Publisher's Synopsis
THE RETURN OF THE APHORISM: Most ancient philosophers wrote little or nothing. They received and transmitted their ideas via the spoken word. Some did this of necessity because they were illiterate. But most did so, like Socrates, because they were profoundly suspicious of the written word. The spirit of philosophy was first and foremost, they thought, a function of speeches not scribbles. It couldn't be captured in chirography. But it could be conjured in conversation, and, to some extent, encapsulated in aphorisms. Roman soldiers who could barely read often managed, despite their lack of learning, to commit much of Epictetus's Enchiridion to memory. Likewise, many an Epicurean shopkeeper living in, say, 2nd-century Athens, would, though functionally illiterate, memorize most (if not all) of Epicurus's sayings and maxims. These aphorisms contained, albeit in a highly concentrated form, more than enough wisdom to last a lifetime. Our culture has for the most part forgotten what can be reasonably expected of the aphoristic genre. For instance, we all know that it would be foolish to complain that the documentary about genocide you watched in class didn't make you laugh. Likewise, we all know that it would be foolish to complain that the slapstick comedy you watched on the plane was silly. But few of us realize that faulting an aphorism for being incomplete or overly categorical is just as foolish. An aphorism is akin to a photograph of a mountain peak. Or a trail map to the top. The aphorist points you in the right direction, but you have to climb the mountain yourself. It's chilly up there. Dress warmly. In The Joyful Wisdom (1887), Nietzsche rightly observes that "the way people write letters" will always be the true "sign of the times." And how do we write letters today? Where is "the style and spirit" of them made manifest? In the aphoristic nature of the tweet, the rough and ready, martial practicality of the text, and the confessional intimacy of the Facebook status update. There is a kind of savage beauty to the literary culture of Social Media Land that charms me to no end. If this book has a goal, it's to convey something of that savage beauty. "John Faithful Hamer, in the department of aphorisms and the exposition of crisp ideas, has been my best teacher-and my best student."-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University & author of the Incerto, a 5-volume essay on uncertainty (Antifragile, The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, The Bed of Procrustes, Skin in the Game) "These well-crafted observations are not ordinary but timely and untimely. Like music, these blue notes are aphorisms bearing comparison to Nietzsche's own. Disagree with this or that if you like, such are the riches of Hamer's style that the reader cannot but be drawn into the heart of philosophy."-Babette Babich, Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University in New York City, and author of The Hallelujah Effect (2013) & Words in Blood, Like Flowers: Philosophy and Poetry, Music and Eros in Holderlin, Nietzsche, and Heidegger (2007).