Sometimes it’s important to indicate that you really do only mean “some of the time”. The complexity of the issue is what that high school history teacher always called it – nothing is as simple as an aphorism or definitive. Maybe the word “but” is an overly aggressive pinball bouncer, sending the message skittering across the big game board and lighting up all manner of sounds. But (!), that’s what we’re here to talk about. Well, I’m talking about it. You can make it we by phone, email, or postcard. Anyway, that’s what I mean by the complexity of the issues. The language is full of certainty traps that lead one to express things one couldn’t possibly support under duress. That’s the value of the but. It’s the humility, but without the self-denigration. The ego, but without the totality of vision. It’s the acknowledgement that even 20/20 can’t look back on 2020 and understand it completely. But I know my own story, you might claim. Do you really know the whole story? Do you know all the working drafts (thanks for that one Mr. (Dr.?) Dennett) that didn’t quite make it into a full thought or speech act? But of course not.
It would be a mistake to “but” oneself into inaction or torporous uncertainty; but must be used judiciously and mostly to accelerate understanding. But not always. Sometimes you have to but out of something. But this isn’t what I want to be doing, even though it is useful/enjoyable/remunerative. Maybe you keep going anyway, but keep in mind the real reason. Maybe you don’t. Complexity’s acknowledgement doesn’t unravel it, unfortunately. But it does lead to wisdom (depending on your definition). Perhaps my high school history teacher created a noncommittal monster. But I don’t think so.
So what does it mean, the but-able nature of everything? Perhaps that holding onto things too tightly would be tautologically mistaken. Maybe that we need to remake the way we make language totally. Or maybe that everything’s fine and one shouldn’t take all the conviction too seriously. Who could say for sure. But that’s why it could be useful for us to have a personal wikipedia, where everyone’s language is defined in the terms each person understands it. This might be my entry for “but”. But maybe I would edit it before publishing it and on a weekly basis afterward.
Roman Ryan 