“Hope is a precondition of what matters”

Kieran Setiya, like Oliver Burkeman, calls for "acknowledgment and close reading of the lives we have" as the prerequisite of genuine and not merely delusional hope--the sort of hope that, as Rebecca Solnit points out, needs to act and not just lazily wish for a winning lottery ticket. I highly recommend Setiya's Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help...

"…It is much easier to say why despair is bad than why hope is good. We despair when things are hopeless, but we remain attached to them. "The relationship is over; she is gone forever," cries the jilted lover. The terminal patient weeps: "There is no cure." What they feel is grief or something like it. The pain of passion for a possibility that has died...

Hope coexists with quiescence. If there's courage in hoping, it's the courage to face the fear of disappointment that hope creates. When things turn out badly, hope is more harrowing than despair.

So Hesiod has a point. Hope can be deceptive, docile, daunting. Why celebrate its role in life? In a book she wrote in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the writer and activist Rebecca Solnit rose to hope's defense: "Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky," she wrote. Instead,

hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal. Hope just means another world might be possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.

The problem is that hope can be like clutching a lottery ticket and it needn't shove you out the door: as I know too well, you can hope intently as you stretch out on the sofa watching the news. The call for action comes from somewhere else.

Solnit may be right that action is impossible without hope: you cannot strive for what you care about, when success is not assured, without hoping to succeed or at least make progress. This is where the myth of hope's value starts. Hope is a precondition of what matters: the pursuit of meaningful change…"

...

This is how we should approach life’s hardships, finding possibility where we can: the possibility of flourishing with disability or disease, of finding one’s way through loneliness, failure, grief. The question, then, is not whether to hope but what we should hope for. In the spirit of this book, the answer’s not an ideal life. What we need is acknowledgment and close reading of the lives we have… For who are we? Not just the living but humankind, and there is hope for humanity, and so for us… Other concepts we should leave behind: the concept of the best life as a guideline or a goal, of being happy as the human good, of self-interest divorced from the good of others… Human life is not inevitably absurd; there is room for hope.

— Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya

“Life Is Hard” pushes back against many platitudes of contemporary American self-improvement culture. Setiya is no friend to positive thinking — at best, it requires self-deception, and at worst, such glass-half-full optimism can be cruel to those whose pain we refuse to recognize. He describes a situation many of us have experienced: We tell someone about an illness or a fight we had; they try to convince us not to worry so much, or to focus on the bright side. Worse still, they might tell us that “everything happens for a reason.” This grotesque bromide is, explains Setiya, “theodicy,” an attempt to justify suffering as part of God’s plan. The problem is not that it cannot be true — theologians can extend divine providence to anything, even childhood leukemia — but that such thinking can easily serve as an excuse to avoid compassion.

Another theory Setiya challenges is the idea that happiness should be life’s primary pursuit. Instead, he argues that we should try to live well within our limits, even if this sometimes means acknowledging difficult truths. Happiness is a matter of definition; Setiya cites Tal Ben-Shahar, the Harvard professor and psychologist who writes about not only happiness but also the importance of accepting reality. Plato, too, he reminds us, held that true happiness lies in recognizing the lies of ordinary life, famously imagined as a cave filled with shadows. If you really consider “happiness” in its everyday sense — a feeling of contentment and pleasure — its desirability is complicated; we can certainly be made to feel good by ignoring injustice, wars, climate change or the hardships of aging. But we cannot live meaningfully that way... 

And what does living well mean in practice? To Setiya, it lies in embracing one of the many possible “good-enough lives” instead of aching for a perfect one. Setiya’s liveliest writing is on the subject of infirmity, no doubt because of the chronic pain he has suffered for years...

The golden thread running through “Life Is Hard” is Setiya’s belief in the value of well-directed attention. Pain, as much as we wish to avoid it, forces us to remember that we are indelibly connected to our bodies. Ideally, it also helps us imagine what it is like to inhabit the bodies of others, imbuing us with “presumptive compassion for everyone else.” By cultivating our sensitivity to ourselves and to others, we escape another destructive modern myth: that we are separate from other people, and that we can live well without caring for them...

