On Sat, Sep 10, 2011 at 4:03 PM, Matt Kundert <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Marsha, > > Marsha said: > My alternative view is that the differentiation between professional > and amateur philosopher is just so much cultural clap-trap. > > Matt: > When one combines this formulation of your alternative with Ron's > observation that "every topic is cultural claptrap" (because, I take it, > everything to discuss is built out of our culture, i.e. static patterns) > and then Dan's iteration of the value of discussion despite that broad, > too-true fact, I think we can get the sense in which this formulation > isn't as preferable as your second formulation: "the differences are > not really a topic that interests me." > > For the second strikes me as perfectly reasonable: there are lots of > topics that don't interest me (one might say: that I'm incurious > about). However, the first formulation was, we might say, > dismissive of that topic. And I don't take it that we need to dismiss > everything that doesn't interest us, and further that dismissing is > exactly not what one amateur does to another: dismissing is what a > professional does when they find that something isn't relevant to the > discipline. But amateurs have no discipline, and so seemingly > should always take at most a non-dismissive non-interest in each > others work. > > Also, I agree that many attempts to differentiate between pro and > amateur are "so much cultural claptrap." However, that's why I take > an interest in trying to find a better way to state those differences > should they exist in a meaningful way. I'm not sure I've found any > yet, and I don't take it that thinking about it is necessary for one to > compose themselves as an amateur (i.e., I don't think it's necessary > for an amateur to be interested in this particular topic).
Dan: Well, that tends to go without saying... it isn't necessary for anyone to be interested in any particular topic, be they professional or amateur. Professionals tend to be very narrow in their focus, homing in on their particular field of interest, while an amateur has the luxury of examining many topics of interest. I don't care that the topic isn't of interest to Marsha or to anyone. But I do wonder at her motives for answering my post and then summarily dismissing me when I attempted to engage her in discussion. If it isn't of interest, why bother me in the first place? I don't really care if I get any answers at all to my posts... I'm unsure if they're designed to illicit answers anyway. Most times I am merely musing to myself and I share my writings in the hope that others may find some small value there. Whether they answer or not is irrelevant. If someone does answer, though, I do make an attempt to answer them back if it seems called for. Anyway... Dan Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
