Thank you Phil and Charles for your quick replies,
I agree with everything you both said. L'Abecedaire took place in 1988, the
same year that Hawking's _Brief History..._ was published so yes, that was
very likely the book on the Big Bang that he was reading. But the concept
of the "dark precursor" dates from at least 1968 when it appears in
_Difference and Repetition_, in connection with books by Leon Selme and
Gilbert Simondon. (I have yet to locate it in _The Logic of Sense_)
Phil, you're right about it being a scientifically based theory, what we
see as lightning is actually the luminous return stroke after an invisible
upward charge so lightning travels in both directions, sometimes several
dozen times for each bolt. (see Earle Williams,"The Electrification of
Thunderstorms", _Scientific American_,Nov.1988, p.63).
But I should have remembered the dark precursor from your paper
"Philosophical Intoxication" (at the Deleuze Symposium in Perth last
December) when you described the question of philosophy as that which
cracks open the thinking subject, then a dark precursor like that
preceeding a thunder bolt which is unthinkable in itself, determines the
path of thought by relating different thoughts to each other.
I find nothing in Hawking that really fits this so I'm now looking to
Simondon. Also, I recently met Bernard Cashe (readers of _The Fold_ will
know who he is) who suggested I read Simondon so does anyone know anything
translated into English on or by (preferably by) this interesting writer?
So far I've only found these two...
Dumouchel, Pual, ÒGilbert SimondonÕs Plea for a Philosophy of TechnologyÓ,
Inquiry(Oslo): 35, No.3/4, (1992), pp.407-421
Dufrenne, Mikel, ÒThe Aesthetic and Technical ObjectÓ, The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism: 23, No. 1, (Fall, 1964), pp.113- 121.
Best wishes,
Tim
I agree with everything you both said. L'Abecedaire took place in 1988, the
same year that Hawking's _Brief History..._ was published so yes, that was
very likely the book on the Big Bang that he was reading. But the concept
of the "dark precursor" dates from at least 1968 when it appears in
_Difference and Repetition_, in connection with books by Leon Selme and
Gilbert Simondon. (I have yet to locate it in _The Logic of Sense_)
Phil, you're right about it being a scientifically based theory, what we
see as lightning is actually the luminous return stroke after an invisible
upward charge so lightning travels in both directions, sometimes several
dozen times for each bolt. (see Earle Williams,"The Electrification of
Thunderstorms", _Scientific American_,Nov.1988, p.63).
But I should have remembered the dark precursor from your paper
"Philosophical Intoxication" (at the Deleuze Symposium in Perth last
December) when you described the question of philosophy as that which
cracks open the thinking subject, then a dark precursor like that
preceeding a thunder bolt which is unthinkable in itself, determines the
path of thought by relating different thoughts to each other.
I find nothing in Hawking that really fits this so I'm now looking to
Simondon. Also, I recently met Bernard Cashe (readers of _The Fold_ will
know who he is) who suggested I read Simondon so does anyone know anything
translated into English on or by (preferably by) this interesting writer?
So far I've only found these two...
Dumouchel, Pual, ÒGilbert SimondonÕs Plea for a Philosophy of TechnologyÓ,
Inquiry(Oslo): 35, No.3/4, (1992), pp.407-421
Dufrenne, Mikel, ÒThe Aesthetic and Technical ObjectÓ, The Journal of
Aesthetics and Art Criticism: 23, No. 1, (Fall, 1964), pp.113- 121.
Best wishes,
Tim