Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

 Someone at Quora asked, "Who Would Dante Alighieri Find in Hell if He Could Write the Divine Comedy Nowadays?"  I liked my answer to that, so I'll give it again here, with some slight stylistic improvements. It is probably an appropriate subject for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Let us Americans give thanks for our recent rescue from autocracy.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Napoleon Bonaparte would definitely be in one of the lower circles. Perhaps in the lowest. After all: much of Dante’s work is motivated by the conviction that the Roman Empire (which he saw as continuous with the Holy Roman Empire of his own time) has a special part in salvation history, and thus is the ordained government of this world. Defiance of the Emperor was treason against God. This is why Brutus and Judas are together at the very center of hell, being forever chewed by the teeth of Satan. Brutus, as much as Judas though ...

  This quote has been bugging me of late. I remembered it vividly but wanted to be able to quote the exact words. Yet I couldn't find it -- my memory located it in the wrong chapter. Now I'll keep it safe here. About the Bible, James says, the big question is not one that history or archeology by themselves can untangle for us, because it is pragmatic: "[O]f what use should such a volume, with its manner of coming into existence so defined [by the historians and archeologists] be to us as a guide to life and a revelation? To answer this other question we must have already in our mind some sort of a general theory as to what the peculiarities in a thing should be which give it value for purposes of revelation; and this theory itself would be what I just called a spiritual judgment. Combining it with our existential judgment we might indeed deduce another spiritual judgment as to the Bible's worth. Thus if our theory of revelation-value were to affirm that any book, to p...

I had a strange dream recently, in which I was driving through Nebraska, or at least I thought I was. I wasn't finding the place I was supposed to get to, so I stopped and asked for help. Turns out I wasn't really in Nebraska. I was in Kansas. I woke up thinking how nice everyone was being to me. They must understand what an easy mistake it is to make. A simple dream (as mine go) but a strange one. You aren't supposed to find that the dreamscape in which you are lost IS Kansas.   

One of Plato's dialogs has Socrates arguing moral and related issues with Protagoras, portrayed here as the leader of the Sophists.  Although as usual Socrates is the vehicle for Plato's presentation of what are almost certainly Plato's own views, Protagoras has some really striking lines. I like to think of at least one of these lines as a bit of the historical Protagoras, embedded here like the DNA of a dinosaur within a mosquito within amber. "The Athenians are right to accept advice from anyone, since it is incumbent on everyone to share in that sort of excellence, or else there can be no city at all." That speaks to the greatness of Periclean Athens, when it attracted the best minds from all around the Hellenic world, an extensive world stretching from the coast of Asia Minor to Sicily. Athens would, in that sense "accept advice from anyone. A closed city in in danger of becoming "no city at all." That brief passage speaks to the idea of an Ope...

Third Bob, as he is known, recalls a family story about his father, known to familiars all his life as Bobby, and about his grandfather, known more formally (from childhood) only as Robert. And, of course, about Amma.  The story begins with this: The second Roosevelt had just been inaugurated when Amma went into labor and grandpa Bob rushed her to the hospital.  Skip forward three days: she was ready to leave, with her new baby, but President Roosevelt had closed all the banks, had called a 'bank holiday.' This meant that the hospital refused to accept a check - they had no idea how long it would be before the paper would do them any good. They were demanding cash. It is amazing (one would always say, hearing the story) that people were so well behaved. Wouldn't there be anger in the halls, people demanding their checks be accepted? rushing for the exits if not? Were there a lot of fearsome looking Pinkerton men about?  Not a lot of people had a lot of cash ready to hand ...

  This illustration has nothing to do with the following text. I was playing with the "insert image" tool here -- the blogger folks have changed their format a bit. And that is the image I came up with. What the heck. I'll keep it.  I loved Borat's first "movie film," but I think I have had my fill of Borat and will probably skip this one.  Also, given the mess that one can charitably call my country's politics, and what I've heard of the Giuliani scene, it would probably cut too close to the bone this time. So I'll give him a "thanks, but no."  It is funny how Giuliani is talking tough about a lawsuit, though. That's not going to happen. Not in the USA, which can still boast a system that resists the attempts the efforts of the publicly powerful to silence their critics through defamation suits. I haven't heard that even the three Trumpets of the Supreme Court have any interest in erasing the line of precedent that began with ...

We're not going to "kill the earth." We may, by virtue of an impact on earth, kill each other, but sentimental save-the-earth talk is not to the point at all.  And actually, the human race is adaptable, so ongoing climate changes (one no longer needs to say 'coming climate changes') won't be quite so disastrous as advertised for us either.  We have to allow ourselves to adjust by abandoning this notion that it is either a fixed equilibrium or extinction. Heck, the Rose family (see yesterday's item) made an adjustment.  Here is something germane: https://backreaction.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR0Eild3WJDSYbL1NjgSjMsmenRUf6wbPy9HQE7DEkIrfLnlxHbvzp0g9Xc

I've finally been watching episodes of Schitt's Creek in recent days. This is amazing -- it's been a "thing" for six years, it includes two of my favorite comedians, but only now am I catching up with it.  Well ... better late than never, and this gives me something for an election day post that has nothing to do with the election, which is a plus.  The two great comedians at the heart of the show are: Catherine O'Hara as Moira Rose, and Eugene Levy -- pictured here -- as her husband, Johnny Rose. They were both in the ensemble that put together SCTV in the old days, a sketch comedy show of utter brilliance. I remember especially O'Hara's  Margaret Meehan, a quiz show contestant who would ALWAYS hit the buzzer before the question was complete, answering the fragment she had heard and losing the points to the embarrassment of her teammates.  Eugene Levy was the game show contestant in that same bit, named "Alex Trebel." (Hmmm -- wonder if the ...