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Blogging Notes
1. The tone and content of my previous Fisking Sullivan post might lead people to believe that the whole was an attack on Sullivan.
[Fisk] might well be hated by the war-mongering, empire-addicted elements of the right because his skilful and widely recognised reporting of the ‘reality’ that they despise so much.
But yesterday Sullivan in a [...]
Fisking Sullivan
I have been watching the Palin obsession on Andrew Sullivan’s blog with a kind of fascinated horror. The blog was suspended to digest the almost content-free Palin book, but from the resumption notice it is clear that others have been raising their concerns.
No doubt It is part of the theatre, one of the many reasons, [...]
What Price Philosophy?
A further issue that came out of the Calvin and Servetus thread was what value should we put on the public understanding of Right Religion and Philosophy in any of its various manifestations. Can we put a price on it or should we try?
For the sake of this discussion I am assuming that various long-standing [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Calvin, climate change, Enlightenment, ethics, public understanding, rationalism, religion, secularism Leave a comment
Moral Relativism
In one of the comments to my post on Calvin and Servetus the spectre of moral relativism was raised. Maybe some people might get offended at this, but I was pleased. I not pleased because I had merely provoked a reaction but because I was pushing a pretty contrarian position so that I could see [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Calvin, ethics, moral relativism, rationalism, religious pluralism, tolerance 1 Comment
Realistic Optimists and That David Brooks Column
Tyler Cowen has a great TEDxMidAtlantic talk on the seductive power of stories to distort our view of the world. We compulsive structure our understanding with narratives–there is no point in fighting this–but we can take a light, sceptical approach to these narratives, continually probing them for weaknesses. (Does anyone else see common thread with [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged David Brooks, ethics, Islam, Jane Austen, Matthew Yglesias, peace, radicalism, terrorism, Tyler Cowen Leave a comment
Calvin and Servetus
Paul helm has been running a old and erudite series on Calvin at The Guardian. This week he looks at Calvin’s part in the Geneva authorities’ execution of Michael Servetus, concluding with an ambivalent defence that doesn’t seem quite right to me.
The plain fact is that the civil authorities in Geneva, with the support of [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Calvin, Calvinism, capital punishment, Christianity, cultural relativism, ethics, irrationalism, pacifism, rationalism, sentimentalism, theology 5 Comments
The Horror
The opening of the New York Times editorial on Saturday made little sense.
It is always a shock — and a cause for deep sadness — when a gunman fires malevolently at crowds of innocent people. We have seen it far too often: at Columbine High School in Colorado a decade ago; on the campus of [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Afganistan, ethics, massacre, New York Times, peace, war Leave a comment
Blog News
Mansfield Park Essay Completed
The Mansfield Park essay is now completed and I have placed a full table of contents at the head of each post. Originally I had intended to just expand on an earlier sketch of my views on the novel, and the Introduction and Method sections were written in this frame of mind. [...]
Diminutive Greatness and Fanny Price
This post is the final part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
We have re-read them all four times; or rather, to speak more [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park Also tagged Enlightenment, ethics, irrationalism, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, rationalism, Romanticism, sentimentalism Leave a comment
Kant on Newton and Rousseau
[In preparation for the conclusion of the Mansfield Park essay, I am posing this short note on a famous Kant's note where he explains Newton's and Rousseau's impact on his ethical thought. Here I reproduce J. B. Schneewind's translation and notes.]
[W]e can see one of the most frequently quoted of Kant’s notes as showing a [...]
The Rise of the Novel
[While writing the conclusion for the Mansfield Park essay (which I am about to post) I realised that it relies on an assumption that may not be widely shared--that the rise of the realistic novel in the 18th century was a significant factor in the development of modern thought--so I will discuss it here first.]
The [...]
Posted in literary history Also tagged Defoe, Enlightenment, ethics, Ian Watt, Jane Austen, journalism, literary history, printing, rationalism, religion, Romanticism, Rousseau Leave a comment
Scott on Emma
This post is part of my series of posts looking at the impact of the novel on Enlightenment ethics. It follows the previous post giving Johnson’s view of the realistic novel set out in The Rambler No 4.
The publisher of Emma, John Murray, asked Walter Scott to review the novel, which appeared anonymously in the [...]