“Life Is Hard” is a humane consolation for challenging times. Reading it is like speaking with a thoughtful friend who never tells you to cheer up, but, by offering gentle companionship and a change of perspective, makes you feel better anyway. Irina Dumitrescu

What’s gloriously possible: Burkeman’s meliorism

What Oliver Burkeman calls "hope," in his Afterword, I would call wishful or delusional thinking. Whatever you call it, he's right: give it up. Giving up delusions of personal infinitude, he concludes,

"kills the fear-driven, control-chasing, ego-dominated version of you—the one who cares intensely about what others think of you, about not disappointing anyone or stepping too far out of line, in case the people in charge find some way to punish you for it later… the "you" that remains is more alive than before. More ready for action, but also more joyful, because it turns out that when you're open enough to confront how things really are, you're open enough to let all the good things in more fully, too, on their own terms, instead of trying to use them to bolster your need to know that everything will turn out fine. You get to appreciate life in the droll spirit of George Orwell, on a stroll through a war-dazed London in early 1946, watching kestrels darting above the grim shadows of the gasworks, and tadpoles dancing in roadside streams, and later writing of the experience: "Spring is here, even in London N1, and they can't stop you enjoying it."

The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn't a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It's a cause for relief. You get to give up on something that was always impossible—the quest to become the optimized, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible, fully independent person you're officially supposed to be. Then you get to roll up your sleeves and start work on what's gloriously possible instead."

— Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
https://a.co/aV7pMQz

Not in this epoch

I imagine WJ might write differently, if he met some of the not-so-humble-and-tender fundamentalists of this epoch in America… the ones who think their "deep state" savior is a grifting, lying, pathologically narcissistic real estate mogul. They've clearly been affected by a different sort of modification.

"…in Christians of different epochs it is always one and the same modification by which they are affected: there is veritably a single fundamental and identical spirit of piety and charity, common to those who have received grace; an inner state which before all things is one of love and humility, of infinite confidence in God, and of severity for one's self, accompanied with tenderness for others."

— The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James(Annotated) by william james
https://a.co/1OMg6dz

“After a nice long weekend…”

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0HbNFiPCAN/

A walk in the park

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“Saintliness,” and Thoreau at home in “the sweet and beneficent society” of nature

I am one of those who finds the word and the doctrinal ideal of saintliness "off-putting," at least when miracles are alleged.

But Robert Richardson is right, it is possible to understand people like HDT as secular or naturalistic "saints" in a non-supernatural sense. Their emotional center is "religious" only in that generous Jamesian big-tent way that admits "whatever they may consider the divine"… even the "higher power" of Henry's gentle rain and Pine needles.

So I'd prefer to leave the likes of Calvin and Jonathan Edwards out of it. But I'm not James.

Richardson:

""Saintliness" is an ill-chosen, off-putting word for many people, and the position of these lectures deep in the Varieties, which is already filled with attractive (and now of course famous) subjects—the religion of healthy-mindedness, the sick soul, conversion, and mysticism—means that the chapters on saintliness are apt to get less attention than the others. But it should be remembered that the five saintliness lectures constitute a full quarter of the entire two-year project, and that what James means by saintliness is how religious experience affects practical everyday life.

From the point of view of James the pragmatist, then, these chapters are the clincher; the whole venture stands or falls here, where James proposes that we judge religious experiences by their fruits, by their value for living. This is, in the old language of Calvinism, the question of sanctification, saintliness, the idea that if you were indeed saved, you would thereby be enabled to lead a good life here and now. It is one more idea James found he shared with Jonathan Edwards. "Old fashioned hell-fire Christianity well knew how to extract from fear its full equivalent in the way of fruits for repentance, and its full conversion value." 6

