From: Erin (macavity11@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Jul 27 2005 - 23:06:09 BST
Matt Kundert <pirsigaffliction@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hey Erin,
Erin said:
See in the Rorty quote I thought the reweaving and encapsulating made sense
but the erasing/dropping a belief didn't. The problem I have with your
examples like above because never knowing about a belief wouldn't be an
example of erasing a belief. Like I said before the only way erasing a
belief makes sense if you could erase it from memory. In your example it
was never in memory in the first place so there is nothing to erase.
Matt:
The idea that we "erase it from memory" is exactly what Rorty's going for,
like when I said "use it or lose it." We can't usually actively "erase" a
belief, as if you could actively forget how to ride a bicycle. But there is
a sense in which we can, which is in tune with Nietzsche's idea of active
forgetting. For instance, say you are in the midst of an unrequited love.
You decide that this is no good, so you enter a process of forgetting. You
distract yourself from thinking about the person. You do other things, fill
that void. At some point, all you remember is _having been_ in love with
the person. And then further, you can't even remember what it was like.
(If you've seen Swingers with Jan Favreau and Vince Vaughn, there are some
great lines about this in the movie.)
This is also why "rebounds" can be so disasterous.
Matt,
I never saw that movie. The "use it or lose it' idea and distracting yourself make sense but I am not sure if it is really erased still, can see a fading process being erasing process I guess. Fading seems more passive though then what i got the impression of Rorty talking about---which then gets us to the active forgetting idea. Maybe the reason "rebounds" are so disastrous is because that the "erased" memory is still there causing trouble :-P
Erin
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