{"id":1732,"date":"2024-06-27T21:28:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T21:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/?p=1732"},"modified":"2024-12-11T18:11:50","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T18:11:50","slug":"raoul-the-philosopher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/?p=1732","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy: Raoul, the Philosopher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Xavier Zanzibar\u2014XZ for short\u2014went walking through the wilderness.  As he pushed his way through the brambles and thickets, he could hear ignorant armies clashing in the thickets all around him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

XZ came to a meadow, in the middle of which he saw a stone. Upon the stone sat a philosopher. The philosopher was a cat, This cat was named Raoul.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XZ did what you do when you happen upon a philosopher in the woods. He posed a profound question. The only question, really: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the hell is going on around here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The philosopher said: \u201cThe answer lies in the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe narrative?” said XZ. “What narrative?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe one you\u2019re in,\u201d said Raoul. \u201cPicture a cup containing tea to the halfway mark. You\u2019ve probably  heard the familiar truism:  an optimist would say the cup is half full. A pessimist would say it\u2019s half empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cActually,\u201d Raoul continued, \u201cthe key factor here isn\u2019t whether the speaker is an optimist or a pessimist. The key question is whether the speaker is drinking tea or pouring tea. The key question has to do with time.  Drinking tea and pouring tea are events that happen in time.   If drinking tea is what\u2019s happening, then the cup is half empty. If pouring tea is what\u2019s happening, then the cup is half full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe level of tea in the cup is a feature of the present moment,\u201d Raoul pontificated. \u201cBut the present is inevitably a moment in a story that began in the past and will unfold into the future.  There is no present moment of which this is not true.  Because you\u2019re human, you live in a narrative.  Correction: you live, like all humans, in a multitude of narratives. You cannot exist apart from the narratives you\u2019re in.  These narratives are stories you\u2019re making up ongoingly with a bunch of other people. If you were not part of some narrative, your animal self would still be here; but the person you are would not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never knew cats could be so pedantic,\u201d said XZ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not just a cat,\u201d said Raoul. \u201cI am also a philosopher. Not an academic philosopher, granted; but a philosopher all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the philosopher tucked his paws under his chin and went to sleep on the sun-splashed stone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Xavier Zanzibar\u2014XZ for short\u2014went walking through the wilderness.  As he pushed his way through the brambles and thickets, he could hear ignorant armies clashing in the thickets all around him.  XZ came to a meadow, in the middle of which he saw a stone. Upon the stone sat a philosopher. The philosopher was a cat, … Continue reading “Philosophy: Raoul, the Philosopher”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1852,"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions\/1852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kajakipress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}