James dives in by declaring simply that "the best fruits of religious experience are the best things that history has to show." Put in personal, psychological terms, "the man who lives in his religious center of personal energy, and is actuated by spiritual enthusiasm differs from his previous carnal self in perfectly definite ways." The saintly character, then, is "the character for which spiritual emotions are the habitual center of the personal energy," and such a person seems to James to possess, on the whole, four fundamental inner conditions. First is "a feeling of being in a wider life than this world's selfish little interests." Second is "a sense of the friendly continuity of the ideal power with our own life, and a willing self-surrender to its control." Third is "an immense elation and freedom, as the outlines of the confining self-hood melt down." Fourth is "a shifting of the emotional center towards loving and harmonious affections," a shifting toward the yes! yes! of emotional impulses and away from the no! no! of our inhibitions. 7

These inner conditions, taken together, have, says James, "characteristic practical consequences," which are asceticism, strength of soul, purity, and charity. With this rough scheme—just an armature, really, not an argument but something to hold up an argument—James proceeds to flesh it out with examples. His first example of the practical effect of a feeling of the presence of a higher and friendly power is from Henry Thoreau, who recorded the following experience in Walden:

Once, a few weeks after I came to the woods, for an hour, I doubted if the near neighborhood of man was not essential to a serene and healthy life. To be alone was something unpleasant. But in the midst of a gentle rain while these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly sensible of such sweet and beneficent society in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and in every sound and sight around my house, an infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as made the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant, and I have never thought of them since. Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. I was so distinctly made aware of the presence of something kindred to me, that I thought no place could ever be strange to me again…"

— William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism by Robert D. Richardson
https://a.co/injXqCZ

A crucial inner shift

Oliver Burkeman says the thought that more of life should feel exceptional and engrossing, rather than routine and boring, indicates a crucial and positive inner shift of attitude towards living in the only time we ever truly possess. "It's deeply unsettling to find yourself doubting the point of what you're doing with your life." But it's good to "face the reality that you can't depend on fulfillment arriving at some distant point in the future... the matter needs addressing now." Four Thousand Weeks ch13 p204

That reminds me of something John Lachs said in his first book, Intermediate Man. "Once attention is shifted from the future and we begin to enjoy activities at the time we do them and for what they are, we have transcended the mentality that views life as a process of mediation toward distant ends." The future is now. Of course we must care about the future, and how our choices in the present will impact it. We must allow our vision of a better future to inform those choices. But experience won't wait. Use it or lose it. Our weeks pass so  swiftly by. Now's the time.

The Morality of Having Kids in a Burning, Drowning World

"…Your happy childhood is no guarantee of the same for your kid, especially if they will grow up on a planet that will be warmer by nearly three degrees Fahrenheit. But you can reflect on the contributions that your parents made to that happiness and seek to emulate them. You can feel reasonably confident that the secure attachments you formed and the gentle guidance you received in childhood will be passed on like family heirlooms.

An unhappy childhood provides a trickier data set..."

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/27/the-quickening-elizabeth-rush-book-review-the-parenthood-dilemma-gina-rushton

Notes on Going Home

We can't help ourselves. We are shaped by the landscapes we are born to as inescapably as any other earthly creature born to any other ecosystem…

—Margaret Renkl https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/opinion/home-the-south.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Notes on Going Home

John Lachs (1934-2023) - Reflections on a Life Well Lived (Daily Nous)

by Michael Brodrick

John Lachs, the Hungarian-born American philosopher, author of In Love with Life, The Relevance of Philosophy to Life, and Intermediate Man, passed away on November 14th, 2023 at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. Born on July 17, 1934 in Budapest, Hungary, Lachs was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University.

Lachs was 10 years old on December 29, 1944, the day the Soviet Red Army encircled Budapest. When the city fell, a years-long occupation ensued. Lachs and his parents passed undetected across two patrolled borders while fleeing Hungary. Those hardships were formative. Lachs later described them as “opportunities” to develop his “latent reflective tendencies.” They called to mind “the evanescence of life and the uncontrollability of fortune,” awakening within him a desire to “know about God, the meaning of life, and the right comportment towards death.”

