting to do with //stories// - or with our //common story// if you’d like - with ThePatternWhichConnects.
Overview
A brief history of twentieth-century linguistics. An introduction to the different ways that language can be studied, and the contributions of Saussure and Jakobson in context.
Introduction
Linguistics is the study of language, sometimes called the science of language. {1} The subject has become a very technical, splitting into separate fields: sound (phonetics and phonology), sentence structure (syntax, structuralism, deep grammar), meaning (semantics), practical psychology (psycholinguistics) and contexts of language choice (pragmatics). {2} But originally, as practised in the nineteenth century, linguistics was philology: the history of words. {3} Philologists tried to understand how words had changed and by what principle. Why had the proto-European consonants changed in the Germanic branch: Grimm's Law? Voiceless stops went to voiceless fricatives, voiced stops to voiceless stops, and voiced aspirates to voiced stops. What social phenomenon was responsible? None could be found. Worse, such changes were not general. Lines of descent could be constructed, but words did not evolve in any Darwinian sense of simple to elaborate. One could group languages as isolating (words had a single, unchanging root), agglutinizing (root adds affixes but remains clear) and inflecting (word cannot be split into recurring units), but attempts to show how one group developed into another broke down in hopeless disagreement.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
So linguistics might have ended: documenting random changes in random directions. But that was hardly a science, only a taxonomy. When therefore Ferdinand de Saussure tentatively suggested that language be seen as a game of chess, where the history of past moves is irrelevant to the players, a way though the impasse was quickly recognized. Saussure sketched some possibilities. If the word high-handed falls out of use, then synonyms like arrogant and presumptuous will extend their uses. If we drop the final f or v the results in English are not momentous (we might still recognize belie as belief from the context), but not if the final s is dropped (we should then have to find some new way of indicating plurals).
Saussure's suggestion was very notional: his ideas were put together by students from lecture notes and published posthumously in 1915. But they did prove immensely fruitful, even in such concepts as langue (the whole language which no one speaker entirely masters) and parole (an individual's use of language). Words are signs, and in linguistics we are studying the science of signs: semiology. And signs took on a value depending on words adjacent in use or meaning. English has sheep and mutton but French has only mouton for both uses. Above all (extending the picture of a chess game) we should understand that language was a totality of linguistic possibilities, where the "move" of each word depended on the possible moves of others.
Saussure had a theory of meaning. He envisaged language as a series of contiguous subdivisions marked off on the indefinite planes of ideas and sounds. A word (sign) was a fusion of concept (signified) and sound-image (signifier) the two being somehow linked as meaning in the mind. Both signifieds and signifiers independently played on their own chess board of possibilities — i.e. they took up positions with regard to other pieces, indeed owed their existence to them. Though championed by the Structuralists, this theory of semantics was a disastrous one, raising the problems recognized by linguistic philosophy. But that was not Saussure's fault. He was not a philosopher, but a philologist, one whose simple idea, though much anticipated by Michel Bréal and perhaps Franz Boas, largely recast linguistics in its present form. {3}
The Structuralists
Saussure's ideas spread first to Russia, being brought there and developed by Ramon Jacobson (1896-1982). Strictly speaking, the product was not Structuralism, which dates from Jakobson's acquaintance with Lévi-Strauss in the 1960's, but formalism: study of the devices by which literary language makes itself distinctive. Poetry was the great love of the Russian formalists (who knew personally the revolutionary poets) and they looked intensively and dispassionately at the structures and devices that literature employs, whether Pushkin or seemingly artless fairy stories. But as Marxist ideology tightened its grip, the member of the Russian school, never a very tightly knit group, either recanted or fled abroad. Jakobson went to Czechoslovakia and then to the USA, but took with him the very speculative nature of Russian formalism: brilliant theories, but poor documentation and few laboratory studies.
Jakobson made little impact in Prague, which had its own traditions, but in America was able to draw on and develop the ideas of structural anthropology: that the behaviour of societies is governed by deep, scarcely visible rules and understandings. As such, Jakobson's views merged with those of continental philosophy and sociology — with Althusser's reinterpretation of Marx, that language was ideology, a hidden reality, an alternative source of state power. Also with Barthes's attempt to explain the multiplicity of French society from a few underlying suppositions. And with Foucault's genealogy. Meanwhile, Emile Benaviste had rewritten Saussure (as most Structuralists and Post-structuralists were to do) to conceive the signified as not inside individual minds but part of any ever-present social reality. Gradually it is not the individual, nor the society, but language itself that becomes the defining reality: a view that leads on to Postmodernism.
Jakobson had some novel ideas of his own. There was, he proposed, a relatively simple, orderly and universal psychological system underlying the three to eight thousand odd languages in the world. Despite the many ways phonemes (basic units of sound) are produced by human mouths, all could be represented in binary structures (open-closed, back-front, etc.) governed by 12 levels of precedence. Binary structures are written into Lévi-Strauss's views, and these notions fitted with information theory and sound spectrography. But languages in fact use a good deal more than two of any"mouth settings", phonemes do not have an independent existence, and 12 levels will not serve. Chomsky and Halle (1968) proposed 43 such rules, often complex, before abandoning the approach. Jakobson also defined poetic language as the projection onto the horizon syntagmatic axis (how words fit together in a sentence) of the vertical paradigmatic (how word are associated and can replace each other), another audacious theory that proved largely vacuous. {4}.
Descriptionists
The besetting sin of Structuralism (as of current literary theory) is its want of evidence: theories are dreamt up in the study rather than fashioned to meet field observations or laboratory experiment. That criticism cannot be laid at the door of Boas, Bloomfield and other American researchers who in the first half of this century went out to closely observe languages as native speakers use them. Indeed, so concerned were they to avoid the strictures of Logical Positivism, that they adopted a behaviourist approach, excluding mind altogether. Language was simply inputs and outputs: how the brain handled its data was not something one could observe, and was therefore not science. Huge dossiers of information were built up, particularly on native American languages, but little that resolved itself into laws or general principles. {5}
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
One exception was an hypothesis of Edward Sapir (1884-1934) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941). Man's language, they argued, moulds his perception of reality. The Hopi Indians of Arizona plurialize clouds as though they were animate objects, do not use spatial metaphors for time, and have no past tense as such. Do they not view the world in these terms? And there were more spectacular examples. The Bororó of northern Brazil believe they are red parakeets — evidence, said anthropologists, that primitive societies were not aware of logical contradictions. Modern Europeans have words for the seven basic colours of the rainbow, whereas other societies have from two to eleven.
The matter is still debated. {6} The Hopi Indians do not seem to be poor timekeepers, and the Romance languages have a feminine gender for objects not seen as animate: la cerveza for beer, etc. Parakeets is no doubt used metaphorically by the Bororó. Even the evidence of colours, subject of a massive study by Berlin and Kay, {7} seems now not so clear-cut, since language may reflect purpose more than perception. Lakoff, however, (see below) has indeed resurrected Whorf's hypothesis through the concept of commensurability, adducing some striking if limited experimental evidence. Understanding, our ability to translate between diverse languages, is not the only factor. Equally important are use, framing and organization {8}, and behaviour here can be governed by different conceptual systems. Languages widely employ spatial conceptions, for example, and these conceptions differ between cultures.
Functional Linguistics: The Prague School
As early as 1911 in Czechoslovakia, and independently of Saussure and Jakobson, Vilém Mathesius (1882- 1945) founded a non-historical approach to linguistics. The Prague School looked at the structural components as they contributed to the entire language. There was a need for a standard language once Czechoslovakia had acquired independence, and Czech had the curiosity of being very different in its colloquial and literary forms. Prince Nikolai Trubetzkoy (1890-1938) investigated paradigmatic relations between phonemes and classified functions on the purposes they served — keeping words apart, signalling stress, etc.
