Tag Archives: rationalism

They Just Don’t Get It

By chris | Published: 22 November 2009
In an interview with the Guardian at the end of a visit to Kabul for the presidential inauguration of Hamid Karzai, the foreign secretary said: “If international forces leave, you can choose a time – five minutes, 24 hours or seven days – but the insurgent forces will overrun those forces that are prepared to [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Dalai Lama on Obama

By chris | Published: 22 November 2009
There has been much hand-wringing about Obama’s lack of results in China. As Stephen Walt explained, this was the fruits of years of folly. Yet despite delivering on the one issue that really really mattered (and the one could be realistically advanced)–a shared approach to sustaining the global environment–the New York Times, while demonstrating it [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Price Philosophy?

By chris | Published: 14 November 2009
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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Moral Relativism

By chris | Published: 13 November 2009
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 , , , , , | 1 Comment

Our Great Passion for War

By chris | Published: 12 November 2009
The confluence of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the taking down of the Berlin Wall, Obama’s ongoing deliberations on whether or not to escalate in Afghanistan and Remembrance Day, with the passing of the last of the Great War veterans, has made for an unusually rich reflection on the value and/or futility or [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Calvin and Servetus

By chris | Published: 9 November 2009
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 , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Diminutive Greatness and Fanny Price

By chris | Published: 7 November 2009
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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Rise of the Novel

By chris | Published: 5 November 2009
[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 , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Scott on Emma

By chris | Published: 4 November 2009
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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Satirical Inheritance

By chris | Published: 30 October 2009
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 , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

King Lear

By chris | Published: 30 October 2009
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 , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ritter on Obama

By chris | Published: 30 October 2009
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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

Kantian Deontology

By chris | Published: 29 October 2009
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 , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

President Blair?

By chris | Published: 29 October 2009
The principles of international community apply also to international security. We now have a decade of experience since the end of the Cold War. It has certainly been a less easy time than many hoped in the euphoria that followed the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Our armed forces have been busier than ever – delivering [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twain on Austen

By chris | Published: 28 October 2009
“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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Paradox of Choice

By chris | Published: 28 October 2009
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 , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Preface to Mansfield Park

By chris | Published: 28 October 2009
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 , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Obama and Expectations

By chris | Published: 26 October 2009
I finished the previous post on the rather optimistic thought that Obama’s aspiration to be a president of the United States, to connect with conservatives as well as liberals, is what the times call for. This is worth looking at more closely. Firstly, there is this from Yglesias on that prize. But in semi-defense of the Nobel [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Growth Illusion

By chris | Published: 26 October 2009
Although I have gone to some effort to try and get folks to address the wider picture of the Levitt & Dubner attack on efforts to curb carbon emissions, I have only just received the first comment on it or any of the follow-up posts. Thanks to NelC for engaging–it is supposed to be the [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lost in Zombies and Sea Monsters?

By chris | Published: 23 October 2009
Dazzle camoflage is the only way I can explain my reaction to the Jane-sploitation zombie and sea monster mash-ups, the grotesquery not so much concealing as confusing. The perplexity was only compounded when it became clear that publishers were investing heavily in the genre with supporting short films. Fortunately this was a prelude to enlightenment: I [...]
Posted in topical | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Enlightenment

By chris | Published: 21 October 2009
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. Enlightenment In Sense and Sensibility Austen showed that the Hume’s declaration in the Treatise that ‘reason is, and ought [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Quiet Thing

By chris | Published: 18 October 2009
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 3.6 The Quiet Thing I bring depression into the picture partly because Jane Austen does, in one of her novels, [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mrs Norris

By chris | Published: 17 October 2009
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 3.5 Mrs Norris “If I had known you were going out, I should have got you just to go as [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram

By chris | Published: 16 October 2009
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 3.4 Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram Mr. Yates was beginning now to understand Sir Thomas’s intentions, though as far as [...]
Posted in Mansfield Park | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Notes on Completing Mansfield Park

By chris | Published: 16 October 2009
This is a last of a sporadic series of posts logging my thoughts as I reread Mansfield Park (spurred by the writing of the essay). Critics often think that Austen was easy on Lady Bertram, but the Portsmouth section really isn’t very kind to her. Her ‘a very creditable, common-place, amplifying style’ of letter [...]
Posted in notes | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment