2922 / adrifts, something of; as far as in it lies

adrifts, something of; as far as in it lies

and turned him adrift.
something of ₁
a being, driven;
a heap,
of matter ₂
now this way, now that,
now with these parts,
now those ₃
as far as in it lies ₄
to remember the difference between the inside and the outside. ₅
tonality (others called it a cutting
adrift). Something of the same kind ₆

sources :

Then, when Mr. Gordon looked curiously at him, he hastened to explain how Ball & Biggers had run out of work and turned him adrift. Something of his eagerness for making and saving college funds showed as he further explained his desire to get other work quickly.
ex James William Jackson, “The Other Man’s Interests,” taken from Young People and found in The Canadian (“Published to Teach Printing to Some Pupils of the Ontario School for the Deaf, Belleville”) 37:8 (Belleville, January 15, 1930) : 1, 8
archive.org : link
drift (n.)
early 14c., literally “a being driven” (at first of snow, rain, etc.); not recorded in Old English, it is either a suffixed form of drive (v.)... or borrowed from Old Norse drift “snow drift,” or Middle Dutch drift “pasturage, drove, flock,” both from Proto-Germanic *driftiz ... from PIE root *dhreibh- “to drive, push”...
“A being driven,” hence “anything driven,” especially a number of things or a heap of matter driven or moving together (mid-15c.). [ But ] Figurative sense of “aim, intention, what one is getting at" (on the notion of “course, tendency”) is from 1520s.
ex etymonline : link
Thus the form or essence of a thing, which individuates it, and whose retention through change constitutes the persistence of an individual, just is its inherent and individual power of striving to retain just form, hence to resist those extrinsic determinants that would diminish its power and destroy it. In the case of body, striving is expressed by the active tendency of a pattern of relative motion and rest, in their ordinary sense, of its parts to persist. The active tendency of that pattern to persist is the essence of the individual body. That pattern is determined in its existence transiently and externally; now this way, and now that, now larger, now smaller, now swifter, now slower, now with these parts, now those.
ex Richard Manning, “Spinoza’s Physical Theory,” section 5.3 “Individuation by Essence,” in
SEP (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2024 Edition) : link

aside :
following an exchange in which ch wrote “driven workers,” prompting a question (for clarification), and pursuant ramblings and diggings —
driven, being driven — thus, necessarily from behind ? — vs. motivations (something nameable, mindful of reward, supect),
influences (but who cares about those?)...
drive, an impelling force (or emptiness), a formless something, hidden within or behind oneself ... Spinoza’s conatus...
IIIp6
Every thing, as far as in it lies, strives to persevere in its existence.
IIIp7
The effort by which every thing strives to persevere in existing, is nothing but the actual essence of that thing.
ex Spinoza’s Ethics, translated by George Eliot (1856); edited by Clare Carlisle (2020) : 169
or see the Edwin Curley translation of the Ethics, in The Collected Works of Spinoza (1985; 2016)
via archive.org : link

IIIp6
Each thing, as far as it can by its own power, strives to persevere in its being.
IIIp7
The striving by which each thing strives to persevere in its being is nothing but the actual essence of the thing.
Especially when heady new means become available, composers need to systematize ways of dealing with them. Arnold Schoenberg’s invention of the twelve-tone system, indeed, had been a “systematic” response to what some people called “the emancipation of dissonance” and of tonality (others called it a cutting adrift). Something of the same kind seems to have happened in the 1950s.
ex Joseph Kerman, with Vivian Kerman, Listen (Third edition, 1980) : 458
“not available for borrowing” at archive.org : link
“In some deep sense, memory is at the core of life,” says neuroscientist and professor of psychology Samuel Gershman, midway through a story about the “wild voyage” that led him to his current quest. He and his lab are working to develop a computer model that can “think” like a single-celled organism — specifically, a trumpet-shaped pond dweller called Stentor. “As soon as life existed,” Gershman explains, “memory existed. A cell is basically just a membrane enclosing a bunch of molecular material, and its primary job is to remember the difference between the inside and the outside — and to maintain that memory in the face of constant perturbations from its environment.” To respond adaptively, “it has to learn and remember.” But how, without neurons and synapses, without brains? That’s what Gershman hopes to discover.
ex Lydialyle Gibson, “How Do Single-Celled Organisms Learn and Remember? A Harvard neuroscientist’s quest to model memory,” in Harvard Magazine (September-October 2025) : link

postscripts —
via George Eliot, remembering Ulrich C. Knoepflmacher (wikipedia) his seminar on George Eliot, ca 1976 — so, so long ago — at UC Berkeley.
Spinoza was not on my radar then.
U. C. Knoepflmacher, “A Victorianist Looks Back: Fluidity vs. Fragmentation,” in Victorian Literature and Culture 47:1 (Spring 2019) : 137-153
jstor : 26789617

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this an attempt to concoct an idea — an idea of self — out of nothing, fallen back into these fragments.

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