Richard Reeves -- John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand

Although the author was not an academic philosopher or historian but a journalist, his 2007 biography of Mill will not only serve as an excellent introduction to Mill and his work for those unfamiliar with this seminal liberal thinker but will also illuminate the philosopher's historical context for those mainly accustomed to examining his philosophical arguments.

Reeves stresses the importance of seeing Mill as a passionately engaged public intellectual and is concerned to dispel the myth of Mill as a dessicated humourless, purely cerebral intellectual.

In addition to providing a more accurate representation of Mill's character, the demythologization that Reeves offers can also add to rebuttals of those continual conservative claims that reformers and radicals are bloodless "sophisters, economists, and calculators".*

In fact, as Reeves points out, conservative thinkers such as Carlyle and Coleridge exercised a significant influence on Mill's thought. Operating in conjunction with his Wordworth catalyzed opening to the poetic sensibility, these thinkers helped Mill escape the narrow confines of Benthamite thought. Yet Mill never became a conservative himself, even if some of his beliefs regarding capital punishment, the secret ballot, or universal suffrage might strike today's reader as such.

Mill's continuing commitment to progressive reform might best be seen in his commitment to feminism, a commitment unusual for his time, which deepened over the course of his life, and which will still grate with many conservatives today, not merely the incels and inmates of the manosphere. Reeves argues that his thinking on these matters was much his own as that of his beloved wife, Harriet. To what extent this is true must be debateable.

The most enduring part of Mill's intellectual legacy must be , as Reeves puts it, a " clearly and repeatedly articulated vision of a flourishing human
life―self-improving, passionate, truth-seeking, engaged and colourful―which it
was the job of individuals to cultivate, and the duty of society to promote". This characterization of Mill's core commitments should remind us, as his biographer points out, that "On Liberty" is as much concerned with the threats to autonomy posed by conformity and dogma as those from the excesses of government.

"On Liberty" still provides much to argue with and argue about. In spite of Mill's own reservations about democracy, it's a text that can play a valauble role in discussions about the ethos of democracy, or democracy as a way of life.

Although Reeves does mention Mill's work for the East India company, this aspect of his life deserves deeper research and more attention, even though Mill himself dismissed this work as being of no significance in his intellectual development.

Th biography reads easily without being simplistic, even if many of Mill's arguments are not analyzed with the thoroughness of professional philosophers. All the same, one might wish that many of those scholars would try harder to match their analytical rigor with a Reevesian readability!

* "But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever." Edmund Burke, "Reflections on the Revolution in France".

#Books #JohnStuartMill #RichardReeves #Biography #History #Philosophy #Liberalism

Tiefe Erschöpfung- ein Interview mit der Philosophin Dr. Marina Christodoulou:

"Politische Bewegungen brauchen nachhaltige Formen des Engagements"

Viele Menschen erleben Krisen, Kriege oder soziale Ungerechtigkeit als einen Dauerzustand. Die Philosophin Dr. Marina Christodoulou beschreibt in ihrem Aufsatz „Zu einer Genealogie der ontologischen Erschöpfung“ einen Prozess, der von Irritation über Empörung bis hin zu einer tiefen Erschöpfung des Weltbezugs führen kann.

Am Anfang stehen Irritation und Empörung, nicht Erschöpfung. Doch wenn diese Empörung immer wieder ins Leere läuft, kann daraus eine tiefere Form der Erschöpfung entstehen.

Eine Erschöpfung unseres Bezugs zur Welt und ebenso zum eigenen Handeln. Christodoulou nennt das „ontologische Erschöpfung“. Warum ist das mehr ist als Burnout und weshalb ist gerade die Fähigkeit zur Empörung auch ein Ausgangspunkt für Hoffnung.

Für @RDL konnte ich mit der an der Constructor University in Bremen lehrenden Philosophin Marina Christodoulou über Irritation, Erschöpfung und Hoffnung sprechen.

Wir haben das Gespräch auf Englisch geführt. Das Transkript des Gesprächs findet sich auf der Webseite von RDL.

rdl.de/node/81043

Credits an: @SporkPeter
@riffreporter

Denn ohne deren Post zu den Interview von Riffreporter, hier in Fediverse, wäre mir der Aufsatz von Dr.Christodoulou völlig entgangen.

riffreporter.de/de/gesellschaf…

#Christodoulou #erschöpfung
#exhaustion #Ontological #OntologicalResistance #bremen #Constructoruniversity #antifaschismus #queer #resilienz #Empörung #IndignezVous #StéphaneHessel #philosophy #philosophie #erschopfung #antifa #dresden #dresdenneustadt #berlin #hamburg #aktivismus #klima #klimabewegung #antifaschismus #linke #ontological #deutschland #dienstag #zorn #empörung #wut #zorn #freiburg #freiburgimBreisgau

On Criticism -- Noël Carroll

Although most readers of this book will be philosophers, scholars of the arts and humanities, and critics by profession, anybody who has ever evaluated a work of art and reflected on that evaluation and those of others will profit from a reading. Carroll sets out his arguments with clarity and without jargon.

