RWE's "American Scholar"

https://substack.com/@philoliver/note/c-39344099?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Bruce Feiler

 His substack post about his Saturday convocation address at MTSU, and my note about it...

For millions of families around the world, back to school is a time of enormous transition. For those just starting college, the transition is particularly momentous, as students and parents alike are separating from one another, shedding lifelong habits, and experimenting with new ones.

Last week I experienced this transition from both ends. On Monday, my wife, Linda, and I dropped our identical twin daughters off at college [see photo below]. Four days later, I was invited to give the Convocation Address at Middle Tennessee State University outside Nashville, where all 3200 incoming members of the first-year class were assigned to read my book, Life Is in the Transitions...

== 

Bruce’s convocation address at my school Saturday conveyed great advice. His book “Life is in the Transitions” borrows its title from William James (who probably borrowed the thought from Emerson, “shooting a gulf, darting to an aim” etc.)… I’ll reinforce his message with my MTSU Philosophy students today: talk to people who you don’t agree with, try to actually hear what they say before responding. Also: go to the ballet (assuming you’re not into it… if you are, go to the ballgame). And I may regret it, but I’ll also ask the 1st year students how many actually read the book. Thanks for coming to Murfreesboro, Bruce.

Socrates in print

He famously refused to write anything down, mistrusting the blunt insensitivity of the written word to nuance and facial expression (or perhaps he was just a bit lazy). But I had a chat with him.
http://dlvr.it/SvPrxz

Opening Day, Fall semester '23

Yet another one! I always love the first class of the semester, almost as much as I love the first game of the baseball season. No errors have yet been committed, no losses registered, no rainouts or cancellations.

I always try to find something a little different to say on Opening Day, while recalling some favorite lines from before. This time I note what Robert Frost said about education...

And what the late Gary Gutting of Notre Dame said in response to the question What is college for?

Colleges and universities have no point if we do not value the knowledge and understanding to which their faculties are dedicated.

This has important consequences for how we regard what goes on in college classrooms.  Teachers need to see themselves as, first of all, intellectuals, dedicated to understanding poetry, history, human psychology, physics, biology — or whatever is the focus of their discipline.  But they also need to realize that this dedication expresses not just their idiosyncratic interest in certain questions but a conviction that those questions have general human significance, even apart from immediately practical applications.  This is why a discipline requires not just research but also teaching.  Non-experts need access to what experts have learned, and experts need to make sure that their research remains in contact with general human concerns. The classroom is the primary locus of such contact.

Students, in turn, need to recognize that their college education is above all a matter of opening themselves up to new dimensions of knowledge and understanding.  Teaching is not a matter of (as we too often say) “ making a subject (poetry, physics, philosophy) interesting” to students but of students coming to see how such subjects are intrinsically interesting.  It is more a matter of students moving beyond their interests than of teachers fitting their subjects to interests that students already have.   Good teaching does not make a course’s subject more interesting; it gives the students more interests — and so makes them more interesting.

Students readily accept the alleged wisdom that their most important learning at college takes place outside the classroom.  Many faculty members — thinking of their labs, libraries or studies — would agree.  But the truth is that, for both students and faculty members, the classroom is precisely where the most important learning occurs. Gary Gutting, The Stone 12.14.11

Last time, Jan '23... 

"… Universities are factories of human knowledge. They're also monuments to individual ignorance. We know an incredible amount, but I know only a tiny bit. College puts students in classrooms with researchers who are acutely aware of all they don't know. Professors have a reputation for arrogance, but a humble awareness of the limits of knowledge is their first step toward discovering a little more.

To overcome careerism and knowingness and instill in students a desire to learn, schools and parents need to convince students (and perhaps themselves) that college has more to offer than job training. You're a worker for only part of your life; you're a human being, a creature with a powerful brain, throughout it…" --Jonathan Malesic

The time before, Aug '22...

