Editing Henry Flynt (section)

==Background==
Henry Flynt was born and raised in [[North Carolina]], where he first studied classical [[violin]]. He became interested in [[logical positivism]] as a teenager, and later attended [[Harvard University]] on a scholarship, where he studied [[mathematics]] alongside companions [[Tony Conrad]] and John Alten. At Harvard, Flynt was introduced to [[jazz]] and the "New Music" of [[John Cage]] by graduate students [[Christian Wolff (composer)|Christian Wolff]] and [[Frederic Rzewski]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Grubbs |first=David |url=http://archive.org/details/recordsruinlands0000grub |title=Records ruin the landscape : John Cage, the sixties, and sound recording |date=2014 |publisher=Durham : Duke University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-8223-5576-2}}</ref> and he also discovered [[country blues]] music through [[Samuel Charters]]'s [[The Country Blues (book)|1959 book on the subject]] at this time.<ref name="wire2004">{{cite journal |last1=Licht |first1=Alan |title=The Raga 'n' Roll Years |journal=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |date=2004 |issue=248 |pages=26–28}}</ref> He soon dropped out and visited New York in 1960, where through Conrad he was introduced to [[La Monte Young]] and other figures in the city's [[avant-garde]] scene.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Adlington |first=Robert edt ctb |url=http://archive.org/details/soundcommitments00adli |title=Sound commitments : avant-garde music and the sixties |date=2009 |publisher=New York : Oxford University Press |others=The Archive of Contemporary Music |isbn=978-0-19-533664-1}}</ref> Young would dedicate his 1960 composition "X for Henry Flynt" to him.<ref name="wire">{{cite web |last1=Grubbs |first1=David |title=Read an excerpt from David Grubbs's Records Ruin The Landscape |url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/about/artists/henry-flynt/read_extract-from-david-grubbs_records-ruin-the-landscape |website=The Wire |access-date=27 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Morse |first=Meredith |url=http://archive.org/details/softisfastsimone0000mors |title=Soft is fast : Simone Forti in the 1960s and after |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge, MA : MIT Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-262-03397-8}}</ref> In 1960 and 1961, Flynt took part in the monthly concert series held at [[Yoko Ono]]'s [[Chambers Street (Manhattan)|Chambers Street]] loft.<ref name=":0" /> He moved permanently to New York in 1963.<ref name=":1" />

Flynt’s work developed from what he called "cognitive [[nihilism]]", a concept he first announced in the 1960 and 1961 drafts of a paper called ''Philosophy Proper.'' The concept derives from insights about the vulnerabilities of [[logic]] and mathematics, and aims to turn the principles of scientific [[positivism]] and [[analytical philosophy]] against themselves. Embracing [[Rudolf Carnap]]'s [[empiricism]] and his positivist critique of [[metaphysics]], Flynt concluded that science itself did not satisfy the syntactical criteria for empirical claims; he therefore set about developing a "radical empiricism" (or "radical unbelief") which undermined scientific systematization and much "avant-garde" art.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dzwonkoski and Kye Potter |first1=Julia |title=The Answer You Like is the Wrong Answer |url=https://waxidermy.com/blog/features/the-answer-you-like-is-the-wrong-answer-an-interview-with-henry-flynt/ |website=Waxidermy |access-date=9 September 2020 |date=2007}}</ref> Flynt refined these dispensations in the essay ''Is there language?'' that was published as ''Primary Study'' in 1964.