Cheerskep missed my sardonic humor. Putting on a straight face now, I agree with him, of course. I believe it.
wc ----- Original Message ---- From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Tue, June 12, 2012 2:06:29 PM Subject: Re: Scott Fitzgerald quote and "the definition of an artist" Fitzgerald wrote: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." William writes: > "The test of a first rate in intelligence is to be sure something is art > even > when still unsure." > If I get what you have in mind, I can't agree. Consider: "I'm sure I'm going to win this race." "You can't be sure." "I know that, but I'm still sure." That may bespeak confidence, but it does not evidence to me what I'd call a first rate intelligence. Or: "I'm sure there is a god (afterlife, heaven, hell, angels, etc)." Or: "I'm sure I'm going to beat this cancer, win a Tony, get into Brown etc." William writes: > [The test of a first rate in intelligence is] "to be aware that you may > not finish your next breath but to go ahead and take it anyway." This > example does not address the FSF quote. FSF's line is soupy as hell, but it > seems unlikely he was so fatuous that when he said, "hold two opposed ideas in > mind at the same time" he merely meant "realize there are two possible > outcomes". > > "William writes: > "...Or, [The test of a first rate in intelligence is] to acknowledge that > consciousness persists even if it can't be proved." I don't think so. > All of us believe things we know we can't prove. > William writes: > "Or, to recognize that paradox is built-in to every idea." > Not in any interesting way. What most people who are familiar with the word 'paradox' usually have in mind when they use it is a notion of apparent self-contradiction, counter-intuitive. But almost all the ideas we have in a given day lack those characteristics. "If I put on my glasses, I'll see more clearly," "I'm tired; if I sleep I'll feel more alert;" "I'm hungry, if I eat, the hunger will go away;" "If I put my hands in water, they will emerge wet." I wouldn't call any of those lines "paradoxical", but, of course, someone might entertain, with 'paradox', so eccentric a notion that it allows them to cry "Paradoxical!" about any idea whatever.