In his decades-long career as a philosophy professor, Lachs made the case for the relevance of philosophy to life. The rise of the modern university wrought a change in the way philosophy was practiced. Philosophy narrowed its horizons. Its largely abstract and theoretical preoccupations bore little resemblance to the ancient quest for the good life. Lachs’s objective was not merely an effort to theorize about philosophy in a different way. Lachs embodied the philosophical ideas he championed in the classroom, in writing, and in leadership positions across the profession.

Lachs first studied philosophy at McGill University. A senior seminar taught by T. G. Henderson introduced him to the writings of Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana. Lachs would eventually become one of the foremost authorities on Santayana and a founding member of the Society for Advancement of American Philosophy.

Lachs earned his PhD from Yale where he studied with the legendary Wilfred Sellars, Paul Weiss, and Brand Blanshard. Sellars and Blanshard co-directed his dissertation. Blanshard, Lachs recalled, was “all encouragement and appreciation,” whereas Sellars was “all critical bite.” Lachs took both approaches to heart, deploying them with equal facility in his own teaching.

Lachs began his distinguished career at the College of William and Mary. He later moved to Vanderbilt University, where he remained for more than 50 years. During his time at Vanderbilt, Lachs taught over 10,000 students in his famous ethics course and was first reader on some 72 doctoral dissertations. Lachs’s generosity and respect for individuals and their choices made him a superb mentor of graduate students. “My tendency,” he explained, “is to let them write on what they wish and derive instruction from how I suggest that they trim their luxuriant growths.”

Lachs penned some 21 books and more than 150 articles. Each of these contributes to a sophisticated professional discourse, while at the same time asking a simple question: How can philosophy improve our lives? Lachs recalled learning from Santayana that “the ultimate issue in philosophy and in everyday life is the health of one’s soul.” For Lachs, the professional activities of the professor went hand in glove with the personal quest for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment.

Lachs’s belief in the personal and social value of philosophy prompted him to write one of his most celebrated books, In Love with Life: Reflections on the Joy of Living and Why We Hate to Die. In it, Lachs offers philosophy to the general public, showing in part how reflection can help us cope with life’s challenges, including fear, pain, and suffering. An important caveat is that, for Lachs, philosophy is more than just a consolation for life’s ills: it is an inherently delightful activity by which we learn how to live our best lives.

Observing the overwhelming response to In Love with Life, Lachs wrote that it showed him “the magnitude of the need people experience for philosophical reflections on what they do and what befalls them.” Lachs would continue to advance the project of meeting that need as chair of the American Philosophical Association’s Centennial Committee.

Lachs lived the pragmatism of William James, C.S. Peirce, and John Dewey, embodying the objective of improving the human condition. Whether he was preparing a graduate student for professional success, bringing philosophy to the local community, publishing on the latest problems in biomedical ethics, or listening attentively while a friend confided in him, Lachs’s default posture, as he described it, was “energetic assault upon the world.” His aim was always to make life better.

Everyday life, for Lachs, offered innumerable occasions for joy. There was the pleasure of scratching one’s head, of sitting in the sun, of frolicking in a freshly raked pile of leaves. There was the beauty of the redbud trees when they bloomed in spring. There was Mozart’s music, friendly conversation, and holding hands with your sweetheart. Lachs’s word for moments of that sort was “self-justifying.”

While Lachs considered himself an optimist, he made a point of adding that optimism, for humans, is possible only in the short term. “Pain and eventual loss,” he wrote, “appear to me inevitable elements of the human condition.” In relation to those elements, Lachs lived the philosophy of the Stoics. “At the point where we run out of ameliorative strategies,” he conceded, “graceful acceptance of whatever fate may throw our way makes for inner peace and better life.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, upon the death of his friend Thoreau, observed that his friend could not be contained within the bounds of any role or profession, for Thoreau “[aimed] at a much more comprehensive calling, the art of living well.” Lachs heard and responded to the same calling. He articulated, taught, and demonstrated the art of living well to the highest degree. His life enriched this world immeasurably. His passing leaves a void equally immeasurable. May our memories of him remind us of the good things life holds and help us rejoice in them.

https://dailynous.com/2023/11/17/john-lachs-1934-2023/

John Lachs Obituary 2023 - Harpeth Hills Memory Garden, Funeral Home, & Cremation Center

John Lachs

July 17, 1934 — November 14, 2023

Nashville

 

Dr. John Lachs died peacefully at his home in Nashville on November 14, 2023, surrounded by family, friends, caregivers, and his beloved cats. His death was followed by a most spectacular sunset, which was seen from his house across the city to the Vanderbilt University campus. He frequently enjoyed the sunset from his home, and encouraged others to join him in doing so, and those present thought of it as his gift as he departed from a wonderful life.

