Some Kind Of Light. Some Kind Of Dark.

When the powers out

And its dark in the house

I will run

When those lights flash

And I'm out on the streets

I won't run

Deep at the end of space

Further than the sun

Is a crowd of chairs

I was running in the snow

Thinking about that red

Wanting to know now

Way out on a crystal sea

Protecting you and me

Is a battleship

Way down deep in my heart

I know what is on the horizon

I know what my soul is like

They will discover you

Walking down the avenue

They will find us

Living in their memories

Never saying a word

Waiting to live again

Wondering about the end

On those things which we depend

Duty, Agonistic Pluralism, and Historical Pedagogy

Ah! I have an idea again! I already wrote about it briefly in my last post on duty.

But now I a beginning to try and take those vague ideas and turn them into an essay.

In fact, I think that I'm going to write that essay as a part of AZI.

I took some notes by hand today. I'll share them at some point soon.

I'll be writing soon.

Beauty

I feel that Schiller has finally provided me with an adequate definition of aesthetic beauty. I feel like talking about beauty is usually super difficult and kind of lame. It is a vague word, no one know what it means, and we mostly revert to the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That is to say, a discussion of beauty often collapses into relativism. Or, there may be that link between beauty and truth, of course. Which is also good.

But Schiller doesn't speak of beauty in this way. He describes beauty as a composite or emergent property of a person. He argues that in individuals we find three distinct types of relationships: our relationship to the physical, to the logical, and to the moral. That is, we relate to our body and emotions, to our thought and rationality, and to our morality and sense of right. There is, however, a fourth quality: a thing may also "relate to the totality of our varies powers, without being a specific object for any single one of them; that is its aesthetic character. A man can be pleasant to us through his readiness to oblige; he can cause us to think by means of his transactions; he can instill respect into us by his high moral standards; but finally, independently of all these and without our taking into consideration any law or any design in our own judgement of him, but simply contemplating him, simply by his manifesting himself–he can please us. In this last-named character we are judging him aesthetically" (On The Aesthetic Education Of Man, Note pg 99). Thus beauty as a composite or emergent property. It is something that emerges from contemplating the whole formed by the relation of the parts.

I very much like this idea of beauty.

Duty

Duty, according to Mr. Collingwood, is the highest form of practical reason. We behave most responsibly, most authentically, when we say 'this is what I must do, this is my duty'. Duty, in other words, is the type of practical reason that recognizes that we are unique individuals acting in a unique situation, doing what we must because the situation compels it. It is not that we are not free. It is that when we really pay attention to ourselves and our situation, we can only act in one way. We have a duty to ourselves to choose a certain course of action.

This is how I think of my own behavior. I rarely feel like I am making a difficult decision between one option or another. I feel compelled to do what I do. I do what I must. I do what I feel it is my duty to do. 

To put it another way, duty is the form of consciousness that lets us see every individual as a rational agent, acting in a way that is always within the same world of thought that we exist. Although Collingwood did not fully develop his idea on duty until late in his life, he hinted at it in his early work. In Speculum Mentis he claims that there is something called 'absolute mind' that leads to a similar view: "The agent is now conscious of himself as absolute mind, and of every other agent, whether in agreement with himself or not, as coequal with himself. This means that he ceases to regard himself or his country or his party as in the right and everybody else in the wrong, but he regards all actions as manifestations of a will which is always and necessarily rational even when 'in the wrong', and therefore never wholly in the wrong. He thus sympathizes even with his opponents, and in proportion as he becomes truly rational he ceases to regard any one as an unmitigated opponent, but sees in every one a fellow-worker with himself in the cause of the good.... In absolute ethics the agent identifies himself with the entire world of fact, and in coming to understand this world prepares himself for the action appropriate to the unique situation" (304-5, my italics). 

Further, history, Collingwood claims, is duty's theoretical counterpart. That is, duty is knowledge of the self as an individual acting in a unique situation, and history, similarly, is knowledge of the other acting in their unique situation.

Something about forgiving everyone for everything, as I've often said. Absolute mind, absolute ethics, duty, history. 

These things deserve my attention.

Because utilitarianism is lame.

Further, because John Gray and Isaiah Berlin, and their ideas on 'agonistic pluralism' have quite a lot in common with this stuff. In this conversation John Gray explains how agonistic pluralism, too, humbly says, 'this is what I must do'. This is because, on their view, the world is made of incommensurabilities. That is, even when doing the right thing, we may have to do something wrong. There is no pure right or pure wrong. The world is made u on competing claims to right and wrong that can never be fully reconciled. We must humbly make decisions, do what we feel is right, even though we are breaking hearts and lives in the process. 