Like the Russian Formalists, members of the Prague School were keenly concerned with literature, but they were not hermetic in their approach — i.e. did not see literature as a self-enclosed, stand-alone entity, but something reflecting social and cultural usage. That was also a view developed by the American anthropologist William Labor in investigating the colloquial language of New York. He found that listeners to tape recordings could very accurately place speakers by geography and social stratum. As both reflected social movement in the recent past — i.e. history: this was one rare exception to Saussure's assertion that language speakers do not take past usage into consideration. {9}
The London School
The London School of Harry Sweet (1845-1912) and David Jones (1881-1967) stressed the practical side of phonetics, and trained its students to perceive, transcribe and reproduce each minute sound distinction very precisely — far more than the American behaviourists, for example, and of course the Chomskians, who are extending models rather than testing them. And this phonetic competence was much needed when J.R. Firth (1891-1960) and others at the School of Oriental and African Studies helped to plan the national languages and their writing systems for the new Commonwealth countries. Overall, the School has been very far ranging — noting, for example how stress and tone co-occur with whole syllables, and developing a terminology to cope: a basis for poetic metre. Firthian analysis also finds a place for aesthetic considerations and develops a system of mutually exclusive options, somewhat like Saussure but more socially and purposively orientated.
Firth himself tried to base a theory of meaning on such choice-systems, but the approach has not been generally accepted. Not only was it rather simplistic, but confused the scientific invariance of linguistic rules with the unregimented and creative way that human beings get their meaning across. {10}
Noam Chomsky and Generative Grammar
Avram Noam Chomsky (1928- ) and his followers have transformed linguistics. Indeed, despite many difficulties and large claims later retracted, the school of deep or generative grammar still holds centre stage. Chomsky came to prominence in a 1972 criticism of the behavourist's B.F. Skinner's book Verbal Behaviour. Linguistic output was not simply related to input. Far from it, and a science which ignored what the brain did to create its novel outputs was no science at all. Chomsky was concerned to explain two striking features of language — the speed with which children acquire a language, and its astonishing fecundity, our ability to create a endless supply of grammatically correct sentences without apparently knowing the rules. How was that possible? Only by having a) an underlying syntax and b) rules to convert syntax to what we speak. The syntax was universal and simple. A great diversity of sentences can be constructed with six symbols. Take a cats sits on the mat. Older readers will remember their parsing exercises at school: indefinite article, noun, verb, preposition, definite article, noun. Chomsky uses a similar approach but his "parsing" applies to all languages. But how we convert to the mat was sat on by a cat? The answer, argued Chomsky, were innate transformation rules by which a fundamental deep structure is converted to the surface sentence. Matters are not usually so straightforward, of course, and the rules can be very complex indeed, but Chomsky and his coworkers have now provided them.
If many languages are now classified along Chomsky lines, why hasn't the approach entirely swept the board, bringing all linguists into the fold of orthodoxy? First there are procedural problems. The American behaviourists, and more so the London school, had a very thorough training in gathering field evidence. Speech was what native speakers actually spoke, not what the anthropologist thought they might accept as correct usage. The Chomskians use introspection (i.e. the linguists themselves decide whether a sentence is good grammar), an approach which can allow "facts" to be fitted to theory and which has somewhat restricted application to the European languages that Chomskians regard themselves as familiar with. Then there is the matter of laboratory testing. Surface sentences that are generated by the more convoluted transformation rules should take speakers longer to produce. The evidence is somewhat contradictory.
But more important than these are the theoretical issues. What are these deep structures and transformation rules — i.e. are they something "hardwired" into the brain or simply a propensity to perform in ways we can view along Chomskian lines? Chomsky is undecided. And, if the structures are real, is this the philosopher's goal: we can base semantics on deep grammar? Some have done so, though Chomsky himself has now abandoned these hopes. Chomsky is not a Structuralist, and there is more to understanding than the ability to recast sentences — an appreciation of the world outside, for example, which we perceive and judge on past experience. {11}
Relational Grammar
One interesting development from the London School was that of Sydney Lamb and Peter Reich. Lamb charted language as networks of relationships. By using a very simple set of "nodes" he was able to represent phonology, syntax and semantics, and to explain linguistic patterning at various levels. Reich used computer modelling to simulate this approach and explain the difficulties we experience with multiply embedded sentences — I spoke to the girl whose mother's cat which I didn't know was run over when she wasn't looking sort of thing. But neither approach coped properly with the prevailing Chomskian structural picture, and wasn't pursued. {12}
The Contemporary Scene
What's the scene today? A very lively but confused picture of new dimensions, difficulties and antagonisms. One comparatively new approach is that of brain physiology. Much, perhaps the greater part, remains to be understood of precisely how the brain functions. But it is clear that consciousness (being aware of the world, having mental images, and feelings and intentions) proceeds by a complex system of neural loops and feedbacks. Speech comes with the development of the mouth and larynx, concomitantly with the growth of the cortex and its networks through to the hippocampus, amygdala and brainstem. Sounds are linked by learning with concepts and gestures to give meaning. Syntax emerges to connect conceptual learning with lexical learning. Language allows us to elaborate, refine, connect, create and remember. All this happens together. {13} Animals learn as they need to. Dogs, for example, reared in total isolation, have no understanding of pain and will sniff repeatedly at a lighted match. And for human beings the sense of self comes through the joint development of social and linguistic behaviour, each operating on the other, so that attempts to study speech in narrow disciplines — physiology, psychology, linguistics, information theory, structuralism , etc. — are doomed to failure. {14}
What is to be done, given the mountain of complex and technical data each discipline brings to the total picture? One promising start is the hypothesis of Lakoff and Johnson, sometime students of Chomsky's but working more from their studies of metaphor. Human beings, they suppose, create models of cognition that reflect concepts developed in the interaction between brain, body and environment. These models, which they call schemas, operate through bodily activities prior to speech development, and are very various, if not amorphous. Very tentatively, they suggest that the schema may operate so as to provide our five different conceptual approaches — through images, metaphors, part for whole, propositional and symbolic. Linguistic functions are propositional and symbolic. Grammatical constructions are idealized schemas. And so on. The approach is technical and preliminary, but overcomes some of the difficulties noted above. {15}
Is this optimism widely shared? Not at present. Scientists and academics have invested too much in chosen disciplines to lightly abandon their positions. Nor perhaps should they. But what is emerging is the folly of believing that any one approach provides all the answers. Or that any simplistic, navel-gazing theory like Structuralism will serve. As with linguistic philosophy, more problems emerge the deeper we look, which is perhaps not surprising given the creative, ad-hoc way language develops and our use necessarily of one small part of it to investigate the whole.
References
1. William O'Grady, Michael Dobrovolsky and Francis Katamba's Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction (1987) and R.H. Robins's A Short History of Linguistics (1994). Also Geoffrey Sampson's Schools of Linguistics: Competition and Evolution (1980) — on which this account is broadly modelled — and Michael Devitt and Kim Sterelny's An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language (1987).
2. F.R. Palmer's Semantics (1976, 1981), Simon Blackburn's Spreading the Word: Groundings in the Philosophy of Language (1984), Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind (1994), Stephen Levinson's Pragmatics (1983), and Andrew Ellis and Geoffrey Beattie's The Psychology of Language and Communication (1986, 1992).
3. See, in addition to the above, Raymond Tallis's Not Saussure: A Critique of Post-Saussurean Literary Theory (1988, 1995), Chapter 1 of J.G. Merquior's From Prague to Paris (1986), and Hans Arslef's From Locke to Saussure (1982). A contrary view is argued by Paul Thibault's Rereading Saussure: The Dynamics of Signs in Social Life (1997).
4. David Lodge's The Modes of Modern Writing (1977), Richard Harland's Superstructuralism: The Philosophy of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism (1987) and Stephen Levinson's Pragmatics (1983). Also Sampson 1980.
