Sub specie boni

In the penultimate paragraph of William James's Talks to Teachers, he implores us to view our pupils--and life--under the aspect of good. Accentuate the positive, as der Bingle crooned, eliminate the negative. Affirm rather than negate. More colloquially: look on the bright side, keep on the sunny side, enjoy the glass half full. 

Spinoza long ago wrote in his Ethics that anything that a man can avoid under the notion that it is bad he may also avoid under the notion that something else is good. He who habitually acts sub specie mali, under the negative notion, the notion of the bad, is called a slave by Spinoza. To him who acts habitually under the notion of good he gives the name of freeman. See to it now, I beg you, that you make freemen of your pupils by habituating them to act, whenever possible, under the notion of a good.

(He also offers terrific advice on how to build character and resolve, how to replace bad habits with good, how to access our "inner springs of joy," and substitute "the morning sun and air and dew" for the more debilitating daily intoxicants. I'll remember that last bit for the next time I must reflect upon prolonged surgically-necessitated abstinence.)

Well, I tried to relay that Jamesian/Spinozist wisdom to my teaching colleagues yesterday afternoon, when we convened to narrow our short list for a new Bruce in the philosophy departmnent. (My top two were actually Sheilas.)

We began with over a hundred applicants, I noted, now we're each down to five. They're all good. You don't play in the Series or the Super Bowl if you're not. So how about we make a positive case for our preferences, and see if that doesn't suffice to create consensus? Let the nattering nabobs of negativism go low, let's take the high road.

Nice try. It met with immediate resistance. Nyet. No no no. We must chip away at any shining armor in sight, knock them off their pedestals, persuade ourselves that no one is truly worthy of admission to our club.  Maybe we'll bestow begrudging grace on one or two survivors.

Score another win for "philosophy," another loss for positive experience.

And when the dust cleared, my top two had been dispatched.

The good news: we'll be inviting my third and fourth to campus. Coulda been worse. 

Coulda been a kinder, gentler process of deliberation too.