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What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 3:46:59 PM   
LondonArt


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Joined: 4/14/2008
Status: offline 		As the thread topic says, how do you define what makes a thing interesting?

In Insurmountable Simplicities Casati and Varzi initially offer the view that a thing is interesting if it has some unique attribute to set it aside from other things. However this theory of interest encounters two problems, which are then illustrated. Firstly, consider a list of all boring books ever published, arranged in chronological order. One of those books will be the first item on the list, the earliest known boring book. No other book has the quality of being the first on the list, so this unique feature makes the book interesting, and therefore we can remove it from the list as it is no longer a boring book. Another book is now first on the list, and we can continue thusly until we have removed every book (there is of course one obvious problem here, which Casati and Varzi do not address). Following this logic we soon find that everything ever is interesting, which renders the concept of interest somewhat meaningless.

The second issue is that this gives us only a technical sort of interest. To continue with the example of the books, whilst the book may hold the quality of being the first boring book, and therefore be interesting, that does not render its contents interesting. If we were searching for an interesting book to read, we could not use this criteria to select our reading material.

So, having established that merely being unique is not enough to make something interesting I put the question to everyone else: how do you define the quality of "being interesting"?
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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 3:54:19 PM   
faerytattoodgirl


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quote:

being unique is not enough to make something interesting


your wrong...i am unique because i am born intersexed (a human rarity).  not to mention at the time the rarity of my particular heart condition (not known in the early 70s).  therefore this makes me a freak of nature, which also makes me interesting.

< Message edited by faerytattoodgirl -- 4/29/2008 3:55:29 PM >

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:15:01 PM   
Zensee


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Status: offline 		"May you live in interesting times." - A Chinese curse.

"Their work is interesting." - Being panned by a Canadian critic.

What an interesting topic...


Z.



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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:21:51 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: faerytattoodgirl

quote:

being unique is not enough to make something interesting


your wrong...i am unique because i am born intersexed (a human rarity).  not to mention at the time the rarity of my particular heart condition (not known in the early 70s).  therefore this makes me a freak of nature, which also makes me interesting.


That makes you technically interesting. As a medical specimen it makes you interesting, as a study in human biology it makes you interesting. But not having spoken to you, you could be the dullest person alive for all I know, and no amount of genetic wackiness would change that. In the same way that a book with a cover made from rare materials, hand written by a blind monk halfway up a mountain using his own blood is technically interesting for its unusualnes, but might actually have quite dull words written in it.

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:25:49 PM   
christine1


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Status: offline 		OP, you don't know faery vewy well do you?

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< Message edited by christine1 -- 4/29/2008 4:29:12 PM >

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:29:10 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: christine1

OP, you don't know faery vewy well do you?


Not even slightly. I wasn't implying that they were boring, because I don't know, just that being a relatively unique medical case is not sufficient to make a person interesting. Also the original question was as to what defines the notion of interestingness as a whole, whether any given individual actually is interesting or not is besides the point.

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:29:29 PM   
faerytattoodgirl


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ORIGINAL: christine1

OP, you don't know faery vewy well do you?


yes and he doesnt realize how interesting those factors have made my actual life.  with all the issues at hand how hard its been to do things and go through.  nor does he realize how strong a person it makes you with issues like that involved. 


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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:31:52 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: faerytattoodgirl

quote:

ORIGINAL: christine1

OP, you don't know faery vewy well do you?


yes and he doesnt realize how interesting those factors have made my actual life.  with all the issues at hand how hard its been to do things and go through.  nor does he realize how strong a person it makes you with issues like that involved. 



You seem quite determined to take this as a personal attack, which it isn't. I'm not suggesting that you are boring, I make no comment either way in that regards. The idea I am putting forth is that being interesting requires more than being unusual. Your life could well be exceedingly interesting, but that is neither here nor there when it comes to the topic of the thread. The question is not whether or not a thing is interesting but why, what makes a person want to pay attention to thing A rather than thing B, or to devote their attention to one topic rather than another.

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:32:48 PM   
christine1


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Status: offline 		well, if what a person is like on the inside, and being unique on the outside doesnt' necessarily qualify you...then what does?  maybe i don't understand your question...

