The Thoughts Of Schopenhauer Vs Systemic Functional Linguistics [3]

Russell (1961: 724):

But the will that is behind phenomena cannot consist of a number of different volitions.  Both time and space, according to Kant — and in this Schopenhauer agrees with him — belong only to phenomena; the thing–in–itself is not in space and time.  My will, therefore, in the sense that it is real, cannot be dated, nor can it be composed of separate acts of will, because it is space and time that are the source of plurality — the principle of 'individuation'*, to use the scholastic phrase which Schopenhauer prefers.  My will, therefore, is one and timeless.  Nay, more, it is to be identified with the will of the whole universe; my separateness is an illusion, resulting from my subjective apparatus of spatio-temporal perception.  What is real is one vast will, appearing in the whole course of nature, animate and inanimate alike.

Blogger Comment:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, volition — desiderative mental processes — is in space and time, since all processes are construed to unfold in time, and volition, space and time are all construals of experience as meaning.

From the perspective of Eastern philosophy, Schopenhauer has identified 

• the Buddhist notion of 'the world beyond pairs of opposites' — 'beyond fear and desire' — with Kant's noumena, and 
• the Buddhist notion of 'undifferentiated consciousness' — in 'the world beyond pairs of opposites' — just with desiderative consciousness.

* The term 'individuation' has been used by some members of the SFL community, but not with comprehension.

The Thoughts Of Romantics vs Rationalists Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Russell (1961: 696):

The romantic form of revolt is very different from the rationalist form, though both are derived from the French Revolution and the philosophers who immediately preceded it.  The romantic form is to be seen in Byron in an unphilosophical dress, but in Schopenhauer and Nietzsche it has learnt the language of philosophy.  It tends to emphasise the will as the expense of the intellect, to be impatient of chains of reasoning, and to glorify violence of certain kinds.  In practical politics it is important as an ally of nationalism.  In tendency, if not always in fact, it is definitely hostile to what is commonly called reason, and tends to be anti-scientific.

Blogger Comment:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the distinction between the will and the intellect is the distinction between to two types of projecting mental processes — mental symbolic processing — desiderative and cognitive, respectively.  Desiderative processes project proposals, commands and offers, whereas cognitive processes project propositions, statements and questions.  Hence the alignment of the will with nationalism and the alignment of the intellect with science.

The Thoughts Of Locke In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 586-7):

A characteristic of Locke, which descended from him to the whole Liberal movement, is lack of dogmatism. … Love of truth, which Locke considers essential, is a very different thing from love of some particular doctrine which is proclaimed as the truth.  One unerring mark of love of truth, he says, is 'not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant'.  Forwardness to dictate, he says, shows failure of love of truth.

The Thoughts Of Leibniz In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 572):

He abstained from publishing, because he kept on finding evidence that Aristotle's doctrine of the syllogism was wrong on some points; respect for Aristotle made it impossible for him to believe this, so he mistakenly supposed that the errors must be his own.

The Thoughts Of Spinoza In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 557):

Unlike some other philosophers, he not only believed his own doctrines, but practised them; … In controversy he was courteous and reasonable, never denouncing, but doing his utmost to persuade.

The Attitude Of Teachers In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 542):

There is a freshness about [Descartes'] work that is not to be found in any eminent previous philosopher since Plato.  All the intermediate philosophers were teachers, with the professional superiority belonging to that avocation.

The Thoughts Of Hobbes In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 536):

… a doctrine repugnant to peace cannot be true.  (A singularly pragmatist view!)

The Thoughts Of Francis Bacon In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 527, 528):

Bacon's most important book, The Advancement of Learning, is in many ways remarkably modern.  He is commonly regarded as the originator of the saying 'Knowledge is power', and though he may have had predecessors who said the same thing, he said it with new emphasis.  The whole basis of his philosophy was practical: to give mankind mastery over the forces of nature by means of scientific discoveries and inventions.

… he objected to any admixture of teleological explanation in the actual investigation of phenomena; everything, he held, should be explained as following necessarily from efficient causes. 

Blogger Comment:

The 'genre pedagogy' wing of the SFL community has twice used the slogan Language is social power, so its concern is not so much with 'mastery over the forces of nature' as with 'mastery over each other'.  However, in contradistinction to Bacon, the theory which informs genre pedagogy takes a teleological perspective on text function.

The Scientific Attitude In the SFL Community

Russell (1961: 514):

the scientific attitude: it is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it.  His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition. … the test of a scientific truth is patient collection of facts, combined with bold guessing as to laws binding the facts together.

