Topical Guide 346
Mark Dorset
Mental and Emotional States: Discombobulation
Ella darted back into the kitchen and collided with Lorna. She was beaming. She threw her arms around her mother. “Do you like them?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Lorna. “They’re very handsome. I — I got all — discombobulated.” It was a confession, and she wondered if Ella would understand that it was. Ella winked at her, and she and Ella burst into giggles.Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 14
dis·com·bob·u·late | ˌdiskəmˈbäbyəˌlāt | verb [with object] disconcert or confuse (someone): This attitude totally discombobulated Bruce.
DERIVATIVES discombobulation noun
ORIGIN early 19th century (originally US): probably based on discompose or discomfit.
Caution: The following performance of “Discombobulate” begins softly but suddenly BECOMES VERY LOUD, which you may find disconcerting or discomfiting.
Twins (and Non-Twins)
Epicureanism: Phantasiai and Doxa
At one point Herb asked, “You boys aren’t twins, are you?”
“Uh, no, sir,” said Bert.
“Which of you is older?” asked Herb.
“I’m a year younger than Bert,” said Buster.
“Yeah,” said Bert.
“But I’m about two years smarter,” Buster said.Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 14
Is it significant that two pairs of apparent twins in Peter’s personal history are “actually” not twins? Margot and Martha Glynn, “the Glynn twins,” are not twins. Burt and Buster Leroy seem as if they could be twins, but Herb seems to realize that they are not. Significant? Or deliberately insignificant? An example of misdirection? Or of direction? Certainly an example of unreliable appearances, of appearances that may be deceiving, an instance of the Personal History’s theme that things are often not what they seem to be, and a caution to avoid basing an opinion or belief on appearance alone.
In Hellenistic philosophy the term phantasiai (φαντασίαι) is information based on sense experience.
Plato described phantasiai as a blend of perception and doxa (judgement/opinion).
Aristotle placed phantasiai between perception and thought. For Aristotle phantasiai is based on sense perception and includes mental images, dreams, and hallucinations.
The Pyrrhonists, Epicureans, and the Stoics use the term to refer to information received through the senses and arising in thoughts. In translations of Pyrrhonist texts the term is usually rendered as “appearances” but in translations of Stoic texts there is no consensus how to translate the term, with “appearance,” “impression,” “presentation,” and “representation” all in use.
In Epicureanism phantasiai are all true, but opinions (doxa) are not all true. [That would, I think, be better stated as “but not all opinions (doxa) are true.” —MD] Of opinions, then, according to Epicurus, some are true and some are false. The true are those that testify for, and not against, the evidence of sense—and the false those that testify against, and not for, that evidence.
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