What I hope to get out of blogging – Asymptotic Philosophers

I want to start my first post by thanking Kino for actually getting this thing started. We’d been discussing it off-and-on for a while now, in vague terms, but several weeks ago she actually started one and asked me to join her. I’m a little late to the actually joining her part–having taken forever to write my first post–but here I am, finally!

The largest factor in my joining her, at least as I think of it now, isn’t to share my ideas–they probably aren’t really worth that–or to “start a conversation” with folks on the internet–I’ve become too jaded by comment sections elsewhere to really think this possible–or anything of the sort. To be honest, the biggest factor for me was much more selfish: I want to get more comfortable writing, and blogging seems terrifying to me. I find it terrifying for a couple reasons. First, I often feel that my writing seems to commit me to things in a way I don’t feel accurately reflects my thoughts. Though its implications are rather unclear, I’m often taken by the “philosophy can’t be written down” line of Plato, especially the way in which it manifests in Howard Stein’s work (also, I mean to include typical formal lectures and talks as written down); I feel that I and the folks I’m talking with get much more out of informal meetings of small groups of people, where you have tons of non-verbal cues, clarification opportunities, etc. to work with in understanding someone else’s thoughts. Second, the “me” I prefer to identify with is much more prone to listening than speaking, so writing can feel like an identity-undermining act.

I’ve successfully used this ” that’s terrifying, let’s do it” strategy in the past, so I figured what the hell, let’s try it again. (For instance, I decided to move from the small, rural-ish community college I was at, Edison State, to Ohio State in particular because being in such a dense environment terrified me as someone with social anxiety and who grew up in rural Ohio.) So here goes nothing!

Author
Recent Posts

Chris Mitsch

Chris studies the history and philosophy of science and mathematics. He is currently translating several works by Hilbert, Nordheim, and von Neumann as part of a project on the philosophy of mathematics that informed early quantum mechanics formalisms. He is also interested in: historical method and how this should inform general philosophy of science; the cognitive foundations of mathematics; and the construction of identity in (especially American) politics. Chris posts under the banner "Method Matters".