Over a distinguished career in academia spanning more than 50 years, John was known as a brilliant mind and a generous friend to thousands of students and colleagues. As Centennial Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt, he was frequently recognized for his unique ability to engage with his students on challenging topics about human nature, receiving the Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the Vanderbilt Alumni Education Award twice, in addition to other honors.

John was a dynamic presence within the Vanderbilt community. His Introduction to Ethics class was the subject of campus legend as one of the most sought-after courses among students of all backgrounds and majors. Over the years, he enthusiastically imparted his inimitable mix of wisdom, critical thinking, and humor to more than 10,000 students – leading him to remark that he taught many of his former students’ grandchildren. He directed more than 70 dissertations over the course of his tenure and helped guide his graduate students toward their careers. He greatly appreciated in his students their questioning nature and always sought to support and encourage their individual pathways.

John was a prolific thinker and writer. His work in philosophy carried on the insights of the American pragmatist tradition, the serious vigor of the philosophy of George Santayana, and the ancient Stoic school’s precepts of dignity and acceptance. His nine books and more than 150 professional articles were devoted to making the case for protecting liberty, valuing individuality, and making room to appreciate the fact that life is finite. In Love With Life, the title of one of his books, is an apt description of his philosophical and personal dispositions.  

John Lachs was born in Budapest, Hungary on July 17, 1934. He lived through World War II as a child and emigrated with his parents to Montreal, Canada in 1951. He attended McGill University and graduated with his bachelors degree in 1956 and his masters degree in 1957. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale in 1961. He began his teaching career in the Philosophy Department at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1959, and subsequently joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1967, where he continued his work until his retirement in 2021.

John’s devotion to his work was only surpassed by his deep love and affection for his family. He married the love of his life, Shirley Mellow, in 1967 and they spent the next 49 years together until her death in 2016. They raised two children, Sheila Marie and James Richard. John and Shirley loved to write, spend time at their beach home in Florida, and travel together, especially to New York City. They enjoyed every meal in each other’s company. They elicited the best in one other and brought a special joy to their friends. The loss of his wife and best friend was extremely difficult for John, and his family is grateful that they are now reunited.

John had an enduring love of life and enthusiasm for living. He enjoyed many things: listening to classical music, observing nature, watching the sunset, eating sweet desserts, feeding anyone and everyone (including the buzzards visiting his yard), and being helpful to others. He loved spending time with and watching the interactions of his cats, Lucy and Socrates. He was generous to all in need.

The family would like to thank Alive Hospice as well as the caregivers who made his life comfortable during his last few months: Dominique Hanserd, Kaland Jones, Malenche Marable, Everette Martin, Martha Morrow, Krystal Nabors, Kate Pearse, Aamore Pryor-Pruitt, and Lena Roach. Special thanks go out to his colleagues, former students, and friends, too many to name, for beautiful visits and times of connection, always and especially during the last three months.

A memorial service will be held on December 16 at 2pm at Benton Chapel at Vanderbilt University, with a reception afterwards. All are welcome. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the animal rescue organization of your choice or to Vanderbilt University to the John Lachs Ethics Research and Engagement Fund.

https://www.harpethhills.com/obituaries/john-lachs

John Lachs Obituary - Death Notice and Service Information

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/john-lachs-obituary?pid=

Eric Weber says thanks

He found his Lyceum experience energizing…

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzxdNeONEjs/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Freedom in Education

A Philosophical Critique of Current Conflicts in Education. Dr. Eric Weber (UKy) will deliver this afternoon's Fall 2023 Applied Philosophy Lyceum at Middle Tennessee State University.


http://dlvr.it/SyzB40

Lyceum

 It's Lyceum Day, we'll welcome Eric Weber from UKY to discuss Freedom in Education...

