tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post7424380538036678265..comments2023-04-02T09:49:12.204-04:00Comments on Problems of Life: Patience & Slowing DownMatthew Pianaltohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-67286769509285443542011-09-12T05:27:25.247-04:002011-09-12T05:27:25.247-04:00It's not that I have to accept a delay in the ...<i>It's not that I have to accept a delay in the emergence of a final draft; rather, I have to accept that writing a good essay takes time. It also requires focus; a person who is easily distracted won't be able to see the project to its completion. And I associate that focused attention to the task with patience.</i><br><br>This is reminiscent of Rhees's "<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9205.1994.tb00493.x/pdf" rel="nofollow">The Fundamental Problems of Philosophy</a>":<br><br>"Above all one must avoid the suggestion that 'the philosophical life' is the kind of life you must lead <i>if</i> you are to do philosophy: as if doing philosophy and leading that kind of life were distinct or separable. As though it made <i>sense</i> to say, 'It is a pity that you cannot do philosophy without going the hard way - or it is a pity that you cannot do philosophy and also lead a life of self-indulgence - but I am afraid there is no other way'. As though the checking of self-indulgence were the <i>price</i> that you have to pay in order to be able to do philosophy. All this is nonsense: but it is not easy to make this clear." (p. 577)<br><br>Two pages later, Rhees quotes Simone Weil:<br><br>"Twenty minutes of attention, without tiring, is worth infinitely more than three hours of forced effort. [...] But in spite of how it appears, it is much more difficult. There is something in our soul which draws back from genuine attention much more violently than the flesh recoils from fatigue."<br><br>Is this at all in the direction of the "more subtle idea about what it means to wait" which you said you needed?Tommi Uschanovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02852865209279310471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-2862757868113133052011-09-12T13:03:55.515-04:002011-09-12T13:03:55.515-04:00Is this at all in the direction of the "more ...<i>Is this at all in the direction of the "more subtle idea about what it means to wait" which you said you needed? </i><br><br>Tommi: Yes! (Thanks.) I knew that Weil would be helpful here, but hadn't had the patience to sit down and to look carefully through <i>Gravity and Grace</i> (for example) again.<br><br>I just tracked down Kierkegaard's collected "Upbuilding Discourses" and a few are explicitly about patience, so I'm looking forward to reading them, too.Matthew Pianaltohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.com