This chapter proposes the first of the volume’s three hypotheses. I constitute it the “Film-title=Documentary-definiens (F-t=D-d)” hypothesis, endorsing the perspective that under certain terms a film’s title can function, and thus be regarded from a philosophical and semiotic standpoint, as an adequate definiens of Documentary. Throughout the chapter I question whether we can at all provide evidence to support the fact that the 1968 film-title (F-t) Symbiopsychotaxiplasm by William Greaves owns, or stands for, a liable logic that would meet a minimum threshold above which it would constitute a definition of Documentary that can be regarded as intelligible. Breaking down this nonsensical sequence of meaningless morphemes into its fundamental minimal units, one discovers a treasure trove of philosophical wisdom inspired by the American philosopher Arthur F. Bentley’s “Inquiry into Inquiries: Essays in Social Theory” —planting seeds in Greaves’s mind that, in time, matured into ideas about the nature of knowledge, the function of society, the meaning of creativity and communication. Ultimately, and after careful reasoning, the gibberish title “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm” is argued to confirm, by every measure, the fecundity of the F-t=D-d hypothesis.

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1968 [1971] William Greaves

  • Dan Geva

摘要

This chapter proposes the first of the volume’s three hypotheses. I constitute it the “Film-title=Documentary-definiens (F-t=D-d)” hypothesis, endorsing the perspective that under certain terms a film’s title can function, and thus be regarded from a philosophical and semiotic standpoint, as an adequate definiens of Documentary. Throughout the chapter I question whether we can at all provide evidence to support the fact that the 1968 film-title (F-t) Symbiopsychotaxiplasm by William Greaves owns, or stands for, a liable logic that would meet a minimum threshold above which it would constitute a definition of Documentary that can be regarded as intelligible. Breaking down this nonsensical sequence of meaningless morphemes into its fundamental minimal units, one discovers a treasure trove of philosophical wisdom inspired by the American philosopher Arthur F. Bentley’s “Inquiry into Inquiries: Essays in Social Theory” —planting seeds in Greaves’s mind that, in time, matured into ideas about the nature of knowledge, the function of society, the meaning of creativity and communication. Ultimately, and after careful reasoning, the gibberish title “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm” is argued to confirm, by every measure, the fecundity of the F-t=D-d hypothesis.