And a glance back at one of my last tweets, before the platform got thoroughly Musked and Xed, recalls why I wanted to invite Eric in the first place:

On a day Budapest native John Lachs was honored at Vandy, and @PhilosophyBB’s Eric Weber spoke brilliantly of the crisis in American public education… “Still work to be done” @erictweber https://t.co/JcjzifGFhb

October 16, 2022

==

Thanks to Nancy for dis-ambiguating the headline...

‘Freedom in Education’ topic of public philosophy lecture set for Nov. 17 at MTSU

• by NANCY DEGENNARO
 
• 13 NOVEMBER 2023
 
• TOP STORIES

The importance and limitations of attending to parental wishes in public schools will be the focus of the 2023 Applied Philosophy Lyceum at Middle Tennessee State University.

Dr. Eric Thomas Weber

Author Eric Thomas Weber, associate professor of educational policy studies and evaluation at the University of Kentucky, will give a free public lecture on “Freedom in Education: A Philosophical Critique of Current Conflicts in Educational Policy” at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17, in Room 164 at the College of Education Building.

In the talk, Weber will defend the importance of students’ and teachers’ freedom to challenge the overreach of parental views that seek to silence the lived experiences of marginalized groups.

“In effect, I will argue that parents’ rights are indeed important, but must be understood to be limited,” said Weber, whose essay on the topic will appear in Transactions of the Charles S. Pierce Society American philosophy journal.

Weber’s lecture ispresented by the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies in the MTSU College of Liberal Arts.

The topic for the lyceum was prompted by recent aggressive movements by a small minority of parents involving themselves in protests against decisions of professional educators regarding materials deemed appropriate for classrooms.

“That movement has been quite visible in Middle Tennessee lately, with parents attending school board meetings and creating hostility that sometimes has spilled even into the threat of violence,” explained Phil Oliver, associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at MTSU.

In July, Tennessee state law went into effect that puts book publishers, sellers and distributors at risk of prosecution for providing what is deemed “obscene materials” to public schools.

Dr. Phil Oliver

“A free society cannot endure when a vocal but ill-informed and anti-intellectual minority is allowed to suppress the best pedagogical practice and judgment of trained educators,” Oliver said.

Oliver said parents and guardians are naturally concerned about what their children are taught in schools. Some lament what they feel is a lack of control over curricula and what are thought to be forces or agendas they believe are not in kids’ best interests.

But there are issues with blanket decisions based on a small minority in opposition, Weber said.

“Because public schools are a shared endeavor, such that imposition on others must be taken into account,” Weber said. “And secondly, because students and teachers have interests and rights as well, morally and educationally, such that we must understand there to be a balance to strike.”

Following Weber’s talk, the floor will open for a Q&A session regarding the topic. There will also be a post-event reception.

The Applied Philosophy Lyceum, which was conceived with Aristotle’s Lyceum in mind, was created in 1992. The public lecture aims to stimulate private reflection and public reasoning. Over the years, topics have ranged from environmental ethics to theories of love and friendship.

The College of Education Building is located at 1756 MTSU Blvd. For off-campus visitors attending the event, a searchable campus parking map is at http://bit.ly/MTSUParkingMap.

For more information, contact the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at 615-898-2907.

— Nancy DeGennaro (Nancy.DeGennaro@mtsu.edu)

POSTSCRIPT--

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A City in Tennessee Banned Public Homosexuality—and We All Missed It

More embarrassing national publicity for our town.

A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.

Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning "indecent behavior," including "indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct." As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality... (continues)

https://newrepublic.com/post/176915/tennessee-town-ban-public-homosexuality

https://newrepublic.com/post/176915/tennessee-town-ban-public-homosexuality

Immediacy and “the values that make our existence worthwhile”

It's hard to pick just one word to characterize the personal resonance in memory of my mentor and friend John Lachs. Guess I'll go with delight (closely rivaled by decency, energy, honesty)…

But ask me to free-associate one word with the philosophy of John Lachs, and it wouldn't be libertarian, Santayanan, pragmatist, stoic, or anything else than immediacy.