5. Chapter 3 in Sampson 1980.
6. Chapter 4 of Sampson 1980, and Dale Pesmen's Reasonable and Unreasonable World: Some Expectation of Coherence in Culture Implied in the Prohibition of Mixed Metaphor in James Fernandez's Beyond Metaphor: The Theory of Tropes in Anthropology (1991).
7: pp. 95-102 in Sampson.
8. pp.304-337 in George Lakoff's Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind (1987).
9. Chapter 5 of Sampson 1980.
10. Chapter 9 of Sampson 1980.
11. Chapter 6 of Sampson 1980.
12. Chapter 7 of Sampson 1980.
13. Edelman 1992.
14. pp 53- 54 in Ellis and Beattie 1988, 1992, and Gerald Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind (1992).
15. G. Lakoff and M. Johnson's Metaphors We Live By (1980), G. Lakoff's Woman, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind (1987), and M. Johnson's The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Bias of Meaning, Imagination and Reason (1987).
Internet Resources
1. Linguistics. 2001. http://www.bartleby.com/65/li/linguist.html. Brief introduction in The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.
2. On history and historicity in modern linguistics: Formalism versus functionalism revisited. Robert de Beaugrande. 1997. http://www.beaugrande.bizland.com/History.htm. General but still somewhat technical paper in Functions of Language, 4/2, 1997, 169-213.
3. Boas, Franz. http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/B/Boas-F1ra.asp. Encyclopedia.com entry with brief listings.
4. Franz Boas. 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas. Wikipedia entry with in-text links.
5. Leonard Bloomfield, Language And Linguistics, Biographies. http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/
B/BloomfldL.html. Brief AllRefer Encyclopedia entry.
6. Structuralism and Saussure. Mary Klages. 2001. http://www.colorado.edu/English/
ENGL2012Klages/saussure.html. Simple introduction.
7. Ferdinand de Saussure. Dec. 2003. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure. Wikipedia entry with in-text links.
8. Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1997. http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/
hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/ferdinand_de_saussure.html. Johns Hopkins Guide entry with links and bibliography.
9. Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics. Ferdinand de Saussure. Oct.1910. http://www.marxists.org/reference/
subject/philosophy/works/fr/saussure.htm. Excerpt from Saussure's Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics (1910-1911) Pergamon Press. 1993.
10. Russian Formalism. Dec. 2003. http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Formalism. Brief Wikipedia entry, with many links.
11. Russian Formalism. Karen A. McCauley. 1997. http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/
hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/russian_formalism.html. Detailed account and bibliography.
12. Russian Formalism. http://martin.cnidc.net/russian.ppt. An extended slide show summarising salient features and terminology.
13. Prague School Structuralism. Lubomír Dolezel. 1997. http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/
hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/prague_school_structuralism.html. History of the school and its main ideas.
14. The Prague Linguistic Circle. http://www.bohemica.com/plk/plchome.htm. Society homepage, with links.
15. Jakobson, Roman. Michael Groden and Martin Kreiswirth. 1997.
http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/
hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/roman_jakobson.html. Brief account, with bibliography.
16. Semiotics for Beginners. Daniel Chandler. Jun. 2002. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem-gloss.html. A glossary of key terms, including note on Prague School.
17. Reminiscences by Pike on Early American Anthropological Linguistics. Ken Pike. May 2001. http://www.sil.org/silewp/2001/001/
SILEWP2001-001.html. Survey of key figures.
18. Bloomfield's "Meaningless" Science of Sounds. Spring 1998. http://kalin.jeffer.org/ba_thesis/korz2.html. Part of Univ. of Alberta PhD. thesis.
19. Noam Chomsky. Jan. 2004. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky. Wikipedia entry: importance for linguistics, his criticism of Postmodernism, and his political activities, includes references and listings.
20. Universal Grammar in Prolog. Ray C. Dougherty. http://www.nyu.edu/pages/linguistics/ling.html. Computer modelling of Chomsky's concepts: has helpful diagrams.
21. Could Chomsky be Wrong? Timothy Mason. Feb. 2002. http://perso.club-internet.fr/tmason/WebPages/LangTeach/CounterChomsky.htm. Summaries of alternative views and good listings.
22. The Anatomy of a Revolution in the Social Sciences: Chomsky in 1962. E. F. Konrad Koerner. Winter. 1994. http://www.tlg.uci.edu/%7Eopoudjis/Work/KK.html. The politics of linguistics.
23. Published Papers & Articles on Linguistics, Including Machine Translation, NLP, AI, TGG, etc. Alexander Gross. http://language.home.sprynet.com/lingdex.htm#tggchom. Articles critical of simplifications in Chomsky, etc.
24. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Daniel Chandler. 1994. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/whorf.html. Introduction in terms of mould and cloak theories.
25. Regarding Benjamin Lee Whorf. Danny Alford. 1980. http://www.enformy.com/alford.htm#papers. Argues for a reexamination.
26. Schools of Linguistics by Geoffrey Sampson. Aug. 2001. http://www.mlc-wels.edu/czer/Sampson_review.htm. Review/summary of Sampson's 1980 book by Larry Czer.
27. There is No Language Instinct. Geoffrey Sampson. 2000. http://www.grsampson.net/ATin.html. Critique of Steven Pinker's arguments in 'The Language Instinct'.
28. We speak prosodies and we listen to them (J R Firth 1948). Nov. 2001. http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~rao1/Uppsala.script.pdf. Firthian application presented as Uppsala conference paper.
29. Sidney Lamb. Dec. 2002. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_M._Lamb. Brief Wikipedia article.
30. Language and the Brain: Neurocognitive Linguistics. Rice University. Apr. 2002. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lngbrain/main.htm. Includes an interview with Sidney Lamb.
31. Sydney M. Lamb. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lamb/sketch.htm. Biography, bibliography and a few links.
32. "Metaphors We Live By" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Janice E. Patten. 2003. http://theliterarylink.com/metaphors.html. Review/summary of first four chapters of the book.
33. Metaphors of Terror. George Lakoff. Sep. 2001. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/News/911lakoff.html. President Bush and the framing of US response to September 11th attack.
34. Cognitive Linguistics and the Marxist approach to ideology. Peter E Jones. http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LangIdeo/Jones/JonesAbs.html. Cognitive linguistics and a Marxist critique of ideologies.
35. Does Cognitive Linguistics live up to its name? Bert Peeters. http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LangIdeo/
Peeters/Peeters.html. Review of current work in cognitive linguistics.
36. Metaphor, Metonymy, and Experientialist Philosophy: Challenging Cognitive Semantics. Verena Haser.
http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/institut/
lskortmann/abstract_haser.htm. Synopsis of thesis critically examining Lakoff and Johnson's ideas.
37. Center for the Cognitive Science of Metaphor Online. Tim Rohrer. May 2002. http://zakros.ucsd.edu/~trohrer/metaphor/metaphor.htm. Detailed articles and links.
38. George Lakoff: The Theory of Cognitive Models. Francis F. Steen. Apr. 1997. http://cogweb.ucla.edu/CogSci/Lakoff.html. Critical review of Lakoff's work.
39. Semantics Web Resources. Kai von Fintel. http://web.mit.edu/fintel/resources.html. Technical nature of current research.
40. Sounds of English. Sharon Widmayer and Holly Gray. Jul. 2002. http://www.soundsofenglish.org/. Useful handouts, illustrations and links for linguistics in action.
