Friday, October 11, 2013

Don't Let a Philosopher Be Your Marketer

Ludwig Wittgenstein, when writing the predecessor to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, spent two years in isolated in a Norwegian town of Skjolden. In fact, he really lived outside the town in a small cabin. Obviously, that time plus his time spent on the front lines in WWI created one of the greatest works in philosophy of the 20th century.

However, if you need Ludwig to write your company's slogan - I think I would hire a summer intern to help. Ok, take a good look at this company's home page and tell me what you think:


"Engineering is Man's Mind Reflected in His Civilization. MiTi's Standard is its Reflection in That Mirror".  I have to admit I've spent too much time reading that slogan over and over with no enlightenment. I keep wondering if the deep philosophical think tanks at Princeton or the University of Chicago had sabbaticals to work on this. Their other discussions during that time on the meaning of advanced foil bearings in relationship to the progression of a priori truths took most of the semester I'm sure. (Can you measure that with a tribometer?)

Heuristic: Natural (Language as Therapy)