What Exists and How Do You Know?

From what I understand of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, this book about his work, The Clamor of Being, is not helpful. It seems to deliberately obfuscate rather than clarify Deleuze’s thinking, though that could just be the au courant style … Continue reading

Solves a Problem I Didn’t Have

whirlpool-gold-gi6farxxf-refrigeratorI bought a new refrigerator. It’s lovely, stainless steel, lots of space, plenty of features. One feature is a carbon-matrix air filter to take out smells, supposedly replaces the box of baking soda. Was that a problem? It could be so construed.

But the feature that perplexes me now is the refrigerator light. Those have always posed a difficult epistemological question anyway: How do you know the light goes out when you close the door? And if you don’t know that, what else happens, or doesn’t happen when you’re not looking?  It’s a deep philosophical problem.

But my new refrigerator solves a problem I didn’t even know I had. When you open the door, the light does not come on instantly.  For a moment it’s dark inside. Then, over the course of about 1.5 seconds, the light comes on, dimly at first, then surging to its’ full 40W strength.  Every time I open the door, my reaction is “Damn light’s broke.” Then it gradually comes on and I think there is something wrong with my vision.  Did I just experience a blackout?

I’m sure I’ll get use to it, but I’m wondering, what problem does this technology solve? I never had any issues with the refrigerator light coming on when I opened the door.  Maybe if it were the middle of the night and I were grazing for a sandwich, I would be dazzled by a bright light. “Omigod!” I would shout, “What blazes creep hither?”  I don’t know. Has that ever been a problem for anyone? Sleepwalkers?

 

What Does It All Mean?

What Does It All Mean? A Humanistic Account of Human Experience. Exeter, U.K.: Imprint Academic. This is an analysis of psychological experience, based on what we can know, not what we wish we knew, about the meaning of life, mind, … Continue reading