Sequent Introduction

Sequent Introduction is a rejection of Richard Rorty's assertion that traditional philosophical problems are no longer of use. This text is strong poetry, introducing new vocabularies and metaphors to redescribe traditional philosophical problems and renew their usefulness for contemporary pragmatists. Relying heavily on both form as well as content, to invoke formal rhetorical and analytical traditions, this thesis will borrow its form from formal symbolic logic. The arc of the work will imitate a symbolic logic problem by using the theme of sequent introduction: if one has a given problem or sequent that has already been proven, one can introduce that sequent into the problem provided there is an equal substitution of variables. That sequent then becomes a unique but applicable rule to "shortcut" an excessively long proof. The work is divided into five sections that re-interrogate traditional philosophical problems: eudaimonia, or happiness; aletheia, or truth; flesh; It, or the Other; and finally Logos, or rationality. As the individual poems within each section test, play with, and offer potential solutions to that section's primary concern, the sections themselves offer a serious consideration of the value of the traditional philosophical question at hand. As a result, each short section functions on its own as a short completed logic problem. Though the sections are substantially different in both form as well as content, each section is then a proven sequent, which, when used in context with the other sections, constructs a positive answer to the problem of whether traditional philosophical problems can be remade useful.