Posted in literary history Also tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, novel, rationalism, Romanticism, sentimentalism, Walter Scott Leave a comment
Johnson on the Realistic Novel
As part of my enquiries in into the impact of the modern realistic novel on Enlightenment (in preparation for the conclusion of the Mansfield Park essay) I am reproducing the text of Samuel Johnson’s Rambler No. 4 (31st March 1750, taken from here). It is widely assumed to be a response to the publication of [...]
Posted in literary history Also tagged ethics, Jane Austen, modern realistic novel, moraliser, moralist, Romanticism, Samuel Johnson Leave a comment
The Values of Science
Aidan has responded to my Nihilism post with another thoughtful comment, which I recommend everyone read. Obviously I read a fair amount, and some pretty good stuff, but this is right up there. If the true quality of a blog were reflected in the quality of the responses I am being truly flattered. (And, of [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Al Gore, climate science, ethics, General Relativity, global warming, QED, Quantum Gravitation, Standard Theory, Theory of Everything Leave a comment
Nihilism
Aidan has written a splendid and thoughtful comment on the Blog News post that is really a whole article in itself. I recommend everyone read it. I am particularly grateful for it because while there is much in it I agree with it also essays a very interesting criticism, that goes to the heart of [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged economic growth, ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, materialism, physicalism, Romanticism 1 Comment
The Satirical Inheritance
This post is part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
4.4. The Satirical Inheritance
Ian Watt has shown how Burney and then Austen unified the realism of assessment, Fielding’s comic [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park Also tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, Jonathan Swift, Lawrence Sterne, literary criticism, modernity, rationalism, Romanticism, satire Leave a comment
King Lear
This post is part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
4.2. King Lear
Seneca also wrote nine tragedies on Greek mythological subjects, more designed to be recited or read than [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park Also tagged Christianity, Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, King Lear, Mansfield Park, rationalism, Romanticism, sentimentalism, Shakespeare Leave a comment
Ritter on Obama
In the earlier article on Afghanistan I quoted Ritter’s ‘fierce’ analysis of the situation facing President Obama. It is also remarkable for a fierce judgement of Obama (quoted below) should he ignore his Vice President and escalate the US commitment by agreeing to McChrytal’s request for 40,000 extra soldiers. Such clarity in ethical matters [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Afghanistan, ethics, Jane Austen, rationalism, Scott Ritter, war Leave a comment
Blog News
A New Tag Line
I have cleaned up the tag line of the blog. I am pretty sure that it is an accident that it comes out at exactly the same length as the main title.
Mansfield Park Essay
The Mansfield Park essay is proceeding much more slowly that I anticipated. I am not sure that this is [...]
Posted in commentary Also tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, sentimentalism 1 Comment
Kantian Deontology
This post is part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
4.1. Kantian Deontology
deontology. The ethical theory taking duty as the basis of morality; the view that some acts are [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park Also tagged Christianity, Enlightenment, ethics, irrationalism, Jane Austen, Kant, Mansfield Park, Marilynne Robinson, rationalism, Romanticism, sentimentalism Leave a comment
Twain on Austen
“I haven’t any right to criticize books, but I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader, and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read “Pride and [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, literary criticism, Mark Twain, rationalism, realism, Romanticism Leave a comment
The Paradox of Choice
Katja notes that Barry Scwartz’s Paradox of Choice is the TED talk (see below) she hears praised most often, in which Schwartz summarizes, with great force and clarity, the argument he advanced in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, and goes on to muse:
Why should we fail to adapt? Even if [...]
Posted in topical Also tagged Buddhism, ethics, happiness, materialism, modernity, physicalism, poverty, rationalism Leave a comment
Preface to Mansfield Park
This post is the first part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
Preface
Philosophy is hard. In the Buddhist tradition meditation practitioners are warned that they must engage in study [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park Also tagged Buddhism, Christianity, Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, Kant, Mansfield Park, modernity, rationalism, religion, Romanticism, sentimentalism Leave a comment
Fiction and Reality
Frank Rich had a great piece on the balloon-boy fiasco in Sunday’s Times.
Richard Heene is the inevitable product of this reigning culture, where “news,” “reality” television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking. Norman Lear, about the only prominent American to express [...]
The Dalai Lama on Obama