© C. John Holcombe 2007. Material can be freely used for non-commercial purposes if cited in the usual way.
how many customers do we have in the west coast? computer says: 2000
how many are female? computer says: 800
how many sales people do we have? computer says: 10
how many are female? comp says: staff doesn't have sex,only customers do
Author: DanielGrunfeld
essay about the historical development of the concept of race (2007)
abstract
In this essay I will deal with the concept of race as a cultural construct and will try to show why and how the conception of human "races" originates in social rather than biological ideas by considering its early origins and by drawing upon two historical periods, namely (i) European Colonialism and (ii) The Third Reich.
read here: Race-a-Cultural-Construct or view as pdf @ http://www.divshare.com/download/3444660-1f1
this essay also relates to ConfusionsAboutHumanRaces, by R.C. Lewontin (Published on: Jun 07, 2006)
1 Caravaggio Supper at Emmaus, 1601
2 Annibale Carracci:Domine Quo Vadis, c.1601/02
Adam Elsheimer Flight into Egypt 1609 Oil on copper,
Adam Elsheimer "Rest on the Flight into Egypt", c.1607
5 Rubens: Descent from the Cross, 1611-14
6 Polykleitos: Spear Bearer
7 Venus (Capitoline)
8 Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus
9Raphael Madonna with the Goldfinch
10Giotto The Annunciation to Anna
11Giambologna Rape of the Sabines
12Masaccio's Trinity 1427
13Durer - Four Horseman
14Durer - St Jerome in His Study
15Durer - Betrothal of the Virgin
16Durer - Fall of Man
17David - Mme. Récamier
18Chardin - Girl with a Racket
19Fragonard - The Swing
20Van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888,
21Cezanne, Still Life with Onions 1895-1900
22cezanne still life with plaster cupid
23Virgin of the Rocks, DaVinci 1483
24‘Madonna of the Meadow’, Raphael, 1507
25‘Mona Lisa’, ca.1504-6, Paris
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
My View of Islam
On holy war, apostasy and the rights of women in Islam.
The undisputed definition of Islam by all her adherents is “submission to the will of Allah.” This divine will is outlined in the Koran and in the teachings and deeds of Muhammad, as recorded in the Hadith or Sunna.
While the Koran is considered to be the true, undiluted word of God revealed to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel, the Sunna carry less weight and have always been a cause for disagreement amongst Muslim scholars. Theologians of Islam have, however, reached consensus on the authority of a set of six volumes from the Sunna called the Sahih Sita, or authentic six.
On the issues of holy war (jihad), apostasy and the treatment of women, the Koran and Sunna are clear. It is the obligation of every Muslim to spread Islam to unbelievers first through dawa, or proselytizing, then through jihad, if the unbelievers refuse to convert. It is the obligation of the unbelievers to accept Islam. Exempted from this edict of conversion are the people of the book: Christians and Jews. Both peoples have a choice. They may adopt Islam and enjoy the same rights as other Muslims, or they may stick to their book and lead the life of a dhimmi (lower citizen). Legally, the rights of the dhimmi are not equal to those of a Muslim. For instance, a Muslim man may take a Jewish or Christian wife, but Jews and Christians are not allowed to marry Muslim women. If a Christian or a Jew kills a Muslim man, they should be killed immediately. In contrast, the blood of a Muslim should never be shed in recompense for the blood of Christians or Jews.
It is also the obligation of every Muslim to command virtue and forbid vice. Apostasy, the worst possible vice a Muslim can commit, should be punished by death. The punishment need not be carried out by a state, but can easily be enforced by civilians. When it is a question of Islamic law, justice is in the hands of every Muslim.
As for the treatment of women, in the Koran and more elaborately in the Sunna, Islam assigns to girls a position in the family that requires them to be docile, makes them dependent on their male relatives for money and gives dominion over their bodies to these same male kin.
In Islam there is a strict hierarchy of subservience. First and foremost, all humans are required to be the slaves of Allah. In Muslim societies, all children must obey their parents. Beyond this, women and girls must obey and serve without question their male guardians and especially their husbands. This decree of marital obedience is not in any way reciprocal.
A woman in Islam is not competent and must always have a guardian. The responsibility of guardianship may pass from father to brother to uncle before a girl is married off, at which point she must answer to her husband. Marriage is typically arranged, with no choice given to the girl, and there is often an exchange of money in the process. Thus, under the religious rule of Islam, it is still common today that a woman’s rights are essentially sold to a man she may not know, and most likely does not love.
As for education of girls under Islam, there is a clear program of indoctrination of inequality. Under Islam, education is the passing on of the rules of submission to the will of Allah. Intrinsic in this “education” is the dictation of gender roles. Girls are instructed in subservience first to God, then to the family and finally to the husband. There is strict emphasis on modesty, defined by virginity. A Muslim girl is taught to guard fiercely her virginity as an expression of loyalty to her creator and to her family and husband.
This form of education hampers her chances of ever becoming self-reliant or financially independent. A woman’s lack of social equality and freedom is a direct consequence of the teachings of Islam. Under Islam, a wife must always ask her husband for permission and she must obey indefinitely. This stricture is lifted in the unique event that he asks her to forsake God, wherein she is allowed the right of disobedience. While it is true that in Islam, technically speaking, women have the right to trade and own property, the condition of total obedience to guardians makes this “freedom” hypothetical, at best.
The goal of education given to girls under Islam is the achievement of control over female sexuality. The result of this indoctrination is that Muslim girls believe legitimate and often vocally defend their position of subordination. The lengths a Muslim society will go to in the pursuit of sexual control often cross into the territory of the absurd and, by western standards, criminal. In Islam the minimum age of marriage for a girl is after her first menstruation. Muhammad was engaged to his wife Aisha when she was six years old, and he married her (had intercourse with her) when she turned nine. Millions of Muslim men across the world follow Muhammad in this deed, one of the most prominent examples being the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
Under sharia law (Islamic law), such as governs in Saudi Arabia, Iran and parts of Nigeria, the civil rights of women are dramatically reduced. Threat of violent punishment in the form of whipping and stoning makes the prospect of financial independence and sexual freedom for women all but impossible. Miraculously, even in such harsh circumstances you will find women who are relatively well educated, have some say in choosing a husband and manage to earn a living. Let us be clear that these exceptions are due to the compassion and progressiveness of families who have been influenced by the West, and not to rules derived from Islam.
In the quest for reconciliation between Muslim and western societies, it is important to recognize that Muslims are as diverse as Islam is monolithic. Islam attempts to unify more than a billion people of different geographical origins, languages, ethnicities, and cultural and educational backgrounds into one religious tribe. And while I acknowledge that generally stereotyping believers is difficult since belief is subjective, for the sake of discussion I would like to distinguish between five types of Muslims.
The first group includes those Muslims who leave the faith because they cannot reconcile it with their conscience or with modernity. This group is important for the evolution of the Islamic world because they ask the urgent and critical questions believers usually avoid. Ex-Muslims living in the west are just beginning to find their voice and to take advantage of the spiritual and social freedoms available to them.
The second group is comprised of genuine Muslim reformers, such as Irshad Manji, who acknowledge the theological out-datedness of the Koranic commands and the immorality of the prophet. They tend to emphasize the early chapters in the Koran urging goodness, generosity and spirituality. They argue that the latter chapters wherein Islam is politicized and the concepts of sharia, jihad and martyrdom are introduced should be read in the context in which they were written, some 1,400 years ago.
The third group is made up of those Muslims who support the gradual perpetuation and domination of Islam throughout the world. They use the freedoms offered in democracy to undermine social modernity and, though initially opposed to the use of violence, foresee that once the number of believers reaches a critical mass the last remnants of unbelievers may then be dealt with in violence, and sharia law may be universally implemented. Ayatollah Khomeini used this method successfully in Iran. Erdogan of Turkey is following in his footsteps. Tariq Ramadan, deeply rooted in his Muslim Brotherhood heritage, is devoted to such a program among European Muslims.
The fourth group is the most obvious and immediately threatening. In this group we find a growing number of hard-line Muslims who have defined martyrdom as their only goal. This is an army of young men whipped into a frenzy of suicidal violence by power hungry clergy. These clergy have public platforms and work with impunity from institutions untouched and often funded by national authorities.
