Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Dicta / contradicta. Doxa / paradox.
My friend Nick Piombino is an accomplished aphorist and poet. One of his series of aphorisms bears the title "contradicta." You can read some of what he has to say here. You may have to scroll down a bit to read some contradicta.
Doxa means belief or opinion. We get words like orthodox and heterodox from this greek root. A "paradox" is something that goes against conventional belief. Contradicta means more or less the same thing, but in Latin rather than Greek. "Against what is said."
Anonymous proverbs are a good source of information about doxa or folk-belief. Some do take the form of paradoxes, in that they warn that your best friend might end up being more dangerous than your worst enemy (entre dos amigos, un notario y tres testigos), that you might reach the shore and drown anyway (nadar, nadar, y en la orilla afogar), etc... In the same sense, Yogi Berra-isms are often based on paradoxes (nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded) or tautologies (it ain't over till it's over).
So Nick's contradicta might go against the "conventional wisdom" or actually echo elements of the "conventional wisdom" or oral tradition, to the extent that this tradition is already paradoxical or self-critical. This tradition is always right, except when it is wrong. All proverbs are true, says Don Q, because they are all based on experience, the mother of science (knowledge). "No hay refrán que no sea verdadero..." Yet we know that the conventional wisdom can be banal, stupid, or even dangerously misleading as well.
PS: Instructions for the paper are below; you may have to scroll down because I keep adding new posts.
My friend Nick Piombino is an accomplished aphorist and poet. One of his series of aphorisms bears the title "contradicta." You can read some of what he has to say here. You may have to scroll down a bit to read some contradicta.
Doxa means belief or opinion. We get words like orthodox and heterodox from this greek root. A "paradox" is something that goes against conventional belief. Contradicta means more or less the same thing, but in Latin rather than Greek. "Against what is said."
Anonymous proverbs are a good source of information about doxa or folk-belief. Some do take the form of paradoxes, in that they warn that your best friend might end up being more dangerous than your worst enemy (entre dos amigos, un notario y tres testigos), that you might reach the shore and drown anyway (nadar, nadar, y en la orilla afogar), etc... In the same sense, Yogi Berra-isms are often based on paradoxes (nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded) or tautologies (it ain't over till it's over).
So Nick's contradicta might go against the "conventional wisdom" or actually echo elements of the "conventional wisdom" or oral tradition, to the extent that this tradition is already paradoxical or self-critical. This tradition is always right, except when it is wrong. All proverbs are true, says Don Q, because they are all based on experience, the mother of science (knowledge). "No hay refrán que no sea verdadero..." Yet we know that the conventional wisdom can be banal, stupid, or even dangerously misleading as well.
PS: Instructions for the paper are below; you may have to scroll down because I keep adding new posts.
# posted by Jonathan @ 1:07 PM 