"…rejection of immediacy entangled Hegel in a thicket of mistakes. He failed to do justice to consciousness as actually lived, to that flow of unreflective and unverbalized awareness of which much of everyday life consists. As a result, he left no room in his system for the privacy and individuality that escape description in universal terms, but that constitute the heartbeat of personal consciousness. And because of this misunderstanding of the nature of consciousness, he thought he could assign it to institutions, to states, and to an abstract, cosmic spirit seeking self-realization in history. Misplacing consciousness led him to misplace the source of agency as well—he thought that concepts, social forces, and such impersonal abstractions as reason are the ultimate sources of whatever takes place.

An adequate theory of mediation must rectify these errors. It must strike a proper balance between mediation and immediacy, assuming at the proper times the perspective of individual awareness. It must limit the assignment of consciousness to living animals alone. And it must lodge agency where it rightfully belongs, on the ontological level of particular persons. Without this, social life cannot be seen to have private costs at all. The truth is that "the litany of lamentations" of which, from the standpoint of suffering individuals, so much of history consists, constituted for Hegel neither loss nor cost. For he viewed the pain in its objectivity, the way scientists observe the death-struggle of flies caught in a spider's web or well-fed generals the discomfort of their starving soldiers. But suffering merely seen and described loses its hurt; it ceases to be pain. Without proper attention to the private soul, without deep sympathy for how things feel, theories of alienation remain laughable.

Peirce called himself a Hegelian. There are a number of reasons why the designation is appropriate. Fortunately, however, Peirce's faith in the power of thought did not blind him to the reality and importance of immediacy. He knew that Hegel went too far in denying all immediacy and, with it, the significance or even the possibility of a private, subjective life. Fortunately, Peirce corrected Hegel's tragic denial. He saw that the qualitative feel of things is an ineliminable and unsublatable element of life. His categorial scheme testifies to his belief in the irreducibility of direct experience.

He called such immediate feelings and private apprehensions "firsts" and spoke of them, at least in some places, as necessary conditions of thoughts, laws, or "thirds." With the faithfulness to experience for which he is rightly celebrated, he went so far as to note that even the most exalted thoughts have a certain inexpressible feel to consciousness—in other words, even thirds have firsts. One is tempted to speculate what the last section of the Phenomenology of Spirit would be like had Peirce written it. But, of course, Peirce knew that it could not be written: absolute knowledge would not emerge, he thought, until the completion of infinitely extended inquiry. Was part of his reason for lodging the fulfillment of thought in the indefinite future his realization that no finite mind could accommodate the feel of such omniscience?

Peirce's work in semiotics shows the same respect for irreducible immediacy as we find in his metaphysical speculations. When he discussed signification, he spoke not only of energetic and logical interpretants (seconds and thirds) but also of the emotional interpretant, which is the feeling produced by a sign. Moreover, when he came to distinguish the properties of signs, he was not satisfied to note their "pure demonstrative application" (their physical connection with their object) and their properly cognitive representative function. He also identified their "material qualities," which are the characters they possess in themselves or the way they appear when they stand naked in human consciousness. Direct experiences of this sort, such as the all-pervasive aroma of oranges on Christmas morning, defy analysis, explanation, or even adequate description in words. Yet their reality is undeniable, and Peirce accordingly announced that "the Immediate . . . the Unanalyzable, the Inexplicable, the Unintellectual runs in a continuous stream through our lives." 1

In spite of Peirce's commendable focus on the way things feel to us, immediacy continues to receive little attention in the world of thought. In philosophy, in semiotics, in law and the other professions, thirds occupy pride of place. Our interest is focused on rules and laws, on the intelligible structure of what we do. We seem to think that understanding is possible on the basis of description alone and that living, direct experience, what we might call direct acquaintance, is an impediment to thought. In our urgency to know the outcome of our acts, we overlook how they feel. We appear not to realize that some of the most important consequences we help cause are feelings and emotions. Instead, we relegate private experience to the realm of the "merely subjective" and thereby rob it of dignity and significance. Even worse, some philosophers go so far as to deny the existence of feelings and private minds altogether. In the quiet of their minds, they clearly feel good about holding such positions.