''The fifth group is largely ineffective and only threatening in their refusal to acknowledge the truth. Here we find the elite clergy who make a show of trying to reconcile Islam with modernity. They are motivated by self-preservation and have no interest in true reform. They take selective passages from the holy books to make a case for a peaceful Islam, ignoring the many passages inciting violence, such as those verses which command the death of apostates.''
It is through the first two of these five groups that progress and reform will come. As for the rest, the western world would be wise to recognize the realities of Islam, a religion laid down in writing over a millennium ago with violence and oppression at its heart.
Born in Somalia and raised a devout Muslim, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an active critic of Islam, an advocate for women’s rights and a leader in the campaign to reform Islam. Her willingness to speak out and her abandonment of the Muslim faith have made her a target for violence and threat of death by Islamic extremists. She is currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, in Washington D.C., and is the author of the bestselling memoir "Infidel."
Posted by Ayaan Hirsi Ali on August 2, 2007 9:39 AM
"It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of professional life as an anthropologist. It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct our civilisation, and this should in turn be in step with the actual workings of living systems.
A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly a product of the answers that we already have given to the riddle in its various forms. Kurt Vonnegut gives us wary advice - that we should be careful what we pretend because we become what we pretend. And something like that, some sort of self-fulfilment, occurs in all organisations and human cultures. What people presume to be ‘human’ is what they will build in as premises of their social arrangements, and what they build in is sure to be learned, is sure to become a part of the character of those who participate.
And along with this self-validation of our answers, there goes something still more serious - namely, that any answer which we promote, as it becomes partly true through our promoting of it, becomes partly irreversible. There is a lag in these affairs."
Gregory Bateson - Innocence & Experience. 1987 - p.178
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HTML Edition by Dan Baruth
Since I am not a sinologue, a foreword to the Book of Changes from my hand must be a testimonial of my individual experience with this great and singular book. It also affords me a welcome opportunity to pay tribute again to the memory of my late friend, Richard Wilhelm. He himself was profoundly aware of the cultural significance of his translation of the I Ching, a version unrivaled in the West.
If the meaning of the Book of Changes were easy to grasp, the work would need no foreword. But this is far from being the case, for there is so much that is obscure about it that Western scholars have tended to dispose of it as a collection of "magic spells," either too abstruse to be intelligible, or of no value whatsoever. Legge's translation of the I Ching, up to now the only version available in English, has done little to make the work accessible to Western minds.[1]Wilhelm, however, has made every effort to open the way to an understanding of the symbolism of the text. He was in a position to do this because he himself was taught the philosophy and the use of the I Ching by the venerable sage Lao Nai-hsüan; moreover, he had over a period of many years put the peculiar technique of the oracle into practice. His grasp of the living meaning of the text gives his version of the I Ching a depth of perspective that an exclusively academic knowledge of Chinese philosophy could never provide.
I am greatly indebted to Wilhelm for the light he has thrown upon the complicated problem of the I Ching, and for insight as regards its practical application as well. For more than thirty years I have interested myself in this oracle technique, or method of exploring the unconscious, for it has seemed to me of uncommon significance. I was already fairly familiar with the I Ching when I first met Wilhelm in the early nineteen twenties; he confirmed for me then what I already knew, and taught me many things more.
I do not know Chinese and have never been in China. I can assure my reader that it is not altogether easy to find the right access to this monument of Chinese thought, which departs so completely from our ways of thinking. In order to understand what such a book is all about, it is imperative to cast off certain prejudices of the Western mind. it is a curious fact that such a gifted and intelligent people as the Chinese has never developed what we call science. Our science, however, is based upon the principle of causality, and causality is considered to be an axiomatic truth. But a great change in our standpoint is setting in. What Kant's Critique of Pure Reason failed to do, is being accomplished by modern physics. The axioms of causality are being shaken to their foundations: we know now that what we term natural laws are merely statistical truths and thus must necessarily allow for exceptions. We have not sufficiently taken into account as yet that we need the laboratory with its incisive restrictions in order to demonstrate the invariable validity of natural law. If we leave things to nature, we see a very different picture: every process is partially or totally interfered with by chance, so much so that under natural circumstances a course of events absolutely conforming to specific laws is almost an exception.
The Chinese mind, as I see it at work in the I Ching, seems to be exclusively preoccupied with the chance aspect of events. What we call coincidence seems to be the chief concern of this peculiar mind, and what we worship as causality passes almost unnoticed. We must admit that there is something to be said for the immense importance of chance. An incalculable amount of human effort is directed to combating and restricting the nuisance or danger represented by chance. Theoretical considerations of cause and effect often look pale and dusty in comparison to the practical results of chance. It is all very well to say that the crystal of quartz is a hexagonal prism. The statement is quite true in so far as an ideal crystal is envisaged. But in nature one finds no two crystals exactly alike, although all are unmistakably hexagonal. The actual form, however, seems to appeal more to the Chinese sage than the ideal one. The jumble of natural laws constituting empirical reality holds more significance for him than a causal explanation of events that, moreover, must usually be separated from one another in order to be properly dealt with.
The manner in which the I Ching tends to look upon reality seems to disfavor our causalistic procedures. The moment under actual observation appears to the ancient Chinese view more of a chance hit than a clearly defined result of concurring causal chain processes. The matter of interest seems to be the configuration formed by chance events in the moment of observation, and not at all the hypothetical reasons that seemingly account for the coincidence. While the Western mind carefully sifts, weighs, selects, classifies, isolates, the Chinese picture of the moment encompasses everything down to the minutest nonsensical detail, because all of the ingredients make up the observed moment.
Thus it happens that when one throws the three coins, or counts through the forty-nine yarrow stalks, these chance details enter into the picture of the moment of observation and form a part of it -- a part that is insiguificant to us, yet most meaningful to the Chinese mind. With us it would be a banal and almost meaningless statement (at least on the face of it) to say that whatever happens in a given moment possesses inevitably the quality peculiar to that moment. This is not an abstract argument but a very practical one. There are certain connoisseurs who can tell you merely from the appearance, taste, and behavior of a wine the site of its vineyard and the year of its origin. There are antiquarians who with almost uncanny accuracy will name the time and place of origin and the maker of an objet d'art or piece of furniture on merely looking at it. And there are even astrologers who can tell you, without any previous knowledge of your nativity, what the position of sun and moon was and what zodiacal sign rose above the horizon in the moment of your birth. In the face of such facts, it must be admitted that moments can leave long-lasting traces.
In other words, whoever invented the I Ching was convinced that the hexagram worked out in a certain moment coincided with the latter in quality no less than in time. To him the hexagram was the exponent of the moment in which it was cast -- even more so than the hours of the clock or the divisions of the calendar could be -- inasmuch as the hexagram was understood to be an indicator of the essential situation prevailing in the moment of its origin.
This assumption involves a certain curious principle that I have termed synchronicity,[2] a concept that formulates a point of view diametrically opposed to that of causality. Since the latter is a merely statistical truth and not absolute, it is a sort of working hypothesis of how events evolve one out of another, whereas synchronicity takes the coincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance, namely, a peculiar interdependence of objective events among themselves as well as with the subjective (psychic) states of the observer or observers.
The ancient Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way comparable to that of the modern physicist, who cannot deny that his model of the world is a decidedly psychophysical structure. The microphysical event includes the observer just as much as the reality underlying the I Ching comprises subjective, i.e., psychic conditions in the totality of the momentary situation. Just as causality describes the sequence of events, so synchronicity to the Chinese mind deals with the coincidence of events. The causal point of view tells us a dramatic story about how D came into existence: it took its origin from C, which existed before D, and C in its turn had a father, B, etc. The synchronistic view on the other hand tries to produce an equally meaningful picture of coincidence. How does it happen that A', B', C', D', etc., appear all in the same moment and in the same place? It happens in the first place because the physical events A' and B' are of the same quality as the psychic events C' and D', and further because all are the exponents of one and the same momentary situation. The situation is assumed to represent a legible or understandable picture.