Carroll claims that the main business of criticism is not so much interpretation or contextualization as evaluation. Critics can interpret, contextualize, analyze, describe , and classify a work, but these activities are critical only insofar as they provide reasons for an evaluation of a work. This evaluation turns on an assessment of whether in any given artwork the artist has achieved the artistic aims they intended.

Carroll also argues for the objectivity of critical judgements; he is particularly concerned to dismantle the understanding of aesthetic evaluation as being centrally concerned with beauty.

With regard to Carroll's main claim, a large literature on intentionalism in aesthetics exists. I will note here that although he does refute those critiques inspired by a crude empiricism, he does not give adequate consideration to the difficulty of giving an account of what specific intentions might be; these difficulties might include problems between distinguishing conscious and unconscious intentions, the presence of multiple and possibly irreconcilable intentions, and the possibility that intentions might change during the creation of an artwork. These difficulties are compounded in the case of artworks that are the creation of popular culture industries, where the presence of multiple creators and commercial incentives complicate talk of a straightforward "artist's intention". This relative neglect is odd in view of the author's background in the aesthetics and criticism of film.

As far as Carroll's claims regarding the objectivity of criticism is concerned, much will ride on Carroll's arguments that the conventions of particular genres can provide principles which in turn can ground reasons for declaring an artwork a successful or otherwise example of that genre. Although much more can be said on the topic, Carroll does here offer a way of getting a discussion of evaluation beyond the bare affirmation of 'it's all just subjective preference!"

Not a new book -- it came out in 2009 - but still worth your time if you have even the slightest interest in the arts.

#Criticism #NoelCarroll #Aesthetics #Philosophy #Intentionalism #Art

Wenn der Zorn selbst erschöpft: Über das Ausbrennen in aktivistischen Kreisen!

Wer politisch aktiv ist, kennt vermutlich dieses Gefühl: ich bin nicht einfach nur müde vom Tun, ich bin müde vom Empörtsein selbst. Genau diesem Phänomen geht die Philosophin Marina Christodoulou in ihrem Essay „Toward a Genealogy of Ontological Exhaustion“ nach.

Ihre These trifft einen Punkt, der vielen vertraut sein dürfte und der auch produktiv sein kann für Aktivist:innen.

Ich bespreche ihren Aufsatz über die "ontologische Erschöpfung“ (ontological exhaustion) hier:

breakdownthewalls.site36.net/2…

Anmerkung:
Wer ein erhellendes Interview mit der Philosophin Marina Christodoulou lesen möchte, wird bei riffreporter fündig. Björn Lohmann sprach mit ihr über ihr Konzept der ontologisch-existenziellen Erschöpfung

riffreporter.de/de/gesellschaf…

@SporkPeter
@riffreporter
#philosophy #philosophie #erschopfung #antifa #dresden #dresdenneustadt #berlin #hamburg #aktivismus #klima #klimabewegung #antifaschismus #linke #ontological #deutschland #dienstag #zorn #empörung #wut #zorn #freiburg #freiburgimBreisgau

Want to feel better in these trying times? Here's one way.

#Make something. Anything.

Today. (Or, it's late evening where I am, so tomorrow.)

Bake a cake.
Design a tee-shirt.
Write a poem.
Hot-glue something amusing to an ugly baseball cap.
Use tiny magnets to stick an LED and a resistor to a 9V battery, so you have a little glowy thing.
Sketch your pet.
Write a confessional sign for your pet.
Take a photo.
Take a photo of the confessional sign and your pet.
Assemble that birdhouse kit.
Pick up that guitar and come up with a new (to you) lick.
Build a campfire.
Turn an old-fashioned wooden clothes peg into a toy by Sharpie-ing a face onto it.
Fold a piece of paper and cut out a paper doll chain.

Just create something - whatever you have skills for, or materials for, or the desire to do, whether it's going to be #great or #terrible, whether anyone else is ever going to see it (but you should share it, if I can convince you of that).

