My friend Jim Klein has been hanging out with us here at BloodhoundBlog for the past few months, gently tossing rhetorical hand-grenades into our discussions where he thinks they might do the most good. I met Jim fifteen years ago on Usenet, and we’ve been philosophical allies ever since. I love having him around here, because I trust him to tell me when he thinks I’m wrong.
I’ve been working to flesh out SplendorQuest.com so that I might, sometime soon, move our more-ornately philosophical discussions there. Jim will be writing with me there, and possibly some other folks, as we go forward. My own plan is to use SplendorQuest to document everything I know about philosophy. There is a lot that I do that is original in the world of discourse — Jim can tell you better than I can what qualifies as being original — and I want to make sure I document what I’ve done in a thoroughgoing way before I shuffle off this mortal coil.
This post — our very first guest post — consists of Jim thanking me for challenging his preconceptions in an enduring way. At the time he’s taking about, I was beyond grateful that I could get anyone at all to listen to what I had to say, so my take is that the debt runs the other way. In any case, I am very proud to be able to show Jim off, both at BloodhoundBlog and at SplendorQuest.
With that, I give you Jim Klein:
[This was written for genuine Bloodhounds. Please check your chip!]
I always start simple. Then I try to stay there. This post is no exception. I even cut it in half, to keep it as simple as possible. The main question I seek to answer here is, “What is owing?”
You see, I owe Greg Swann. No, not for anything he sold me, nor because of anything he expects, let alone demands. He did do some software work back in the ’90s, but I paid for that. BTW his code is used to this day, making one part of our company’s website much better than any of our competitors’. And since that part is about the price, and since I offer (what once was!) a commoditized item, it means the whole website is better, from the customer’s POV. And in business, as is no secret here, there’s no other relevant POV.
Greg Swann has inspired me, as he’s inspired so many people, but lots of people inspire lots of other people. We don’t go around keeping track of who inspired us how much, and how much we ought to pay for each. So surely there’s no debt in that, right? Well, I guess it all depends on what you consider a debt.
And that’s the point…a debt is something you consider a debt. Never mind contracts and mortgages for a moment, for this is about owing. And this is about the fact of the matter. You cannot be in any volitional state, with or without others, save by your own…well, your own volition. This is not a comment on money debts or their resolution in cases of dispute; this is a comment on the existential state of owing.
Continue reading Jim’s post at SplendorQuest.com.
Don Reedy says:
Jim,
Greg has written eloquently and strongly about what you write about in your article above.
I think I may have mentioned this interest of mine in a comment on one of Greg’s posts, but would you be so kind as to entertain a question?
Wow, I really like this. I’ve got the only right to create within myself, but [Greg] can point out some facts…. that I can consider. Yeah, that’s spot on. I embrace and embrace fully.
But, I am one of those Christians that somehow seems to get the back of your hand when it comes to my reasoning as to which “identifying machines” it’s okay to select. I say this because of this from your post:
Here’s my question:
Is God (one of my identifying machines), truly a contrivance?
I’ve got much more to say, questions and comments, ideas and musings, but to steal from you, Jim, maybe I’ll save the rest as a sort of payment in gratitude for that.
That way I can even enjoy the time I owe you!
July 11, 2010 — 7:42 pm
Jim Klein says:
Thanks, Don. I guess we should do the bad news first…if I understand your single direct question correctly, the single direct answer is, “Yes.”
Luckily, the good news is much wider! The whole point of volition is that it arises through conceptual activity. I’m not making some deep scientific claim here, just the obvious. We think, we do. I think that’s unobjectionable to anyone. And really it doesn’t matter anyway, because that’s the way it is! Surely all Christians, and many other religionists, go along with, “We think; we do.”
That’s the only fact I’m dealing with. What a person thinks is neither any business of mine, nor any problem for me. Frankly, I can even think of ways to make money from it, so there could be an argument that I think it’s a downright benefit!
For me, it’s whatever I make of it. And it’s this way for you, and every other person on the planet. That’s all I mean to say.
Were we talking politics, you’d hear me wax eloquent on who the people were, who founded this country, and /why/. It’s pretty tough to do that without mentioning religion, right?
But were we talking politics and religion were to come up, I’m pretty sure I’d seek to resolve the whole thing in a single word. “Waco”
I want /everyone/ to figure out /everything/ the best they can. The more, the merrier. As long as we allow the ideas to come to light and manifest, I figure all the best ones will win out. Surely you’ll agree that everything about God, is meant to be of the mind and/or heart…that is to say, of the non-physical or conceptual realm. That’s all I ask, because I’m tired of hearing all the “reasons”–whether God-based or Good-based or Consensus-based or Expert-based–that one man ought to be forcing another man what to do.
Plus, as an historic “right wing ideologue,” many of the folks with whom I see eye to eye on many matters, are religious fundamentalists. I guest-hosted a tiny talk show once, and I’ll bet I was the only guy on AM radio back then quoting news information from (what was then) “The Spotlight.” I care about the facts and /only/ the facts. That’s me, and I’m not looking for anyone else to be like me. Who’d want a world filled with themselves anyway?
July 11, 2010 — 9:29 pm
Mitchell says:
Congrats on the growing blogger community… looking forward to future posts and the new site!
Thanks!
July 14, 2010 — 2:33 pm