soikins
3rd November 2009, 02:24 AM
Hello!
I wanted to discuss a new term proposed by Dan Dennett - "deepity".
Dennett talks about it in his speech "The Evolution of Confusion" (available here: http://richarddawkins.net/article,4547,n,n) and describes it like this:
A deepity is a proposition that seems to be profound because it is actually logically ill-formed.
It has (at least) two readings and balances precariously between them.
On one reading it is true but trivial, and on another reading it is false but would be earth-shattering if true.
A particular example he discusses in the speech is the proposition "Love is just a word".
I was wondering what others think about this idea and what "deepities" we can find in the works of various philosophers, theologians, sociologists etc. I think it would be entertaining and enlightening to build a collection of various "deepities".
Something that immediately sprung to my mind, when listening to Denett was this quote from Paulo Coelhu:
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Some 10 years ago when I graduated form high-school, it was a very popular "wisdom" among some poetic female schoolmates of mine. It seemed like complete nonsense to me, but obviously other people managed to read that quote in a way that it made sense to them. My attempts to interpret it gave either trivial results ("If you want something, you can find people who will help you." - something you might tell a four-year-old when he attempts a Spiderman style of wall climbing in an attempt to reach a cookie-jar that someone for some reason has put on a high shelf beyond his reach), literary reading of course smells like "The Secret" and is, well... stupid, but sure does sound "earth-shattering".
I wanted to discuss a new term proposed by Dan Dennett - "deepity".
Dennett talks about it in his speech "The Evolution of Confusion" (available here: http://richarddawkins.net/article,4547,n,n) and describes it like this:
A deepity is a proposition that seems to be profound because it is actually logically ill-formed.
It has (at least) two readings and balances precariously between them.
On one reading it is true but trivial, and on another reading it is false but would be earth-shattering if true.
A particular example he discusses in the speech is the proposition "Love is just a word".
I was wondering what others think about this idea and what "deepities" we can find in the works of various philosophers, theologians, sociologists etc. I think it would be entertaining and enlightening to build a collection of various "deepities".
Something that immediately sprung to my mind, when listening to Denett was this quote from Paulo Coelhu:
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Some 10 years ago when I graduated form high-school, it was a very popular "wisdom" among some poetic female schoolmates of mine. It seemed like complete nonsense to me, but obviously other people managed to read that quote in a way that it made sense to them. My attempts to interpret it gave either trivial results ("If you want something, you can find people who will help you." - something you might tell a four-year-old when he attempts a Spiderman style of wall climbing in an attempt to reach a cookie-jar that someone for some reason has put on a high shelf beyond his reach), literary reading of course smells like "The Secret" and is, well... stupid, but sure does sound "earth-shattering".