architecture - theoretical perspective

Syzygy wrote:  However, as that other titan of philosophy Meat Loaf so succinctly pointed out, two out of three ain't bad.

 Damn, I've been listening to Meat Loaf all wrong! All this time I thought he was a semi-corpulent AOR novelty, but it turnes out he belongs with the other greats of metaphysics and epistemology. The entire "Bat out of Hell" album is actually a thinly veiled overview of 19th and 20th century philosophy; the song "Bat out of Hell" is actually commenting on Thomas Hobbes (truth seen too late), "For Crying out Loud" is analogous to Sartre's "Nauesa", and "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" actually represents Bertrand Russell's "Marriage and Morals", with the shifting narrative perspective subtly poking fun at Russell's often contradictory positions.

Bertrand Russell is a UK philosopher who is remembered as the father of logical positivism, and whose History of Western Philosophy is always fun to disagree with. He was also a contemporary of Wittgenstein, with whom he had the famous elephant in the room debate. Further to this he was a political activist, and got arrested on a CND march in his 80s and did a few days in Brixton jail. On top of all that, he was mathematician, and was the co author of Principia Mathematica (Russell and Whitehead). The partnership didn't last, however, and his mathematical sparring partner later co authored the disco smash Ain't No Stopping Us Now (McFadden and Whitehead).

I'm right with you regarding Paradise By The Dashboard Light, James Lee, a most incisive and thought provoking commentary there.