The Noumenon Mission

BLOG (n.) Short for web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author; personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page

I, Roderick Russell and creator of the space called Noumenon, have done so for one sole purpose; to create an environment wherein I can explore my creative thought and writing, humble, mundane or otherwise.

I encourage everyone who finds themselves at this particular spot in the ideosphere to join in, comment, create and let your thoughts mingle with those of others.

Keep in mind, however, that this is after all a blog, and for that reason entirely subject to my whimsy. I make no promises to any reader to update regularly, regularly meaning every day. My work takes me all over the world and though I try to write each day, writing material suitable for this webpage is not always possible, nor is reliable ‘net access, though I’ve taken every precaution to assure that lack of access is very rare.

To give those visitors who do wish to come each day and receive something new, I have written a small snippet of code to fetch and parse through one of my own favorite sources of interesting news, Arts & Letters Daily, and deliver to you the two most recent headlines. These change on a daily basis, and it is my hope that you too will come to appreciate the service that they provide.

So in sum; the mission? To provide interesting and thought-provoking reflections on topics wide-ranging, from the personal perspective of a man in the world, on a semi-regular basis. Enjoy it, despise it, but do visit and leave your comments.

Truth Behind the Name Noumenon

noumenon \Nou”me*non\, n. [NL. fr. Gr. ? the thing perceived, p. pr. pass. of ? to perceive, ? the mind.] (Metaph.) The of itself unknown and unknowable rational object, or thing in itself, which is distinguished from the phenomenon through which it is apprehended by the senses, and by which it is interpreted and understood; — so used in the philosophy of Kant and his followers.

Here I betray my history as a student and teacher of philosophy, but I undoubtedly reveal this past in my writing as well, intentional or not.

Noumenon are, as you can read in the description above, the things-in-themselves (singular: noumena) as described by Kant, in his Critiques and elsewhere. It is a recurrent theme throughout the history of philosophy, arguably beginning even with the pre-socratics but certainly present from Plato on, in various forms (ha, ha), and explicitly expressed in like terms by post-Kantian thinkers and writers all the way through the 20th century existentialists. Sartre has the pour soi/en soi distinction and bad faith , Heidegger the authentic vs. inauthentic Dasein, even Jaspers has das Umgreifende (the encompassing).

This for-itself/in-itself distinction has consumed my thought for many years, and it seems that my writing and approach to life is concerned with exploring and reflecting, however impossible it may be, this nature with which we all struggle.

I decided to name this blog after my most singular concern, and use it as a forum to explore the questions publicly.

Mind you, this blog is not a philosophy blog. It is overwhelmingly characterized by its randomness and concern with extremely varied interests. And I do not intend to keep a watchful eye upon my writing to assure that it stays within some logical boundaries and “on-topic” in any way. I write what I write, interesting or dull, of import or completely frivolous. Yet now you have an answer to the question concerning name.

Who is Roderick Russell?

By trade, Roderick is a psychological illusionist and sword swallower. What is a psychological illusionist you ask? In short, it is an entertainer that utilizes a thorough knowledge of the psychology of human behavior, suggestion, persuasion, hypnosis and good ol’ fashion mentalism to create fascinating displays of seemingly impossible, extra-sensory occurrences. I read minds. And before you accuse me of spouting new age poppycock, read the description again and realize that what I do only creates the illusion that I read minds, highly skilled though it may be.

Sword swallower? Yes, that too. And yes, they are real swords, and they go all the way to the bottom of my stomach. And yes, the xrays are on my professional website. One of my specialties is mind over body stunts, sword swallowing being only one of them.

But don’t take my word for it, there are plenty of pictures and testimonials over on my professional page: www.roderickrussell.com