Alfino

Notes for Seminar Discussions

Pinker - note intersection of discussion of classical style and obscure styles. p. 29 Implications for style/method.

Chapter 2: up to 38, a discussion of classical style, then sections on "metadiscourse", signposting, hedging, spologetic language, excessive abstraction (nominalization and passives)

child will vs. adult will. situated, freedom of modern self depends on being insulated from contingency by layers of representation.
Mouseke-doer -- "Oh Tootles!" The Handy Dandy machine. focused on adjustment, 72 q. to become an adult you need to be subject to the "heteronomy of things"
Keep the world from challenging the self is something narcissists do.
Kant: does this in his moral theory -- 73: quote -- context -- concern about the status of free will
To be rational, for Kant, is to NOT be situated in the world. Choice as expression of the unconditioned will.
77: interesting connection to problem of the modern self -- kant's model of the self leads to a self that is fragile, can't tolerate contingency, seeks to be comfortable in a "me-world" of manufactured experience. (this might be the kind of self that demands insulation for it's views and identity. freedom from conflict.
thesis (he's heading toward): There is freedom and individuality in the world beyond your head, but only if you acquire the skills.

Mercedes "brake assist" - fetish of automaticity -- product of capitalism. fake engine noise 85
"The World is its Own Best Model" - embodied representations vs. symbolic representations. importance of "cross modal binding" 83.
problem at the end - does a world of symbolic representations undermine real choice? Is capitalism designing things to foster disengagement (autism)? (counter argument - aren't we developing skills with virtual reality? symbolic reality?

Section 9. Three species of Goulding: Rathering, Piling On, and the Gould two-step.

"rathering" - really false dichotomy with a rhetorical flourish, "rather" - nice mix of informal fallacy and rhetoric.
"piling on" - example p. 50. exaggerating the alternative that he wants to dismiss (false dichotomy mixed with straw man"
"two step" - creating a straw man version of an opponents argument and then treating the author's actual position as a grudging acceptance that the author really sees the problem with the straw man version.