A new dawn is breaking on us CoPhilosophers... "Believing in philosophy myself devoutly, and believing also that a kind of new dawn is breaking upon us philosophers, I feel impelled, per fas aut nefas, to try to impart to you some news of the situation..." --WJ, Pragmatism

What I mean when I call myself an Epicurean happiness philosopher...

Epictetus's Opening Day meditation: "Only begin"...

Every semester should begin with eagerness and zest...

A big message we'll ponder this semester, espoused one way or another by all true philosophers, is: think for yourself... but not by yourself. We're here to collaborate, communicate, talk and listen. We're all individuals...

And we're all a lot like Douglas Adams's* whale...

So, shall we hit the ground running? And not say, like that jaded bowl of petunias, "Oh no, not again!"

*Also, speaking of HHGTG: "42" is not the answer to the ultimate question of the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. But it is the uniform number of a great and courageous athlete. Extra credit to the first student in each section who can name him. 

Another semester begins

One of these years I'll greet Opening Day with a weary "not again"...but not this year. I still look forward to putting on that old Day 1 necktie and greeting the new kids. Class of '27, born c.'05!
http://dlvr.it/SvJ9Jq

"find some positive interest..."-Dewey

"The hard-drinker who keeps thinking of not drinking is doing what he can to initiate the acts which lead to drinking. He is starting with the stimulus to his habit. To succeed he must find some positive interest or line of action which will inhibit the drinking series and which by instituting another course of action will bring him to his desired end. In short, the man's true aim is to discover some course of action, having nothing to do with the habit of drink or standing erect, which will take him where he wants to go."

"Human Nature and Conduct An introduction to social psychology" by John Dewey: https://a.co/2liQyO6

A happy atheist

"I want to show people, look, the magic of life as evolved, that's thrilling!" says philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. "You don't need miracles."

"...In his new memoir, I've Been Thinking, Dennett, a professor emeritus at Tufts University and author of multiple books for popular audiences, traces the development of his worldview, which he is keen to point out is no less full of awe or gratitude than that of those more inclined to the supernatural. 'I want people to see what a meaningful, happy life I've had with these beliefs," says Dennett, who is 81. "I don't need mystery...'" nyt

The Glories of Wilderness

"It's a spiritual experience to hike through the cathedral of wilderness, whether alone or with a family member or friend; the mountains and rivers generate a quasi-religious awe and put us humans in our place. I understand Spinoza best not in the library but in the mountains." nyt

John Dewey

A close re-reading of "Human Nature and Conduct" has me reconsidering my distaste for his stolid style, and reaffirming my respect for his solid substance.
http://dlvr.it/SvD8H5

John Lachs

He retired at 87, sooner than he wanted. But he's still professing, and his legacy will endure.
http://dlvr.it/Sv7XcT

John Lachs

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Where ya gonna go when the volcano blows?

 

"Education is the ability to listen..."

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Robert Frost

1874-1963

"Choose Something

Like a Star"

(1916)

O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud – It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says "I burn." But say with what degree of heat. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend. Tell us what elements you blend. It gives us strangely little aid, But does tell something in the end. And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,* Not even stooping from its sphere, It asks a little of us here. It asks of us a certain height, So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far, We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid. * Read John Keats' inspiration for Frost.

“it all came down to Tennessee”

"On this date in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote… Most Southern states opposed the amendment, and on August 18, 1920, it all came down to Tennessee…" 

And that, aside from electing Al Gore to the Senate, may be the last time Tennessee was on the progressive side of history. Alas.

Remembering a good friend and great suffrage scholar Don Enns today. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/thewritersalmanac/p/twa-from-friday-august-18-2017?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

The power (and limits) of 10

"The world's leading happiness researcher, Barbara Fredrickson, says the 10 most positive emotions that combine to create the emotion we call happiness are joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love… Research has shown that only 10 percent of our overall happiness depends on external things, whether that's a new car, a relationship, or alcohol. Things don't make us happy. Ninety percent depends on our internal environment. How relaxed are we? How confident? How peaceful?"

