To me this point is patently obvious but lots of people I know
disagree. Also this means the primary/secondary quality distinction
is legitimate.
Consider yellow, for example. We may try to define it, by describing
its physical equivalent; we may state what kind of light-vibrations
must stimulate the normal eye, in order that we may perceive it. But
a moment’s reflection is sufficient to shew that those
light-vibrations are not themselves what we mean by yellow. They
are not what we perceive. Indeed we should never have been able to
discover their existence, unless we had first been struck by the
patent difference of quality between the different colours. THe most
we can be entitled to say of those vibrations is that they are what
corresponds in space to the yellow which we actually perceive. —Moore,
P.E., p. 10
entitled: Moore on colour | posted: 11:50Z
filed: /philosophy/metaphysics | 0 comment(s)
Going dancing is something that I have come to enjoy enormously.
There are two reasons why this is perhaps unusual. Firstly I don’t
drink, and for a lot of people this seems to be a prerequisite to
having fun in this way. And secondly both kinds of nerds I associate
with a lot, the philosophy nerds in Balliol that don’t seem to be in
many other places, and the more standard kind of nerds who like things
like maths and StarCraft, tend to really dislike these sorts of
environments.
continue reading this entry
entitled: Dancing | posted: 00:27Z
filed: /writing/diary | 0 comment(s)
Coming under heavy fire from tutor at the moment for lack of
conciseness. I thought I’d been getting much better at this. However
I realised today that I’m missing something key. What I’m already
pretty decent at is being concise in expressing particular points;
writing short sentences and avoiding long words—I probably use more
unnecessary long words in speech than in writing. The thing I’m
missing, I think, is being concise about choosing what points to try
to make at all. I tend to go the Bernard Williams
write-everything-you-know-about-this approach which isn’t really very
interesting.
entitled: Conciseness | posted: 22:52Z
filed: /writing/diary | 1 comment(s)
HT12wk4 by spwhitton on SoundCloud
Here’s my set from last night; was put together pretty quickly so
nothing special.
entitled: Last night’s bop set | posted: 11:02Z
filed: /music | 0 comment(s)
People keep saying, how is your nth week going, and I keep saying week
after week “actually it’s going really really well”. I am pretty well
absorbed into my work. Bad habits of procrastination still stop me
from achieving quite as much as I think I’m capable of, though, but
the effect is far more minor than it has been. The Pomodoro Technique
is I think the main factor in this. But also it’s the fact that I’m not really doing
maths. There aren’t any useful lectures to go to, and the maths I am
doing is easy and so it’s gratifying, and so my life each day is
attending a small number of classes and just heading to the library
and reading and writing philosophy, which is really great. My
workload is a little less than last term too, just enough that things
are more comfortable. I didn’t really realise just how much maths was
making me unhappy.
continue reading this entry
entitled: Great weeks | posted: 21:07Z
filed: /writing/diary | 0 comment(s)
