[FRIAM] These women might be able to tolerate Friam

[Prof David West]

The Metaphysical Animals book is, IMO, a pretty dry biography that removes all the passion and the ardor of both the time period and the philosophical arguments. The actual ideas advanced by the four women (and colleagues) are, again IMO, very important and I find them compelling: on their face and because of congruence with the metaphysics of mysticism (Alchemy to Taoism with heavy doses of Buddhism) of which I am so fond.

I did find their rebuttal of Ayers reminiscent of arguments I have made to Nick re: Pierce. That "truth" is what we eventually agree upon is possible only to the extent you are willing to rig the conversation to exclude both 'evidence' and 'advocacy' of contrary positions.  Same notion I posed to Jochem—if you assume physicality and purposely exclude any data points that are not reducible to physical things—then you are simply creating a metaphysical tautology.

On another note: those of you that are reading Graeber's *Dawn of Everything*, it would be fun to have a discussion and share reactions. I found it fascinating. My habit is to absorb, in toto, the data and the arguments, to 'Grok' the totality of the book first and only then apply my critical and analytical faculties to see what lasts. I know most of you read critically from the get-go, and so I would value your input.

Tor those of you not ready to commit to a 500 page tome, *Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology,* will provide a kind of overarching thesis statement for *Dawn*.

davew


On Mon, Jun 6, 2022, at 10:14 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> I hope FRIAM is not dead yet. It always inspires me. The recent discussion with Nick for instance inspired me to write this short blog post today
> https://blog.cas-group.net/2022/06/the-strange-phenomenon-of-consciousness/
> 
> -J.
> 
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: George Duncan <gtduncan at gmail.com>
> Date: 6/6/22 04:59 (GMT+01:00)
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] These women might be able to tolerate Friam
> 
> Or rather, that they could bring FRIAM to life!
> 
> George Duncan
> Emeritus Professor of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University
> georgeduncanart.com
> See posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
> Land: (505) 983-6895  
> Mobile: (505) 469-4671
>  
> My art theme: Dynamic exposition of the tension between matrix order and luminous chaos.
> 
> "Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion."
> 
> From "Notes to myself on beginning a painting" by Richard Diebenkorn. 
> "It's that knife-edge of uncertainty where we come alive to our truest power." Joanna Macy.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jun 5, 2022 at 7:33 PM Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/05/books/review/metaphysical-animals-clare-mac-cumhaill-rachael-wiseman.html?smid=url-share
>> -- 
>> Frank Wimberly
>> 140 Calle Ojo Feliz
>> Santa Fe, NM 87505
>> 505 670-9918
>> 
>> Research:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2
>> -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe   /   Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
>> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
>> archives:  5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
>>   1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
> -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe   /   Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
> archives:  5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
>   1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20220606/139aee0c/attachment.html>