Now the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching are the instrument by which the meaning of sixty-four different yet typical situations can be determined. These interpretations are equivalent to causal explanations. Causal connection is statistically necessary and can therefore be subjected to experiment. Inasmuch as situations are unique and cannot be repeated, experimenting with synchronicity seems to be impossible under ordinary conditions.[3] In the I Ching, the only criterion of the validity of synchronicity is the observer's opinion that the text of the hexagram amounts to a true rendering of his psychic condition. It is assumed that the fall of the coins or the result of the division of the bundle of yarrow stalks is what it necessarily must be in a given "situation," inasmuch as anything happening in that moment belongs to it as an indispensable part of the picture. If a handful of matches is thrown to the floor, they form the pattern characteristic of that moment. But such an obvious truth as this reveals its meaningful nature only if it is possible to read the pattern and to verify its interpretation, partly by the observer's knowledge of the subjective and objective situation, partly by the character of subsequent events. It is obviously not a procedure that appeals to a critical mind used to experimental verification of facts or to factual evidence. But for someone who likes to look at the world at the angle from which ancient China saw it, the I Ching may have some attraction.
My argument as outlined above has of course never entered a Chinese mind. On the contrary, according to the old tradition, it is "spiritual agencies," acting in a mysterious way, that make the yarrow stalks give a meaningful answer.[4] These powers form, as it were, the living soul of the book. As the latter is thus a sort of animated being, the tradition assumes that one can put questions to the I Ching and expect to receive intelligent answers. Thus it occurred to me that it might interest the uninitiated reader to see the I Ching at work. For this purpose I made an experiment strictly in accordance with the Chinese conception: I personified the book in a sense, asking its judgment about its present situation, i.e., my intention to present it to the Western mind.
Although this procedure is well within the premises of Taoist philosophy, it appears exceedingly odd to us. However, not even the strangeness of insane delusions or of primitive superstition has ever shocked me. I have always tried to remain unbiased and curious -- rerum novarum cupidus. Why not venture a dialogue with an ancient book that purports to be animated? There can be no harm in it, and the reader may watch a psychological procedure that has been carried out time and again throughout the millennia of Chinese civilization, representing to a Confucius or a Lao-tse both a supreme expression of spiritual authority and a philosophical enigma. I made use of the coin method, and the answer obtained was hexagram 50, Ting, THE CALDRON.
In accordance with the way my question was phrased, the text of the hexagram must be regarded as though the I Ching itself were the speaking person. Thus it describes itself as a caldron, that is, as a ritual vessel containing cooked food. Here the food is to be understood as spiritual nourishment. Wilhelm says about this:
The ting, as a utensil pertaining to a refined civilization, suggests the fostering and nourishing of able men, which redounded to the benefit of the state. . . . Here we see civilization as it reaches its culmination in religion. The ting serves in offering sacrifice to God. . . . The supreme revelation of God appears in prophets and holy men. To venerate them is true veneration of God. The will of God, as revealed through them, should he accepted in humility.
Keeping to our hypothesis, we must conclude that the I Ching is here testifying concerning itself.
When any of the lines of a given hexagram have the value of six or nine, it means that they are specially emphasized and hence important in the interpretation.[5] In my hexagram the "spiritual agencies" have given the emphasis of a nine to the lines in the second and in the third place. The text says:
Nine in the second place means:
There is food in the ting.
My comrades are envious,
But they cannot harm me.
Good fortune.
Thus the I Ching says of itself: "I contain (spiritual) nourishment." Since a share in something great always arouses envy, the chorus of the envious[6] is part of the picture. The envious want to rob the I Ching of its great possession, that is, they seek to rob it of meaning, or to destroy its meaning. But their enmity is in vain. Its richness of meaning is assured; that is, it is convinced of its positive achievements, which no one can take away. The text continues:
Nine in the third place means:
The handle of the ting is altered.
One is impeded in his way of life.
The fat of the pheasant is not eaten.
Once rain falls, remorse is spent.
Good fortune comes in the end.
The handle [German Griff] is the part by which the ting can be grasped [gegriffen]. Thus it signifies the concept[7] (Begriff) one has of the I Ching (the ting). In the course of time this concept has apparently changed, so that today we can no longer grasp (begreifen) the I Ching. Thus "one is impeded in his way of life." We are no longer supported by the wise counsel and deep insight of the oracle; therefore we no longer find our way through the mazes of fate and the obscurities of our own natures. The fat of the pheasant, that is, the best and richest part of a good dish, is no longer eaten. But when the thirsty earth finally receives rain again, that is, when this state of want has been overcome, "remorse," that is, sorrow over the loss of wisdom, is ended, and then comes the longed-for opportunity. Wilhelm comments: "This describes a man who, in a highly evolved civilization, finds himself in a place where no one notices or recognizes him. This is a severe block to his effectiveness." The I Ching is complaining, as it were, that its excellent qualities go unrecognized and hence lie fallow. It comforts itself with the hope that it is about to regain recognition.
The answer given in these two salient lines to the question I put to the I Ching requires no particular subtlety of interpretation, no artifices, no unusual knowledge. Anyone with a little common sense can understand the meaning of the answer; it is the answer of one who has a good opinion of himself, but whose value is neither generally recognized nor even widely known. The answering subject has an interesting notion of itself: it looks upon itself as a vessel in which sacrificial offerings are brought to the gods, ritual food for their nourishment. It conceives of itself as a cult utensil serving to provide spiritual nourishment for the unconscious elements or forces ("spiritual agencies") that have been projected as gods -- in other words, to give these forces the attention they need in order to play their part in the life of the individual. Indeed, this is the original meaning of the word religio - a careful observation and taking account of (from relegere [8]) the numinous.
The method of the I Ching does indeed take into account the hidden individual quality in things and men, and in one's own unconscious self as well. I have questioned the I Ching as one questions a person whom one is about to introduce to friends: one asks whether or not it will be agreeable to him. In answer the I Ching tells me of its religious significance, of the fact that at present it is unknown and misjudged, of its hope of being restored to a place of honor -- this last obviously with a sidelong glance at my as yet unwritten foreword,[9] and above all at the English translation. This seems a perfectly understandable reaction, such as one could expect also from a person in a similar situation.
But how has this reaction come about? Because I threw three small coins into the air and let them fall, roll, and come to rest, heads up or tails up as the case might be. This odd fact that a reaction that makes sense arises out of a technique seemingly excluding all sense from the outset, is the great achievement of the I Ching. The instance I have just given is not unique; meaningful answers are the rule. Western sinologues and distinguished Chinese scholars have been at pains to inform me that the I Ching is a collection of obsolete "magic spells." In the course of these conversations my informant has sometimes admitted having consulted the oracle through a fortune teller, usually a Taoist priest. This could be "only nonsense" of course. But oddly enough, the answer received apparently coincided with the questioner's psychological blind spot remarkably well.
I agree with Western thinking that any number of answers to my question were possible, and I certainly cannot assert that another answer would not have been equally significant. However, the answer received was the first and only one; we know nothing of other possible answers. It pleased and satisfied me. To ask the same question a second time would have been tactless and so I did not do it: "the master speaks but once." The heavy-handed pedagogic approach that attempts to fit irrational phenomena into a preconceived rational pattern is anathema to me. Indeed, such things as this answer should remain as they were when they first emerged to view, for only then do we know what nature does when left to herself undisturbed by the meddlesomeness of man. One ought not to go to cadavers to study life. Moreover, a repetition of the experiment is impossible, for the simple reason that the original situation cannot be reconstructed. Therefore in each instance there is only a first and single answer.
To return to the hexagram itself. There is nothing strange in the fact that all of Ting, THE CALDRON, amplifies the themes announced by the two salient lines.[10] The first line of the hexagram says:
A ting with legs upturned.
Furthers removal of stagnating stuff.
One takes a concubine for the sake of her son.
No blame.
