Scatterbrainy

For most of the day I have been struggling with Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks, and although at times it is painfully philosophical and extremely far to the left, it is sometimes even enjoyable. If nothing else, than for the mere joy of reading the written language of a man who calls his writing things like "A collective intellectual", "the Theorem of the decisive proportions", and "Investigation of the concept of Human Nature".

Freely translated, Gramsci says that philosophy is the critique of- and the victory over- common sense. Because common sense is nothing more than a collective ideology that we have inherited and been fed since we were born and in fact, common sense stands in complete opposite to good judgement.
He also discusses what being human means and focuses upon the organic feature of humanity, by defining each human being as a process or her actions. This means that individuality is derived not only from the individual, but also from other human beings and from nature itself. These human relationships are also organic, in the way that each person changes and modifies himself through the changing and modification of the complexity of his relationships with others and his surroundings. Finally, we truly become ourselves when we become fully aware of the nature of these relationships.



Good, old, red Gramsci also generously reunited me with one of my favourite -isms that I had completely forgotten about.
Sophism: a) A plausible but fallacious argument
                b)  Deceptive or fallacious argumentation