Philosophy As Language

(This is a transcription of part of a 

conversation between four old men:

Arn  (A),  John Z,  (JZ)  Me, (JT)   

and Dave (D).  This occurred the last

night of my recent trip to San Francisco. 

Arn and the two John's went to

college together. Dave, Arn's housemate, 

has known Arn since grade school. This

was transcribed from a video I took.

J Z    ….important….right?

D    …that’s hard to say….I don’t 

know what they think…

A    ….that is a difficult thing to know…

D   ….what do I know about what 

somebody does? I don’t know, and

I don’t give a shit unless they have 

something to tell me….

JZ   …have you ever been to a shopping 

mall? Have you ever interacted with 

humanity?

JT   …that’s a good question….

(to Dave) have you ever interacted with 

humanity?

D  ….I try not to…

JT   ….I know….

JZ    ….you try not to, but the point is, 

you have to.

D    ….yeah…ok..we’re just playing here…

but…ok…

JZ    …yeah, we’re playing, but we’re 

playing with some very important points…

JT   ….we’re playing with some very 

important marbles here…

You know, I see you two guys here 

(JZ and A) and, Arn, you’ve been a 

wonderful guide for me on this particular 

visit..and, you know, relating to lots of 

people, all over the place,  and I’m really 

impressed…and then, we come here, and 

(Laughs…something incoherent) …and 

if people piss him off, he doesn’t hate them, 

he loves them, in a way…

D  They wouldn’t make him crazy if he 

didn’t care….he wouldn’t care if he 

wouldn’t care….

A   Absolutely….you kidding? 

Legitimately…there’s no doubt…

JT  (pointing to JZ)  Oh oh….

scientist….sorry….

D   scientist is good…

JT Scientists aren’t bad….I’m sorry, John, 

I don’t mean to be negative….

D  Condescending!   (laughter…

high fives)

JZ  …it’s…..problematic….

JT   what is?

JZ   the whole question…

JT    which one?

JZ    I don’t know…really….

D  No…no….but..I ….we  really 

digressed because John was about to 

say something, then Arn kind of asked 

him a question…and …

JT   well….I don’t know….lets see how 

far we can go and see who drops out first…

JZ    I was about to lead the conversation 

into why western philosophy or any 

philosophy has become linguistic….because 

it seems to me the question becomes what 

does  language mean? What are we talking 

about?  It seems sort of passé to talk about 

what’s real.  It’s sort of….

A    Well, that’s a very Wittgensteinian, 

Twentieth century point…and it’s a good 

point… it’s a great point….you and I have 

talked about  this…that’s why I was 

tempted by that $41 dollar  book, and 

now I’m almost talking myself into 

buying it tomorrow.

JZ   …..and Plato taught that the world of 

ideals was the “real world”….that beauty 

was outside of what was in a statue..etc…

etc…and Augustine changed Plato’s idea 

of ideals into God…and that lasted

for centuries….

JT     In the West!

JZ     …in the West…

JT      …thank you….

JZ     I don’t know much about the East….

JT    …I know.

JZ     I don’t know what happened in the 

East

JT      …well….uh….

D       ….they wandered around in the 

desert and had a lot of time to think 

about things  (laughter)

A       ….or in the mountains, or up on 

the plateaus…or,  wherever they were…

JT        ….we were talking about this a 

little earlier…uh…which is that…you 

know…. there’s, like a National Geographic 

magazine, recent one, recent issue,…..

JZ        ….National Geographic magazine?

JT         yes, with a Tibetan monk with these 

sensors all over his head, and what the 

             article is about is, that scientists 

are really taking seriously these meditation 

techniques  that these people have been 

doing for twenty five hundred years…..

and they’re studying the mind….they’re 

studying everyone’s mind, but they’re 

studying these minds too. And, one thing 

they’ve found, that these people that have 

been meditating for forty years or more,  

are like, they have this base of mental 

activity which is, like, stable….it doesn’t 

fluctuate because of emotional stimulation….

there’s a stability there……     

well….that’s…different…something…

A    No, it’s interesting research, it really is.      

I’m going to put my own personal 

punctuation on this right now,  if you’ll 

just give me a minute….. I’ll come back 

with my punctuation . 

              

(Arn leaves the room. The discussion 

continues with John, John and Dave)

JZ           …….my question…              

              

JT            ….don’t come back with your 

dick….uh?

D             …goddess’s eye….

JZ            …in spite of the advances of 

western philosophy….

JT            …yeah…

JZ            …you know, through…

JT             …sure…

JZ            ….Descartes, Kant and Hegel..

JT             …nyah….

JZ              …..Wittgenstein on up to the 

present…

JT              ….wooo….

JZ              ….where the philosophy has 

become linguistic…

D    What? Philosophy has become 

linguistic? In other words, it all has to do 

with parsing the meaning of words…

JZ …..because of these controversies….

that we’ve gone over…no body can really 

say the difference between the phenomenal

 and the noumenal…it becomes linguistic.

JT              Ok I’ve got a great example from 

our experience….

JZ               I defer to your example…

JT  …you and me….when we went up to 

Chris Gilman’s house in Libertyville,

                   Illinois….

JZ               …years ago….

JT               …and we were just peaking on 

acid when we rang the doorbell…we just 

started to peak on acid….so…He  (Chris)  

opened the door, and looked at us and said:          

 “Oh No…”

   …but, you know, it was the same thing….

he didn’t know what to do with us…well, you 

know, he took us downstairs to the rec room, 

whatever, and we played poker….

JZ                Chris’s place?

JT                 Yeah,

JZ                When I had the Firebird before we 

got busted…on the highway?

JT                 we didn’t get busted…

JZ                 …I did…I went to jail…

JT   …yeah you did…it was your father…

anyway…ah, so, all night…what was he 

going to do  with us?  He decided we could 

play poker, or something….so, we had,like, 

one or two hands, and, you know, we were 

both hallucinating like madmen……so, this 

is where the philosophy became linguistic….

we didn’t care about the cards anymore…

we started just passing the money around.  

(laughter)

                   (At this moment, Arn returns , 

his entrance causing gails of laughter…

he is wearing a mask I brought from 

Tepoztlan .  It’s a skull head with hood 

and cowl.   

A                It is time to ask the mask.

JT                 ooo, yes, sit down

JZ                (to Arn)    this is the role you’ve 

always played in my life….let me tell you 

that.

JT                can I have a mask please?

A                  I brought ‘em for everybody…

JT                 …if anyone wants to wear a 

mask…I’ll take the first one I think, I see

JZ                I refuse to wear a mask.

JT   …oh yeah?  Actually, this is 

my  own personal mask I’m giving…

A     …it is, yes it is, Tischer showed 

me that on Skype….

JT    (to JZ)   you refuse to wear a  

mask?

JZ    I so view it as a western 

rationalist position…..

JT   You’re so wearing a mask anyway 

it doesn’t matter

A   come on, John, you got two great 

masks here…

D   That looks like the right one!

JZ  do you know how contrary 

to my nature wearing this mask is?

A  yeah, my nature too, until Tischer 

brought these from Mexico…

these are Tepoztlan masks!  I mean, 

they’re not from nowhere!

JZ  These are Tepoztlan masks?

A   Yeah!  Tischer brought them with 

him! Come on, put it on!

D    Oh!  Oh! God yes, it’s so you!

A     with the tongue! 

  (convulsive laughter)

JZ   these masks don’t 

change my nature….

D     how could they not!!              

(convulsive laughter)

END