A ting that is turned upside down is not in use. Hence the I Ching is like an unused caldron. Turning it over serves to remove stagnating matter, as the line says. Just as a man takes a concubine when his wife has no son, so the I Ching is called upon when one sees no other way out. Despite the quasi-legal status of the concubine in China, she is in reality only a somewhat awkward makeshift so likewise the magic procedure of the oracle is an expedient that may be utilized for a higher purpose. There is no blame, although it is an exceptional recourse.
The second and third lines have already been discussed. The fourth line says:
The legs of the ting are broken.
The prince's meal is spilled
And his person is soiled.
Misfortune.
Here the ting has been put to use, but evidently in a very clumsy manner, that is, the oracle has been abused or misinterpreted. In this way the divine food is lost, and one puts oneself to shame. Legge translates as follows: "Its subject will be made to blush for shame." Abuse of a cult utensil such as the ting (i.e., the I Ching) is a gross profanation. The I Ching is evidently insisting here on its dignity as a ritual vessel and protesting against being profanely used.
The fifth line says:
The ting has yellow handles, golden carrying rings.
Perseverance furthers.
The I Ching has, it seems, met with a new, correct (yellow) understanding, that is, a new concept (Begriff) by which it can be grasped. This concept is valuable (golden). There is indeed a new edition in English, making the book more accessible to the Western world than before.
The sixth line says:
The ting has rings of jade.
Great good fortune.
Nothing that would not act to further.
Jade is distinguished for its beauty and soft sheen. If the carrying rings are of jade, the whole vessel is enhanced in beauty, honor, and value. The I Ching expresses itself here as being not only well satisfied but indeed very optimistic. One can only await further events and in the meantime remain content with the pleasant conclusion that the I Ching approves of the new edition.
I have shown in this example as objectively as I can how the oracle proceeds in a given case. Of course the procedure varies somewhat according to the way the question is put. If for instance a person finds himself in a confusing situation, he may himself appear in the oracle as the speaker. Or, if the question concerns a relationship with another person, that person may appear as the speaker. However, the identity of the speaker does not depend entirely on the manner in which the question is phrased, inasmuch as our relations with our fellow beings are not always determined by the latter. Very often our relations depend almost exclusively on our own attitudes, though we maybe quite unaware of this fact. Hence, if an individual is unconscious of his role in a relationship, there may be a surprise in store for him; contrary to expectation, he himself may appear as the chief agent, as is sometimes unmistakably indicated by the text. It may also occur that we take a situation too seriously and consider it extremely important, whereas the answer we get on consulting the I Ching draws attention to some unsuspected other aspect impllcit in the question.
Such instances might at first lead one to think that the oracle is fallacious. Confucius is said to have received only one inappropriate answer, i.e., hexagram 22, GRACE -- a thoroughly aesthetic hexagram. This is reminiscent of the advice given to Socrates by his daemon -- "You ought to make more music" -- whereupon Socrates took to playing the flute. Confucius and Socrates compete for first place as far as reasonableness and a pedagogic attitude to life are concerned; but it is unlikely that either of them occupied himself with "lending grace to the beard on his chin," as the second line of this hexagram advises. Unfortunately, reason and pedagogy often lack charm and grace, and so the oracle may not have been wrong after all.
To come back once more to our hexagram. Though the I Ching not only seems to be satisfied with its new edition, but even expresses emphatic optimism, this still does not foretell anything about the effect it will have on the public it is intended to reach. Since we have in our hexagram two yang lines stressed by the numerical value nine, we are in a position to find out what sort of prognosis the I Ching makes for itself. Lines designated by a six or a nine have, according to the ancient conception, an inner tension so great as to cause them to change into their opposites, that is, yang into yin, and vice versa. Through this change we obtain in the present instance hexagram 55, Chin, PROGRESS.
The subject of this hexagram is someone who meets with all sorts of vicissitudes of fortune in his climb upward, and the text describes how he should hehave. The I Ching is in this same situation: it rises like the sun and declares itself, but it is rebuffed and finds no confidence -- it is "progressing, but in sorrow." However, "one obtains great happiness from one's ancestress." Psychology can help us to elucidate this obscure passage. In dreams and fairy tales the grandmother, or ancestress, often represents the unconscious, because the latter in a man contains the feminine component of the psyche. If the I Ching is not accepted by the conscious, at least the unconscious meets it halfway, and the I Ching is more closely connected with the unconscious than with the rational attitude of consciousness. Since the unconscious is often represented in dreams by a feminine figure, this may be the explanation here. The feminine person might be the translator, who has given the book her maternal care, and this might easily appear to the I Ching as a "great happiness." It anticipates general understantling, but is afraid of misuse -- "Progress like a hamster." But it is mindful of the admonition, "Take not gain and loss to heart." It remains free of "partisan motives." It does not thrust itself on anyone.
The I Ching therefore faces its future on the American book market calmly and expresses itself here just about as any reasonable person would in regard to the fate of so controversial a work. This prediction is so very reasonable and full of common sense that it would be hard to think of a more fitting answer.
All of this happened before I had written the foregoing paragraphs. When I reached this point, I wished to know the attitude of the I Ching to the new situation. The state of things had been altered by what I had written, inasmuch as I myself had now entered upon the scene, and I therefore expected to hear something referring to my own action. I must confess that I had not been feeling too happy in the course of writing this foreword, for, as a person with a sense of responsibility toward science, I am not in the habit of asserting something I cannot prove or at least present as acceptable to reason. It is a dubious task indeed to try to introduce to a critical modern public a collection of archaic "magic spells," with the idea of making them more or less acceptable. I have undertaken it because I myself think that there is more to the ancient Chinese way of thinking than meets the eye. But it is embarrassing to me that I must appeal to the good will and imagination of the reader, inasmuch as I have to take him into the obscurity of an age-old magic ritual. Unfortunately I am only too well aware of the arguments that can be brought against it. We are not even certain that the ship that is to carry us over the unknown seas has not sprung a leak somewhere. May not the old text be corrupt? Is Wilhelm's translation accurate? Are we not self-deluded in our explanations?
The I Ching insists upon self-knowledge throughout. The method by which this is to be achieved is open to every kind of misuse, and is therefore not for the frivolous-minded and immature; nor is it for intellectualists and rationalists. It is appropriate only for thoughtful and reflective people who like to think about what they do and what happens to them -- a predilection not to be confused with the morbid brooding of the hypochondriac. As I have indicated above, I have no answer to the multitude of problems that arise when we seek to harmonize the oracle of the I Ching with our accepted scientific canons. But needless to say, nothing "occult" is to be inferred. My position in these matters is pragmatic, and the great disciplines that have taught me the practical usefulness of this viewpoint are psychotherapy and medical psychology. Probably in no other field do we have to reckon with so many unknown quantities, and nowhere else do we become more accustomed to adopting methods that work even though for a long time we may not know why they work. Unexpected cures may arise from questionable therapies and unexpected failures from allegedly reliable methods. In the exploration of the unconscious we come upon very strange things, from which a rationalist turns away with horror, claiming afterward that he did not see anything. The irrational fullness of life has taught me never to discard anything, even when it goes against all our theories (so short-lived at best) or otherwise admits of no immediate explanation. It is of course disquieting, and one is not certain whether the compass is pointing true or not; but security, certitude, and peace do not lead to discoveries. It is the same with this Chinese mode of divination. Clearly the method aims at self-knowledge, though at all times it has also been put to superstitious use.
