The Negative Teleology of Hans Jonas
Today, I received the PhD thesis De negatieve teleologie
van Hans Jonas (The Negative Teleology of Hans
Jonas) of Ton van der Valk (in the form of a PDF). He will defend his thesis on December 18. I was happily surprised when
I discovered that he mentions me in the word of thanks, although
at first I did not exactly understand why I deserved that honour.
Now I understand that it is related to mutual support that we
experienced through playing Go and
sharing our lives with each other. I am considering
to read and grok this thesis in the
coming weeks.
Playing Go
I went to the university to play Go and
I was the first to arrived. I read a little in the PhD thesis of Ton of which I have received a paper copy
until Rudi arrived. I showed him the thesis. Likewise I did
to Taco when he arrived. Rudi suggested that he would play
simultaneously against us, just like the last time I played. Again, we decided on an eight
stone handicap. I did not make any big mistakes, the biggest
being giving away three stones, and it was not very surprising,
at least to me, that I won with 41 against 28 points.
Snow
In the afternoon, it started to snow
a little. The snow was much like tiny hail stones. In the
evening there was a thin layer of snow.
More snow
We had some more snow during the
night and during the day, but still not more than a centimeter
of snow. Other parts of the county got far more snow, and the
snow caused some serious traffic problems both on the road as
on the rails.
The Negative Teleology of Hans Jonas
While traveling to the Ph.D. defence of Ton van de Valk, I finished
reading his thesis, with the
title De Negatieve Teleology van Hans Jonas (The Negative
Teleology of Hans Jonas). I started reading this on
December 1. I did not read the English summary and
I also did not 'read' the tables of contents of the works of
Hans Jonas. I arrived just in time, because I had to take a
detour as result of some train not going as a result of the
large amounts of snow in the past
days. After some questioning, that was able to follow a little,
he was awarded a Ph.D. title. Following the reception we took
tram ("line 5") to the Cobra Museum. I looked at the work of Piet Ouborg and the
"Paris Central / Free City, Free Art / in the Fifties" exhibition.
The paintings I liked are:
- Piet Ouborg: Without title, 1933-38.
- Piet Ouborg: "Vader van vader en zoon", 1949
- Piet Ouborg: Without title, self portret, fifties.
- Jean-Paul Riopelle: "Composition", 1955.
- Jean-Paul Riopelle: "Ariane", 1949.
- Henri Michaux (1899-1984): Without title, 1970.
- Nicolas De Staël: "Fleurs grises", 1953.
- Anton Tàpies: Marró negrós 1958.
- Pierre Soulages "Blanc d'Octobre", 1956.
- Alfred Manessier: "Le Port Bleu", 1948.
Afterwards we had dinner in Restaurant Harkema and to the
drama perfomance "Hannah & Martin" in Frascati theater. This drama performance deals with
the secret relationship between Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger.
Bibliotheca Didina et Pinguina
Shortly after eleven, I left from the place of Meindert, where I had stayed during the night, and took tram "lijn 10"
to the Leidseplein. From there I walked to the Central Station.
I brought a short visit to the New English Bookstore and
next visited Selexyz scheltema,
where I did not buy anything.
I made some small detour before I arrived at the antiquarian
bookshop called Straat. I only
stayed there very short because the 'owner' of the shop was
smoking. Next I went to De Slegte.
There I bought German version of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
for 4 euro.
When I arrived at home, I opened the package containing the
tree volumes of the auction catalogue of the Bibliotheca
Didina et Pinguina, the private book collection
of Boudewijn Büch.
Blizzard
This morning there was powder snow
and wind, resulting in a small blizzard. In some parts of
the country it was worse than in our part.
Snow and sun
This morning, the sky was clear and the low sun was
putting the roofs in a yellow colour. But it was
clear that more snow had fallen
from the sky during the night.
More snow
Last night we had some more snow,
but now the temperature is getting above zero and it
looks like the snow is melting. I also felt some drizzle
when I went outside this morning. At the end of the day,
the snow on the sun facing roofs had completely disappeared.
A white Christmas
This morning, it was snowing a
little, yet we do not really have a white Christmas,
because it is to warm for the snow to stay and the snow
that fell in the past week has melted away almost completely.
Update: At my mothers place there was still a lot
of snow, and later the KNMI would declare it as an official White Christmas,
with 8 and 4 cm of snow on the two days of Christmas in
De Bilt.
Going into the city
At the end of the afternoon, Li-Xia
and I went into the city biking against the cold wind.
We first went to a Chinese shop where we bought some
krupuk and "Light Superior Soy Sauce". Next we went to
De Slegte where,
at 17:37:29, I bought the following two books:
- Dylan on Dylan by Bob Dylan and Jonathan Cott for € 2.50.
- Schetsen | Roughs: Noordknoop Céramique, Maastricht by Jo Coenen for € 2.75.
We had some döner kebab and falafel at Laila.
Afterwards we went to Media Markt where I looked
at some fantasy miniseries, such as the Earthsea,
which had the name of Urula Le Guin attached to it.
When I read her comments, I was happy I did not buy it.
LED light
We bought a 1 Watt LED light for the bath room upstairs
for € 8.99, which is a good price if you realize
that it is expected to last 50,000 hours. Maybe the last
light we will buy. Li-Xia noted that the light was still
glowing when switched off. I went upstairs and discovered
that it indeed does glow. The glowing stops when I take
the bulb out and starts immediately when I put it in again.
Either some current is leaking or there is some induction
current running. But anyway, I do find it strange.
Snow
It snowed from the start of the day.
At first the snow is not staying everywhere on the ground,
probably because the temperature is only just below zero,
but by the end of the afternoon it did. The snow is sticking
onto the trees and plants, which is a very nice view.
This months interesting links
Movements
KMZ file of movements.
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009