Abelard & Peterson: Tractatus de Intellectibus

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Who wrote the Big Love in Little Cottonwood Canyon series? Because this is the same author and they're the cat's pajamas.

- Doc

[_honorentheos]

No one recognizes the value of pi?

I guess I didn't in any case.

I assumed from the get go this was Stak, style and content fitting his background and interests. I thought it was almost certain with the second photo. The quip about words being made up is more amusing to me seen as a call back of sorts to discussions with a certain Wittgensteinian pragmatist. Maybe it's not, and it doesn't matter. I am curious to see where it goes and appreciate them sharing it here, whoever it is.

[_Kishkumen]

I guess I didn't in any case.

I assumed from the get go this was Stak, style and content fitting his background and interests. I thought it was almost certain with the second photo. The quip about words being made up is more amusing to me seen as a call back of sorts to discussions with a certain Wittgensteinian pragmatist. Maybe it's not, and it doesn't matter. I am curious to see where it goes and appreciate them sharing it here, whoever it is.

Stak is definitely on the list. Good eye!

[_Kishkumen]

It's either someone in the Cassius 5 or Blixa.

It's brilliant writing!

Blixa is another possibility.

[_Kishkumen]

I assumed it was you, Kishkumen!

You flatter me, sir!

Well, if Agromanticus is Faust, that opens up some possibilities. There is a prominent Mormon family named Faust, is there not - as in President Faust? But perhaps that is too much of a stretch.

Oh, why should we not think of President Faust? If only Faust had thought more of Faust!

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I guess I didn't in any case.

I assumed from the get go this was Stak, style and content fitting his background and interests. I thought it was almost certain with the second photo. The quip about words being made up is more amusing to me seen as a call back of sorts to discussions with a certain Wittgensteinian pragmatist. Maybe it's not, and it doesn't matter. I am curious to see where it goes and appreciate them sharing it here, whoever it is.

Stak is definitely on the list. Good eye!

I was thinking Stak, too. However Blixa has the academic chops and cleverness to pull this off. But the style and syntax smacks of someone who has the ability to put together a multi-chapter story that really draws you in...

MYSTERIOUS.

- Doc

[_Lemmie]

The quip about words being made up is more amusing to me seen as a call back of sorts to discussions with a certain Wittgensteinian.

I wasn't around for the original discussions if you are talking about a regular on that other board; but if so, he repeats himself often enough that I think I've got the gist (over and over and over ) and yes, it does seem to be a valid reference.

[_Kishkumen]

I was thinking Stak, too. However Blixa has the academic chops and cleverness to pull this off. But the style and syntax smacks of someone who has the ability to put together a multi-chapter story that really draws you in...

MYSTERIOUS.

- Doc

It is very mysterious. Yes, I see the novelist's narrative imagination here. I should think both Stak and Blixa were well equipped for that, as are others. Not too many, mind you, but a few here certainly. We have master hoaxers, great fiction writers, and more than a couple of esotericists in our number. Someone knows her or his readership quite well and is able to speak the MDB language deftly.

[_honorentheos]

The quip about words being made up is more amusing to me seen as a call back of sorts to discussions with a certain Wittgensteinian.

I wasn't around for the original discussions if you are talking about a regular on that other board; but if so, he repeats himself often enough that I think I've got the gist (over and over and over ) and yes, it does seem to be a valid reference.

That's the one.

I'm not sure how it could ever be worked into a story, but Mark started posting just after we had Simon Belmont on the board who claimed to be earning a masters in philosophy while Stak was early in the process of earning his undergrad. Belmont was a character, and it made for entertaining exchanges. Mark was less entertaining if more honest about his background, but no less prone to turning discussions into name dropping exercises. It reminded me of something else Stak once said regarding economists whose discussions seemed to him like kids playing the Pokémon card game. "I'll counter your von Mises with a Friedman!" MFB seems even worse on MD&D these days but its more or less just an exaggerated version of his participation here.

[_Agromanticus]

Even Carthage had a Desmoterion

Daniel? I know you are in there. I can hear music. There you are. Ahh! You’ve been on the boards today. You always play #988 from Bach’s klavierwerke when you’ve been contending. Your habits are well known on campus Daniel, they see the constant sprinkles of references you litter your writing with. I’ve come to report that you were mentioned today, twice in one class even. As it happens your musical taste was the first topic. Thank you, my feet ache especially today, high arches you see.

