Commonplace Book
This is my collection of knowledge. It's a perpetual work in progress as I continue to learn and grow. Hover over links to see my notes on them. Notes will be either important excerpts from the text or my own synthesis of the text.
This is my collection of knowledge. It's a perpetual work in progress as I continue to learn and grow. Hover over links to see my notes on them. Notes will be either important excerpts from the text or my own synthesis of the text.
Basic commands for setting sail. I am giving these with reference to John Harland's orders for an early 19th-century frigate, so have chosen to record them in groups traditionally set at the same time. I have included only one topsail plus one square course (and the mizzen course, of course).
Language as a system of signs and words only has meaning because of the contrast between these signs. "[W]ords have meaning only because of contrast-effects with other words ... no word can acquire meaning in the way in which philosophers from Aristotle to Bertrand Russell have hoped it might—by being the unmediated expression of something non-linguistic (e.g., an emotion, a sensed observation, a physical object, an idea, a Platonic Form)." As a consequence, meaning is never present, but rather is deferred to other signs. According to Derrida, a concept must be understood in the context of its opposite: for example, the word being does not have meaning without contrast with the word nothing.
"In a classical philosophical opposition we are not dealing with the peaceful coexistence of a vis-a-vis, but rather with a violent hierarchy. One of the two terms governs the other (axiologically, logically, etc.), or has the upper hand." The first task of deconstruction is, according to Derrida, to find and overturn these oppositions inside a text or texts; but the final objective of deconstruction is not to surpass all oppositions, because it is assumed they are structurally necessary to produce sense: the oppositions simply cannot be suspended once and for all, as the hierarchy of dual oppositions always reestablishes itself (because it is necessary for meaning). Deconstruction, Derrida says, only points to the necessity of an unending analysis that can make explicit the decisions and hierarchies intrinsic to all texts.
In 1816, off the coast of Africa, the French frigate La Méduse, through the gross incompetence of its captain, was wrecked and sunk. The captain deserted the ship early, rowing his family away in a precious and nearly empty lifeboat. To save themselves, the crew and passengers lashed together a raft from lumber and twine pried from the sinking ship and its rigging. One hundred forty-nine people boarded the raft. Twelve days later, only fifteen survivors were picked up by the passing vessel Argus.
An EU-funded site which gathers digital galleries from european universities, libraries, and archives into one place.
Gallica is the digital library of the BnF and its partners. It offers free and open access to several million digitized documents from all periods and all media. French language, English available but is kind of janky.