The Thoughts Of Machiavelli In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 494):

'But it is necessary to be able to disguise the character well, and to be a great feigner and dissembler; and men are so simple and so ready to obey present necessities, that one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.'

Mediæval Dogmatism In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 480):

There is yet another difference from ecclesiastical authority, which declares its pronouncements to be absolutely certain and eternally unalterable: the pronouncements of science are made tentatively, on the basis of probability, and are regarded as liable to modification.  This produces a temper of mind very different from that of the mediæval dogmatist.

See related post here.

The Thoughts Of Duns Scotus In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 456):

There are, he says, four causes of ignorance: First, the example of frail and unsuited authority. Second, the influence of custom. Third, the opinion of the unlearned crowd. Fourth, the concealment of one's ignorance in a display of apparent wisdom.

Scholasticism In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 428):

The defects of the scholastic method are those that inevitably result from laying stress on 'dialectic'.  These defects are: indifference to facts and science, belief in reasoning in matters which only observation can decide, and an undue emphasis on verbal distinctions and subtleties.  These defects we had occasion to mention in connection with Plato, but in the scholastics they exist in a much more extreme form.

The Thoughts Of Berengar And Anselm In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 410, 411):

Berengar of Tours (d. 1088) is interesting as being something of a rationalist.  He maintained that reason is superior to authority…. Anselm considers reason subordinate to faith.  'I believe in order to understand,' he says; following Augustine, he holds that without belief it is impossible to understand.

Scepticism In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 243):

Scepticism was a lazy man's consolation, since it showed the ignorant to be as wise as the reputed man of learning.

The Thoughts Of (Platonic) Protagoras In The SFL Community [2]

Russell (1961: 164):

As for the argument that that, if each man is the measure of all things, one man is as wise as another, Socrates suggests, on behalf of Protagoras, a very interesting answer, namely that, while one judgement cannot be truer than another, it can be better, in the sense of having better consequences.  This suggests pragmatism.

The Thoughts Of (Platonic) Protagoras In The SFL Community [1]

Russell (1961: 94):

One of three founders of pragmatism, F.C.S. Schiller was in the habit of calling himself a disciple of Protagoras. This was, I think, because Plato, in the Theætetus, suggests, as an interpretation of Protagoras, that one opinion can be better than another, though it cannot be truer.  For example, when a man has jaundice everything looks yellow.  There is no sense in saying that things are really not yellow, but the colour they look to a man in health; we can say, however, that, since health is better than sickness, the opinion of a man in health is better than that of a man who has jaundice.  This point of view, obviously, is akin to pragmatism.

The disbelief in objective truth makes the majority, for practical purposes, the arbiters as to what to believe. 

Disciplinarianism In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 21-2):

Throughout this long development, from 600 BC to the present day, philosophers have been divided into those who wished to tighten social bonds and those who wished to relax them. With this difference, others have been associated. The disciplinarians have advocated some system of dogma, either old or new, and have therefore been compelled to be, in greater or lesser degree, hostile to science, since their dogmas could not be proved empirically. They have almost invariably taught that happiness is not the good, but that ‘nobility’ or ‘heroism’ is to be preferred. They have had a sympathy with irrational parts of human nature, since they have felt reason to be inimical to social cohesion. The libertarians, on the other hand, with the exception of the extreme anarchists, have tended to be scientific, utilitarian, rationalistic, hostile to violent passion, and enemies of all the more profound forms of religion. This conflict existed in Greece before the rise of we recognise as philosophy, and is already quite explicit in the earliest Greek thought. In changing forms, it has persisted down to the present day, and no doubt will persist for many ages to come.

Blogger Comments:

Michæl Halliday's student, Jim Martin, can be seen as a disciplinarian — as opposed to a libertarian — on a number of grounds:

1. his focus on social bonding and affiliation;
2. his insistence that his students' work conform with his opinions and include his theorising;
3. his open hostility to science and scientists;
4. his open hostility to what he claims is logical positivism;
5. his declared opposition to any critical analysis that he regards as "negative".

Quakerism In The SFL Community

Russell (1961: 20):

The Anabaptists repudiated all law, since they held that a good man will be guided at every moment by the Holy Spirit, who cannot be bound by formulas.  From this premiss they arrive at communism and sexual promiscuity; they were therefore exterminated after a heroic resistance.  But their doctrine, in softened forms, spread to Holland, England and America; historically it is the source of Quakerism.

Blogger Comments:

Michæl Halliday's student, Robin Fawcett, purports to profess Quakerism.