I of course am thoroughly convinced of the value of self-knowledge, but is there any use in recommending such insight, when the wisest of men throughout the ages have preached the need of it without success? Even to the most biased eye it is obvious that this book represents one long admonition to careful scrutiny of one's own character, attitude, and motives. This attitude appeals to me and has induced me to undertake the foreword. Only once before have I expressed myself in regard to the problem of the I Ching: this was in a memorial address in tribute to Richard Willielm.[11] For the rest I have maintained a discreet silence. It is by no means easy
to feel one's way into such a remote and mysterious mentality as that underlying the I Ching. One cannot easily disregard such great minds as Confucius and Lao-tse, if one is at all able to appreciate the quality of the thoughts they represent; much less can one overlook the fact that the I Ching was their main source of inspiration. I know that previously I would not have dared to express myself so explicitly about so uncertain a matter. I can take this risk because I am now in my eighth decade, and the changing opinions of men scarcely impress me any more; the thoughts of the old masters are of greater value to me than the philosophical prejudices of the Western mind.
I do not like to burden my reader with these personal considerations; but, as already indicated, one's own personality is very often implicated in the answer of the oracle. Indeed, in formulating my question I even invited the oracle to comment directly on my action. The answer was hexagram 29, K'an, THE ABYSMAL. Special emphasis is given to the third place by the fact that the line is designated by a six. This line says:
Forward and backward, abyss on abyss.
In danger like this, pause at first and wait,
Otherwise you will fall into a pit in the abyss.
Do not act in this way.
Formerly I would have accepted unconditionally the advice, "Do not act in this way," and would have refused to give my opinion of the I Ching, for the sole reason that I had none. But now the counsel may serve as an example of the way in which the I Ching functions. It is a fact that if one begins to think about it, the problems of the I Ching do represent "abyss on abyss," and unavoidably one must "pause at first and wait" in the midst of the dangers of limitless and uncritical speculation; otherwise one really will lose his way in the darkness. Could there be a more uncomfortable position intellectually than that of floating in the thin air of unproved possibilities, not knowing whether what one sees is truth or illusion? This is the dreamlike atmosphere of the I Ching, and in it one has nothing to rely upon except one's own so fallible subjective judgment. I cannot but admit that this line represents very appropriately the feelings with which I wrote the foregoing passages. Equally fitting is the comforting beginning of this hexagram -- "If you are sincere, you have success in your heart" -- for it indicates that the decisive thing here is not the outer danger but the subjective condition, that is, whether one believes oneself to be "sincere" or not.
The hexagram compares the dynamic action in this situation to the behavior of flowing water, which is not afraid of any dangerous place but plunges over cliffs and fills up the pits that lie in its course (K'an also stands for water). This is the way in which the "superior man" acts and "carries on the business of teaching."
K'an is definitely one of the less agreeable hexagrams. It describes a situation in which the subject seems in grave danger of being caught in all sorts of pitfalls. Just as in interpreting a dream one must follow the dream text with utmost exactitude, so in consulting the oracle one must hold in mind the form of the question put, for this sets a definite limit to the interpretation of the answer. The first line of the hexagram notes the presence of the danger: "In the abyss one falls into a pit." The second line does the same, then adds the counsel: "One should strive to attain small things only." I apparently anticipated this advice by limiting myself in this foreword to a demonstration of how the I Ching functions in the Chinese mind, and by renouncing the more ambitious project of writing a psychological commentary on the whole book.
The fourth line says:
A jug of wine, a bowl of rice with it;
Earthen vessels
Simply handed in through the window.
There is certainly no blame in this.
Wilhelm makes the following comment here:
Although as a rule it is customary for an official to present certain introductory gifts and recommendations before he is appointed, here everything is simplified to the utmost. The gifts are insignificant, there is no one to sponsor him, he introduces himself; yet all this need not be humiliating if only there is the honest intention of mutual help in danger.
Wilhelm niakes the following comment here:
Although as a rule it is customary for an official to present certain introductory gifts and recommendations before he is appointed, here everything is simplified to the utmost. The gifts are insignificant, there is no one to sponsor him, he introduces himself; yet all this need not be humiliating if only there is the honest intention of mutual help in danger.
It looks as if the book were to some degree the subject of this line.
The fifth line continues the theme of limitation. If one studies the nature of water, one sees that it fills a pit only to the rim and then flows on. It does not stay caught there:
The abyss is not filled to overflowing,
It is filled only to the rim.
But if, tempted by the danger, and just because of the uncertainty, one were to insist on forcing conviction by special efforts, such as elaborate commentaries and the like, one would only be mired in the difficulty, which the top line describes very accurately as a tied-up and caged-in condition. Indeed, the last line often shows the consequences that result when one does not take the meaning of the hexagram to heart.
In our hexagram we have a six in the third place. This yin line of mounting tension changes into a yang line and thus produces a new hexagram showing a new possibility or tendency. We now have hexagram 48, Ching, THE WELL. The water hole no longer means danger, however, but rather something beneficial, a well:
Thus the superior man encourages the people at their work,
And exhorts them to help one another.
The image of people helping one another would seem to refer to the reconstruction of the well, for it is broken down and full of mud. Not even animals drink from it. There are fishes living in it, and one can shoot these, but the well is not used for drinking, that is, for human needs. This description is reminiscent of the overturned and unused ting that is to receive a new handle. Moreover, this well, like the ting, is cleaned. But no one drinks from it:
This is my heart's sorrow,
For one might draw from it.
The dangerous water hole or abyss pointed to the I Ching, and so does the well, but the latter has a positive meaning: it contains the waters of life. It should he restored to use. But one has no concept (Begriff) of it, no utensil with which to carry the water; the jug is broken and leaks. The ting needs new handles and carrying rings by which to grasp it, and so also the well must be newly lined, for it contains "a clear, cold spring from which one can drink." One may draw water from it, because "it is dependable."
It is clear that in this prognosis the speaking subject is again the I Ching, representing itself as a spring of living water. The preceding hexagram described in detail the danger confronting the person who accidentally falls into the pit within the abyss. He must work his way out of it, in order to discover that it is an old, ruined well, buried in mud, but capable of being restored to use again.
I submitted two questions to the method of chance represented by the coin oracle, the second question being put after I had written my analysis of the answer to the first. The first question was directed, as it were, to the I Ching: what had it to say about my intention to write a foreword? The second question concerned my own action, or rather the situation in which I was the acting subject who had discussed the first hexagram. To the first question the I Ching replied by comparing itself to a caldron, a ritual vessel in need of renovation, a vessel that was finding only doubtful favor with the public. To the second question the reply was that I had fallen into a difficulty, for the I Ching represented a deep and dangerous water hole in which one might easily be mired. However, the water hole proved to be an old well that needed only to be renovated in order to be put to useful purposes once more.
These four hexagrams are in the main consistent as regards theme (vessel, pit, well); and as regards intellectual content they seem to be meaningful. Had a human being made such replies, I should, as a psychiatrist, have had to pronounce him of sound mind, at least on the basis of the material presented. Indeed, I should not have been able to discover anything delirious, idiotic, or schizophrenic in the four answers. In view of the I Ching's extreme age and its Chinese origin, I cannot consider its archaic, symbolic, and flowery language abnormal. On the contrary, I should have had to congratulate this hypothetical person on the extent of his insight into my unexpressed state of doubt. On the other hand, any person of clever and versatile mind can turn the whole thing around and show how I have projected my subjective contents into the symbolism of the hexagrams. Such a critique, though catastrophic from the standpoint of Western rationality, does no harm to the function of the I Ching. On the contrary, the Chinese sage would smilingly tell me: "Don't you see how useful the I Ching is in making you project your hitherto unrealized thoughts into its abstruse symbolism? You could have written your foreword without ever realizing what an avalanche of misunderstanding might be released by it."
The Chinese standpoint does not concern itself as to the attitude one takes toward the performance of the oracle. It is only we who are puzzled, because we trip time and again over our prejudice, viz., the notion of causality. The ancient wisdom of the East lays stress upon the fact that the intelligent individual realizes his own thoughts, but not in the least upon the way in which he does it. The less one thinks about the theory of the I Ching, the more soundly one sleeps.
It would seem to me that on the basis of this example an unprejudiced reader would now be in a position to form at least a tentative judgment on the operation of t