— The Alcohol Experiment: Expanded Edition: A 30-Day, Alcohol-Free Challenge To Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control by Annie Grace
https://a.co/5xIagq2

“Stand up straight”

"A man who has a bad habitual posture tells himself, or is told, to stand up straight. If he is interested and responds, he braces himself, goes through certain movements, and it is assumed that the desired result is substantially attained; and that the position is retained at least as long as the man keeps the idea or order in his mind. Consider the assumptions which are here made. It is implied that the means or effective conditions of the realization of a purpose exist independently of established habit and even that they may be set in motion in opposition to habit. It is assumed that means are there, so that the failure to stand erect is wholly a matter of failure of purpose and desire. It needs paralysis or a broken leg or some other equally gross phenomenon to make us appreciate the importance of objective conditions.

Now in fact a man who can stand properly does so, and only a man who can, does. In the former case, fiats of will are unnecessary, and in the latter useless. A man who does not stand properly forms a habit of standing improperly, a positive, forceful habit. The common implication that his mistake is merely negative, that he is simply failing to do the right thing, and that the failure can be made good by an order of will is absurd.

One might as well suppose that the man who is a slave of whiskey-drinking is merely one who fails to drink water. Conditions have been formed for producing a bad result, and the bad result will occur as long as those conditions exist. They can no more be dismissed by a direct effort of will than the conditions which create drought can be dispelled by whistling for wind. It is as reasonable to expect a fire to go out when it is ordered to stop burning as to suppose that a man can stand straight in consequence of a direct action of thought and desire. The fire can be put out only by changing objective conditions; it is the same with rectification of bad posture."

— Human Nature and Conduct An introduction to social psychology by John Dewey
https://a.co/caMYa07

WJ in Mudville

One of his students wrote Casey at the Bat, another contended that baseball embodies "the moral equivalent of war"--but the mighty pragmatist struck out. "All great men have their limitations..."
http://dlvr.it/StfDmC

WJ at the bat

"Today is the birthday of poet Ernest Thayer(books by this author), born in Lawrence, Massachusetts (1863). He was a bright and witty boy, born to a wealthy family that owned several prosperous woolen mills, and he never had to work much to support himself. He went to Harvard, where he studied philosophy with William James…"

And then he wrote Casey at the Bat.

WJ was not impressed by another student's suggestion that our national pastime might be a good illustration of "the moral equivalent of war"… or maybe he just wasn't consciously impressed. The connection seems clear enough to me. ⚾️

https://substack.com/@philoliver/note/c-22339343?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Proof That One Life Can Change the World

What Father Strobel understood is that compassion is the only thing that can save us.

"...

Across the country, 35 other cities have created programs that follow the Room in the Inn model. All of it is a testament to Father Strobel’s vision of a right relationship between neighbors in a community.

“His radical idea,” wrote Ms. Patchett in 2013, “was that the homeless need not be served in low, dark places, and that people with nothing should be able to stand beside people with everything and hold up their heads.”

None of this was a capitulation to the political and economic realities of living in a deeply red state. Father Strobel never gave up holding politicians to account, pushing them to provide at the governmental level what individuals, no matter how good-hearted and full of neighborly love, cannot, or at least cannot on a scale that meets needs so fundamental and so widespread: housing, education, job opportunities, addiction and mental-health treatment, compassionate policing, judicial justice and the like..."

Margaret Renkl https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/opinion/nashville-father-strobel-homelessness.html?smid=em-share

Summer commencement

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Dry August-an experiment

"Would my life be happier if I was drinking less?" I'm finally going to find out.
http://dlvr.it/StTm3N

Five philosophers walk into a ballpark,

a Buc-ees, and a bird sanctuary...
http://dlvr.it/StKnfL

Kodak moments

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Oxford in the 50s

Two new books take us there. I'd like to see the film.
http://dlvr.it/St6lXn

The problem of exercise

It too is solved by walking
http://dlvr.it/St46fr