Composition of Philosophy. August 19.

I’ve fallen behind on this feature in recent days, but for a good reason.

As I was about to start Chapter 7, something just didn’t feel right. That’s why I dropped it and spent two days preparing my lecture instead. Keep yourself occupied, and see if your unconscious does some work (as it did in Fermi’s case with the paraffin) or maybe just see if a refreshing rest will allow you to view the problem differently.

It paid off in my case, since yesterday and today, one key problem per day was solved. I won’t go into the details yet, but a general indication of the problems in the two cases might be helpful.

1. Yesterday’s solution involved simply rearranging some groups into which I had packed similar problems. I had two of the three groups wrong. Since about the 3rd of August it was obvious that one member of each of those two groups was behaving as though it didn’t belong there, and in a purely ad hoc way I assumed there must be some unknown reason for that. In fact, I simply had the groups arranged according to the wrong principle, and once I redid that, the ad hoc part disappeared. In fact, now I’m not even sure how I ever missed the ultimate solution, which looks obvious now that it’s right in front of me.

2. Today’s solution involved the realization of a false symmetry in my prior method of tackling two problems. An asymmetry was needed, because the two problems are actually the flip sides of one another.

This is interesting because yesterday’s insight involved the correction of a false asymmetry, and today’s the correction of a false symmetry. Both such cases probably rank high on the list of puzzling obstacles that emerge while doing intellectual work.

Tomorrow’s intellectual work belongs entirely to the unconscious, though, since I’ll be a daylong Alexandria guide, and it’s rude to space out and stare into the abyss and “contemplate” while with people.