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Wax Tablets
Been reading Epictetus lately, who is absolutely awesome and worth reading. Never heard this before, but apparently students of philosophy in Antiquity used to take notes during the day on wax tablets, which they would then melt down at night. Obviously, this is partly a practical issue if you don’t have paper. But it seems to go much deeper than that, making a statement about the nature of a student’s relationship to knowledge. That is, while you’re learning, your understanding of a subject is being developed. It is not, by any means, final or mature. The act of melting down the wax tablets containing one’s notes on philosophy trains you to detach yourself from your own interpretations and to continually seek the truth.
A very inspiring approach to philosphy!
September 20th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
From Epictetus:
September 20th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
very cool. And I think there is a modern analogy in computer technology. I went to hear this talk by a library science guru, and he was horrified at the data lost every day in the digital age, compared to in the age of physical books: Hard drives are amazing in what they can store, until you realize that the crash of an unbacked up drive can result in a data loss comparable to the burning of the great libraries of antiquity.
So in some sense, computers may be our wax tablets…
September 20th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Yeah, that is exactly the analogy I was posing in the background.
These are just the outer forms of our search. When they pass away, they pass away. We do not need them. But still they may be of some value to us yet
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007...ackup-among-shared-value-communities/
For example, my “wax tablets” allow me to live without having a conventional job!
September 20th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Recently there was a BBC documentary discussing wax and wooden boards of letters from Roman soldiers serving on “The Wall” in Britania 2000 years ago . A pile were discovered in a bog. Very delicate and easy to destroy but readable.
the alusion on melting the day’s work is very zen. My compliments
September 20th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Wow, kudos on that. I have not acheived that with my own wax tablets, I must confess.
September 20th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
My three favorite post-Socratic Greek philosophers were Epictetus, Epicurus and Diogenes the cynic. Those three dudes are giant for me…even though their philosophies differed in some ways, there was no doubt that they were each living and speaking from their authentic selves. I figured out late the reason philosophy in college were all wrong and bullshit.(And I loved every class and even minored in it; one credit shy of the major, alas). The reason was this: because it was all just an *intellectual exercise*, painting pretty word spells and trying to deconstruct and pull apart other people’s word spells, but for all of that, no one was *living* philosophy.
Academic philosophy is really just what Socrates and those old school philosophers called Sophistry. If you ain’t livin’ it, then you ain’t really doing it no matter how many degrees you get or cool articles you get published in peer reviewed journals or how well you can enchant fools during late night bullshit sessions.
Old school philosophy was a path, like Sufism or bhakti yoga or the different houses of orisha worship in yoruba religions. If you studied in a school of Stoics or Epicureans or Cynics, etc., you were committing yourself to a rigorous path of self-reflection, self-demolition and recreation, and finding out how to live your truths with integrity not just talk or write about it.
Now that’s philosophy, young’ens.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:53 am
Yes that is the great work, breaking yourself down and then rebuilding… again and again and again
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 pm
This reminds me of a particular lecture in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. Alas, I’ve misplaced my copy, so I can’t quote directly. If I recall correctly, the lecture was regarding the proper attitude to adopt toward the lectures. Very self-referential and zen-like, you see, lol. In a nutshell, Suzuki advised his students to approach each lecture with an open mind, listen, and then forget about it. In other words, don’t get hung up on the intellectual content. If the lecture happens to expand your awareness, great. If not, oh well. Either way, let it go and then do more zazen.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
In the Hagakure there is a quote about how you ought to burn books after you read them. I also like the idea of passing them onto other people though…
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007/09/22/physical-datawakes/