I wish to act dutifully. I wish to think historically. Only in this way can I continue to act while forgive myself and others.

Technology, Smart Phones, and Standing By Words

Tonight I saw Andrew W.K. in concert. How interesting it was! What fun it was!


But I saw a person using a smart phone in the middle of the concert and I had a thought. This title came to mind and I knew I had something to write. 


It was a shocking moment because the room was so collectively effervescent. A term I've heard attributed to Durkheim. Don't you just feel the magic of a crowd sometimes? The collective effervescence of the moment? 


A smart phone, though, temporarily banishes that communal energy. It creates a space separate from the moment in which we can escape the bodies and minds around us.


And this is where I begin to write seriously.


The problem with technology is that it encourages us to have a certain relationship to time. That is, technology implicitly tells us to think about the future. The process of developing technology is always about what can be created in the future, what the next advances will be. The use of technology, too, often inclines us to think about the present, about the elsewhere. We use technology to organize our lives, to plan the future, to keep in touch with people distant from us. All of which is great, incredibly useful, invaluable. These uses of technology, however, are similar in that they incline us to think about the future instead of the present. 


Perhaps it is possible to speculate about the future, as technology necessitates, and still remain in the present moment. Perhaps we can use technology and still be mindful. I'm not sure. But the Wendell Berry of the mid 80s believed that thoughts about the future often came at the expense of the present. Moreover, Berry believed that excessive thought about the future compromise our capacity for honesty. “People speaking out of this technological willingness,” Berry argues, “cannot speak precisely, for what they are talking about does not yet exist. They cannot mean what they say because their words are avowedly speculative. They cannot stand by their words because they are talking about, if not in, the future, where they are not standing and cannot stand until long after they have spoken. All the grand and perfect dreams of technologists are happening in the future, but nobody is there” (Ibid., 60). 


I worry about the cultural consequences of the internet. 

Withdrawing From Words

I, Riley Paterson, aspiring wordsmith, might be temporarily withdrawing from words.

Not entirely, of course. Don't worry, folks, I'll still be doing plenty of talking! Sometimes I'll be writing.

But I find myself in an odd situation. I finished my nihilism essay and was very pleased with the results. I had a great time writing it, and, after reviewing it, I think my writing is somewhat clear. Further, I don't want to continue on the AZI project. Admittedly, I should probably finish the section I am on, because all that would mean would be to discuss The New Leviathan in relation to my analyses of Collingwood's other work. Sure, easy enough. But I don't feel like it. Besides, I already know where finishing that writing will put me: Knowing the the only thing I can do in response to Collingwood's oeuvre is to connect him to the Clausewitzian pedagogical project. And I'm not ready to do that yet.

I feel like relaxing for a little bit. I don't feel pressured to push myself into my reading. After Virtue is a remarkable book. After 80 pages I can already tell that Alasdair MacIntyre is pushing me to think in very serious ways. It isn't easy, though. On The Aesthetic Education Of Man, too, is a fascinating book. Schiller seemed to be a bizarre mind. I have no idea why. Talking about 'melting beauty' and shit. Very odd. So MacIntyre and Schiller are on my radar. I plan to finish both the books. I'll have to see how it goes.

But I don't want to get all wrapped up in these things right now. I need to maybe apply to graduate school this year. I should be focusing on that. And my graduate work is going to have a lot less to do with this stuff! I need to begin to change the direction of my thinking.

I think that is why my mind has become so odd in the last few weeks. I'm trying to shift mental gears and it is a real challenge. Gotta start thinking about different stuff.

I'm painting some. Finished three, which I posted. Working on a fourth. Just producing them for fun. Why else? It is just an interesting thing to do.

Trying to think about poems. I should read some poetry or some fiction.

Another One

You will pull strange gifts
From the heart of trees
Ooooooooh

Unforgotten love
Not forgotten peace
Oooooooooh no

Will you drag me into
The heart of the boiling sea?
Oh Sara, I hear you calling me:

 

You're a golden beam

Breaking into the ocean deep

On a single breathe

To be led to escape, nooooo

Now you cast your light
And Exposing the same colors
You consume my mind into silence
Oh Sara, I hear you calling me...