Dream 12/12/13

Last night, I was dreaming about what I wanted to write about for my final paper for T-440, Teaching and Learning: The Having of Wonderful Ideas.  The first idea I had was about the alterations of a person's reality or epistemology if they (it was a young lady, not sure who she was/was meant to be), if they lived with a homeless man for about a week.  What is food, shelter, health, rest, anger, happiness, a shoe, cleanliness, sunshine, etc...?

The second was, sadly, rooted in truth.  My grandfather, Pappy, has been having trouble with his eyesight over the last few years.  It is very frustrating for Pappy, who is still the toughest sum'bitch that you'd ever wanna meet.  Autonomy's a helluva thing.  Anyway, I was thinking about writing about the change in a person's reality or epistemology as they begin to lose their sight.  What is bright, hot, tall, checking, feeling, running, etc...?

Of course, a portion of the issue is that we're flies stuck in the jar, which is language (Wittgenstein, 1958).  What is the concept or the object that we attempt to name when we say "food," "tall," "happiness," or "shoe"?

Quite obviously, this is the biggest fucking problem I've thought about in a long time, especially because I can ONLY think about it in my language and filtered through my epistemology.  FUCK!

References

Wittgenstein, L. (1958). Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.