The Philosophy of Study: For the Future Idiot (Expanded Edition) (by Masaya Chiba)
I feel like I've read another addictive, dangerous book...
This book discusses "study," but it is not talking about the kind of "study" where you memorize things for school exams.
It is a common trope to say that rote memorization is not study, but if asked what it actually is or why we must study, it is quite difficult to give a clear answer.
I believe that is the category this book falls into.
However, the book has a rather tricky style of writing and impression.
The book has a section at the end that summarizes the whole thing in the form of a "conclusion," which is very kind.
However, the unique phrasing and development consume more of the reader's brain calories than necessary (lol).
This is probably what the book is about.
I think this book views study as self-destruction and moving toward new possibilities, away from the conservative state that is taken for granted in our current environment.
The author calls this "becoming free from the vibe of the environment".
One way to break out of a conservative state is to doubt the basis of your current perspective, and another is to adopt a different perspective, but to those around you, this looks like you are not reading the room.
I think study is about becoming free from such things.
First, doubting the very basis and pursuing the true basis can be said to be deepening understanding through skepticism. However, it is not all good.
This is because reaching an absolute, ultimate truth is in a sense impossible, and to reach the ultimate basis, one must repeat the act of skepticism.
If you pursue this endlessly, the author says it will eventually lead to not being able to explain things in language, and even to abandoning language itself.
Another way, instead of doubting the basis, is to try a different perspective, which allows you to gain insights from a different viewpoint and deepen your understanding.
However, if you try to endlessly incorporate diverse perspectives, the number of diverse perspectives will increase infinitely.
Then, the author says, ultimately everything can be explained by diverse perspectives, so the meaning of language could end up being lost.
Admittedly, in reality, it does not spread that diversely; the author says that each of our perspectives is fixed to a certain viewpoint.
This might be rephrased as that person's individuality, uniqueness, and obsessions.
As described above, study can break down existing ideas by pursuing grounds or incorporating diverse perspectives, but there is a limit to how far you can go.
The former, the pursuit of grounds, risks falling into a decisionism that ultimately believes in something absolutely if taken to the extreme. This is dangerous in a sense and should be avoided, so the pursuit of ultimate grounds should be done in moderation.
On the other hand, the latter, the pursuit of diverse perspectives, involves continuous relative comparison, but this also does not continue forever, so the comparison is interrupted at some point.
It can be said that this is interrupted by the aforementioned individuality, uniqueness, and obsessions. This obsession should lead to that person's way of life, but the author also says that by studying and reflecting on the background of one's interests and re-grasping their meaning, it changes to some extent.
When this comparison is interrupted, we can reach deep into the "things we are obsessed with for no reason" at the root of our "own way".
In other words, it can be said that by relativizing and comparing through study, by interrupting the comparison at a certain point, you can notice the root of your interests.
At this time, you reach your own obsessions, which have gone beyond the absolute pursuit and relative comparison.
This obsession might be called an obsession that you can enjoy unconsciously even after studying.
An obsession that you can enjoy unconsciously leads to actions that only that person can perform (the action happens on its own).
To summarize the above.
Thinking about other possibilities through study leads to becoming "smart."
At this time, you get a chance to break out of a conservative state, but there is a risk that you will be seen by those around you as having a "bad vibe in your speech."
The author says that it is unavoidable that study has such an aspect.
Furthermore, the author says that there is something beyond that.
That is, if you seek "smartness" and interrupt the comparison at a certain stage, you can reach actions based on your own life concept with your changed obsessions (you end up performing actions without being conscious of them).
The author defines this as a 'coming fool' who has moved beyond the initial 'fool' to surpass the 'wise' stage, and I believe the main content of this book can be summarized as concluding that this is what makes studying enjoyable.
The mechanism (?) of the book itself
While there is no doubt that what is written in this book goes beyond the idea that studying is simply about rote memorization and hard work, even so, difficult and unfamiliar terms (code, irony, humor, non-meaningful disconnection, language itself, language without organs, etc.) appear frequently.
The sentences themselves are not that difficult to read, but at first, I felt a sense of discomfort that I wasn't used to when trying to grasp the meaning on a first read.
This aspect is introduced in a way that reveals the trick in the appendix at the end.
In other words, the book is structurally depicted with the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari and Lacanian psychoanalysis as its background, while also referencing the linguistic theories of later Wittgenstein and Donald Davidson (it seems there are various other academic backgrounds as well).
Honestly, I have no idea what that is about (due to my lack of study), but I suspect that this is where the mechanism aimed at studying linked to jouissance-based obsession lies.
The author states the following regarding the opacity of language.
In the midst of studying, a sense of discomfort with words opens up the virtual reality of language as a space of possibility.
Observe the linguistic discomfort in the gap between moving from one familiar 'this is how it's done' to another 'this is how it's done.' And it is necessary to develop that discomfort into a 'consciousness of manipulating language as such'. (omitted)
Blocks of scattered words are freely rearranged to form diverse sentences, but they never become a definitive finished product; the play of rearrangement continues... it becomes a state of play like that.
You yourself become the very situation of that wordplay. Take yourself apart linguistically. Then, enter a process where diverse possibilities are constructed one after another, only to be taken apart and constructed again. That is
self-destruction in study.
The book itself serves as a foothold for studying what Deleuze, psychoanalysis, and analytic philosophy are.
Perhaps the mechanism of this book is that by practicing study—which leads to the definition of study itself—within the book, the reader is invited into an obsession with jouissance.
The feeling that there is some meaning in this structure itself is like a swamp you might get stuck in.
It is a book with an addictive quality that makes you want to read it again and delve deeper.
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