Yes well the Latin & Greek TA suggested that you favor these variations because they were played on a harpsichord, the very instrument William F. Buckley trained on, whom you admire as a near demigod. These are his words Daniel and not mine. The TA also insinuated that your writing is much like a variation, you keep recycling the same topics over and over but unlike the variations of Bach, yours never grow more complex. I’d say it was slanderous and you may be comforted to know that our guest speaker today defended you. It was the chaplin I think, the Right Reverend Kishkumen. Yes he did. The seminar I’m in, he even brought you back up during our discussion.

Well we’ve been trying to make our way through Plato’s Symposium and many of us are quite taken with Percy Shelley’s English translation, but the Reverend wasn’t convinced our enthusiasm was totally merited. We were looking at Alcibiades’ speech, the one in 215A. I still can recall the passage.

Many other and most wonderful qualities might well be praised in Socrates; but such as these might singly be attributed to others...But to such a singular man as this, both himself and his discourses are so uncommon, no one, should he seek, would find a parallel among the present or the past generations of mankind...

He seemed to be disputing Shelley’s translation of ἀτοπὶα as “singular”, that it didn’t capture correctly what Alcibiades was trying to convey. Almost parenthetically he mentioned that he’d use this word to describe you. Well he didn’t exactly say how he would render it, but in my notes he directed us to something Callicles says to Socrates in the Gorgias. I’m certain is was 494D and asked us to look at ἄτοπος. Maybe something from Aristophanes too? Now don’t be cross with me Daniel [FRAGMENTARY] nobody mentions any leaks or informants at all, the entire campus acts as if everything referenced is publicly available [FRAGMENTARY] What? What is this? Winsome I’m fine.

I spoke of Daniel? I must have been asleep. Yes I knew him well, back during the halcyon days of the FARMS Review. Long before your time. What was the other name? Alcibiades? Fitting. One could say that my relationship with Daniel was the median value between what Socrates was to Alcibiades and what Abelard was to Heloise. During the first decade of this century, going to BYU to study with the known “Apologists” was physically daunting, spiritually demanding, and mentally draining. It was a strange but intoxicating socius where intellectually defending the Priesthood and the Gospel was seen to be imitatio of the transcendent. Men like Hugh Nibley were no more and no less an auditor of inspiration and we came to sit at their feet.

But now on a poor sinner’s reflection it seems so obvious that Daniel was more Isocrates than Socrates. Say that again dear and a little louder please. Ah! I was trying to tell Jaxon about this. In Socrates’ day in Athens, male citizens often had to temporarily fill various roles in terms of legislation and especially in matters of law. So when Socrates had his infamous day in court he was addressing his social peers who followed no established rules of evidence and only the barest skeleton of procedural safeguards. Citizens could only represent themselves and this is what gave rise to sophists; learned men who taught younger men the arts of persuasion so they could best advocate for themselves. Those with considerable means could afford to hire someone to craft a speech for him, but there was still the burden of performing that speech and ultimately the responsibility of actually persuading his fellow man in court.

You remember correctly Winsome, Socrates was not a fan of the sophists and he made that known. What you need to understand though was that Socrates was an intensely religious man and how he lived his life is a major affront to Mopologists and their salted provo sensibilities. Mopologists. It is like the words “Mormon” and “Apologist” got slammed together and stuck. It was coined by a bitter Anti-Mormon. I too use to think of it as a slur [FRAGMENTARY] I would love some yogurt Winsome, thank you dear. What time is it? Is it overcast? I still yearn to gaze upon what Ptolemy called οἱ πλάνητες ἀστέρες but there are consequences I must carry with dignity. Just to behold Gabriel’s rangers! Those heavenly bodies which the Angels turn. I hope soon to be called to the Empyrean [FRAGMENTARY] You act as if it is obvious that I shouldn’t have a heavenly hope [FRAGMENTARY]

I can demonstrate that ably. On the south wall there should a number of bank boxes that contain my files. One will have FARMS stenciled on it. Excellent, look inside for a folder with the name Filippo Argenti.



SITREP#89793
Offender#17724 has begun to experience lost time and getting lost within himself. CPL Winsome and CPL Jaxon have both found Offender#17724 having conversations with people who are not present. Appetite is returning [FRAGMENTARY] a file of an unknown subject named Filippo Argenti [FRAGMENTARY] PVT Patches wishes to know if his Request for Leave with be approved.

OIC MISSIVE # N/A
Can confirm that Filippo Argenti is one Louis C. Midgley of BYU. Continue to encourage Offender#17724 to [FRAGMENTARY] PVT Patches should have [FRAGMENTARY] then you are to inform Offender#17724 that Mercury is in retrograde as that should encourage him to comply [FRAGMENTARY]