Creativity is something you do, not something you are. And the need to #create is universal. It fulfills us, releases us. Just knowing that there is now #something in the world which was not in it before, and that the reason it exists is you *chose* to #create it, will satisfy an inner craving so deeply buried we don't think about it most of the time.

And then share it with someone. And ask them to share theirs with you, if they want to.

#philosophy #creativity #create #creation #satisfaction #happiness

Thinking aloud on a work in progress:

John Dewey needs to be rescued from both his fans and his foes.

If one thinks of philosophy as not separated by unbridgeable gaps from either the natural sciences nor the study of society and its needs, then one is an heir to Dewey.

Paradoxically, his writings constitute not just a source but an obstacle for the best understanding of his thought.

He wrote too much; his collected works fill 76 volumes. Navigating such a plenitude of writings is a challenge in itself. Worse, navigating his notoriously turgid prose makes reading Dewey less like a voyage of discovery than a punishment march. The contrast with the stylish wit of fellow pragmatist William James or the rigorous elegance of his contemporary Bertrand Russell is painful.

Still, engage with Dewey one must if one is to understand both the problems, possibilities, and legacy of US progressive thought in the first half of the 20th century.

More to follow on this topic over the coming months.

Image: John Dewey -- Деветьяров Руслан -- creativecommons.org/licenses/b… -- Wikimedia Commons

#JohnDewey #USHistory #Philosophy #IntellectualHistory #Progressivism #Pragmatism

“Confucius Gets Rekt By A Child,” a blatantly apocryphal anecdote but I do love glimpses into ancient childhood:

Once, they say, while Confucius was traveling with his disciples, they came across some children building a big sand castle right in the middle of the road. The children all scattered when they saw the oncoming carriage, except for one: Xiang Tuo, the smartest little boy in the world.

The driver hurriedly stopped the carriage and demanded to know why this little boy would not get out of the way. Xiang Tuo answered: “You approach my moats! Now tell me, do carriages go around castles, or are castles supposed to get out of the way of carriages?”

After getting a good look at the “castle,” Confucius chuckled. “Oh, what a clever child! I see you are wiser than most, so how about a little wager, some honest fun between young and old. I pose a riddle, you pose a riddle, the winner becomes the teacher and the loser becomes the disciple.”

“It’s a deal!”

Confucius asked: “How many stars are in the sky, how many grains grow upon the earth, how many hairs are in your eyebrows?”

Xiang Tuo answered “One skyful of stars, one cropsful of grains, one faceful of hairs. Now, sir, riddle me this: what water has no fish? What fire has no smoke? What tree has no leaf, and what flower has no stem?”

Confucius answered: “Every river, lake and sea has fish. All firewood gives off smoke when it burns. Whoever has seen a tree with no leaves, or a flower with no stem?”

Beaming, Xiang Tuo explained: “There’s no fish in a well. There’s no smoke coming off a firefly. Dead trees don’t have leaves! And snowflakes (‘snow flowers’) don’t have stems.”

Confucius conceded that the child was now his teacher, but Xiang Tuo asked if he could wash his hands off first before all this teaching stuff.

Translation mine, based on the version found in a book about the Three Character Classic by Hu Yuanyuan. (There are many variations of the story.) Art by Wang Lumin

#classicalchinese #translation #philosophy

theguardian.com/education/2026…

I see that the philosopher Malcolm Budd has died recently.

Funnily enough, I have just been reading his 1985 "Music and the Emotions", which attracted my attention because of its chapter on Susanne Langer's theory of music outlined in "Philosophy in a New Key".

I'm less convinced than is the obituarist that Budd "demolished" Langer's claims; although he raises important questions, I think someone sympathetic to Langer's approach can modify and develop her theory so as to meet the objections Budd raises. I need, though, to think and read more about the arguments regarding music and the emotions.

One of the larger problems of "Music and the Emotions" is its inadequate account of the phenomenology or the "what it's likeness" of emotions, moods, and feelings. This inadequacy is related, I suspect, to his limiting the possible content of thought to the propositional:

>> ...there is no thought which has a content which cannot be represented in language, there is no difficulty in principle of characterising precisely the particular nature of a feeling. << (112-113)

This limit seems mistaken to me, and Langer's distinction between discursive and presentational symbols cannot simply be ruled out by fiat.

I wonder whether the analytic tradition of philosophy within which Budd worked constricted his thinking about the phenomenology of the emotions and nonpropositional semiotics.

#Philosophy #MalcolmBudd #MusicAndTheEmotions #Aesthetics #SuzanneLanger #Semiotics