The Truth of Signs

[rwx]

I think this quote from The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco best sums up my Indexing and Abstracting class. Also, for many current intents and purposes (intensive porpoises) life generally

"I have never doubted the truth of signs, Adso; they are the only things man has with which to orient himself in the world. What I did not understand is the relation among signs . . . I behaved stubbornly, pursuing a semblance of order, when I should have known well that there is no order in the universe."

"But in imagining an erroneous order you still found something. . . ."

"What you say is very fine, Adso, and I thank you. The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless . . . The only truths that are useful are instruments to be thrown away."

I love this class, incidentally. Life is also failing to suck at the moment.

Comments

[synabetic.livejournal.com]

It's always awesome when life fails to suck.

Also, I love that book... and that quote.

:)

[mskala.livejournal.com]

The idea of thoughts being a ladder you use to reach truth, then throw away as meaningless, is something Ludwig Wittgenstein is famous for; I'm sure Eco was making a deliberate reference.

[rwx.livejournal.com]

yes

[cthulhie.livejournal.com]

Strangely, my experience with the class (this week) has been less fantastic. Perhaps it was who I ended up in a group with.

I really don't think that the fact that ISO 5963-1985 is perpetuating the hegemony is particularly useful in a discussion of its efficacy....

But maybe I'm just being needlessly critical of needless criticism.

[rwx.livejournal.com]

my groupwork this week was pretty bad, due to the curse of literalism. i loved the lecture though. I think that JEM had some point he was stiving for, and we strived to miss it even harder.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I miss having classes with him.

(And not just cause he's hot, either. Shut up.)

[rwx.livejournal.com]

it's too bad that we can't have an information organization monthly get-together of some sorts.