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:33:26 PM   
faerytattoodgirl


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quote:

that being interesting requires more than being unusual.


and my point is that being unusual is what makes things interesting.




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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:36:13 PM   
christine1


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Status: offline 		so as an example, is the "why did charles manson turn out the way he did?",  type of question what you're looking for?  why we all behave the way we do and have our own unique,  idiosyncracies?  just trying to understand the meaning of your post.

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He's the "boom" overwhelming...

He is my Master, my lover, my best friend my everything.

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:36:46 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: christine1

well, if what a person is like on the inside, and being unique on the outside doesnt' necessarily qualify you...then what does?  maybe i don't understand your question...


It's not just about people, it's about anything. What makes a painting interesting? What makes a film interesting? I'm sure you have hobbies, what makes those hobbies interesting to you?
In regards to people, what a person is like on the inside probably does effect whether we find them interesting or not, but what I am asking is exactly which qualities make any given person interesting. Okay, it's about their inner nature, but in what precise ways?

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:39:20 PM   
faerytattoodgirl


Posts: 5824
Status: offline 		the egyptian pyramids.  ARE UNUSUAL.  that is what makes them interesting.
many questions arise when they are talked about.  they are a rarity.  they are UNIQUE.

thus..unique and unusual = interesting.


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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:40:16 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: faerytattoodgirl

quote:

that being interesting requires more than being unusual.


and my point is that being unusual is what makes things interesting.





Which, as the original post points out, is not a logically tenable position. It 1) leads to us being forced to concede that all things are equally interesting, which is not something most people would agree to and renders the term interesting meaningless, and 2) defines interestingness in a way that defies common usage. Under the "Uniqueness = Interesting" theory I can walk outside, pick up a piece of gravel from the drive and declare it interesting for it is unique in being the only object of that exact shape and size to occupy that particular position at that time. Whilst this may technically be true, most people would not consider the piece of gravel interesting in the same way they would their favourite novel. What sets the two apart?

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 4:55:39 PM   
playfulotter


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Status: offline 		I think that being different or unique can make someone or something interesting for a certain period of time. However, to have staying power the quality that they or it has to have to surprise you from time to time as if another layer has been found within.

< Message edited by playfulotter -- 4/29/2008 4:56:41 PM >

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 5:00:03 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: playfulotter

I think that being different or unique can make someone or something interesting for a certain period of time. However, to have staying power the quality that they or it has to have to surprise you from time to time as if another layer has been found within.

Ah now this is good, it moves us closer to a workable definition of interest. If we add the element of innovation or renewal so that uniqueness is no longer the single prime cause of interest, we can overcome some of the logical issues that originally arose.

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 5:06:08 PM   
DomMeinCT


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quote:

ORIGINAL: LondonArt
But not having spoken to you, you could be the dullest person alive for all I know, and no amount of genetic wackiness would change that.


I disagree.  You could easily determine that she's not dull (and is interesting) by reading her posts.  Meeting her would not be a criteria for that determination.



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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 5:09:31 PM   
LondonArt


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quote:

ORIGINAL: DomMeinCT

quote:

ORIGINAL: LondonArt
But not having spoken to you, you could be the dullest person alive for all I know, and no amount of genetic wackiness would change that.


I disagree.  You could easily determine that she's not dull (and is interesting) by reading her posts.  Meeting her would not be a criteria for that determination.




I never mentioned meeting anyone. I said spoken to. In the context of the internet, I think reading posts probably falls under the general heading of speaking to. My point is that it doesn't matter whether any one individual is interesting or not. The point is to find out why, on a large scale, people find particular things interesting. If you want to quote some particularly interesting posts and tell me why you find them interesting, what qualities they have that catch your attention, that would be relevant.

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 5:25:33 PM   
playfulotter


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Status: offline 		I think this is almost an unanswerable question in a way as everyone finds different things interesting and to different degrees and for different reasons and it all depends on what your interests are...Kind of like one of those questions in Philosophy class which was not my interest at all...ha ha

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RE: What is interesting? - 4/29/2008 6:08:08 PM   
GreedyTop


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Status: offline 		Too me, what is interesting is anything that can keep my attention for more than a few minutes.  It doesn't necessarily have to be a positive thing.

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