“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris
1 comment:
The most fascinating thing in that clip is the use of language. In the context of scientific experiment, people search for the words to describe their experience and come up short. It's as though the historical usage of words loses purchase, and every utterance is a brand new speaking of experience without precedent. That's why you get so much via negativa. They want to say, "this experience *is like* some other experience." But it's not like any other everyday experience. I wonder if the scientists ever came up with language beyond describing the somatic conditions of the subjects.
Post a Comment