Our disregard of firsts is so thorough that we are unaware of the magnitude of the loss this involves. John Dewey, who accepted Peirce's account of firsts, called such immediate experiences and ideas that which is "had." He thought that in the form of direct enjoyments, these moments constitute the only delights or consummations of which we are capable. They are, in this way, the core of value and goodness: all the instrumentalities of life aim at securing and extending these periods of gratification. Dewey's point is as right as it seems forgotten. Pleasure, satisfaction, enjoyment, and delight can exist only in being had: they are moments of life that can be shared but not expressed, experienced but not explained. In overlooking immediacy, therefore, we decline to pay attention to the values that make our existence worthwhile. If everything is merely a means to some distant objective, we are left with no intrinsically enjoyable ends at all. If everything is public activity and busy work, we are robbed of exhilaration, of joyful absorption in the moment, of the private smile of the soul."

— The Cost of Comfort by John Lachs

JL @dawn

John Lachs

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John Lachs
educator philosopher
John Lachs, Hungarian philosopher, educator. Recipient Award for Advancement of Scholarship Phi Beta Kappa, 1962, Harris Harbison award for distinguished teaching Danforth Foundation, 1967, Chancellor's cup Vanderbilt University, 1970, Madison Sarratt prize excellence undergraduate teaching, 1972, Alumni Education award Vanderbilt University, 1991, Grad Teaching award, 2000, Herbert Schneider award, 1997, Teaching Freshman award, 1999.
Background

Lachs, John was born on July 17, 1934 in Budapest, Hungary. Arrived in United States, 1957. Son of Julius and Magda (Brod) Lachs.
Education

Bachelor of Arts, McGill University, 1956; Master of Arts, McGill University, 1957; Doctor of Philosophy, Yale, 1961.
Career

He served as President of the Metaphysical Society of America in 1997. His style is highly accessible as Lachs is committed to making philosophical questions and their discussion come within the grasp of all his audiences. Lachs is a pragmatist in the tradition of William James and Josiah Royce.

He was President of the William James Society in 2007.

Lachs is the faculty adviser of Young Americans for Liberty at Vanderbilt University and is a libertarian. His philosophical interests center on human nature.

This takes him into metaphysics, philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and ethics. Lachs is general editor of the Encyclopedia of American Philosophy.

An issue of The Journal of Speculative Philosophy will be devoted to his essay "Both Better Office and Better: Moral Progress Amid Continuing Carnage," with responses from a half dozen philosophers.

He is also chair of the American Philosophical Association"s Centennial Committee, charged with celebrating the private value and social usefulness of philosophy. Plans are being made for activities throughout the country, ranging from radio programs to book signings and coffee house conversations, designed to show the relevance of philosophy to life.

Achievements
John Lachs has been listed as a noteworthy Philosopher, educator by Marquis Who's Who.
Works



(Designed to guide the student or scholar through the maze...)
The Relevance of Philosophy to Life (The Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy)

(With The Relevance of Philosophy to Life, eminent America...)
Thinking in the Ruins: Wittgenstein and Santayana on Contingency (The Vanderbilt Library of American Philosophy)

(While Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) and George Santayan...)
On Santayana (Wadsworth Philosopher)

(ON SANTAYANA, like other titles in the Wadsworth Philosop...)All works
Views

His primary focus is on American philosophy (he has written a book and several articles on George Santayana) and German Idealism. He has continuing research interests in American philosophy and in German Idealism, along with research and teaching interests in medical and business ethics.
Membership

Past chairman Tennessee Committee for Humanities. Member International Neoplatonic Society, World Sociology Association (alienation research committee), American Academy Political and Social Science, American Philosophical Association, Metaphys. Society American (past president), Royal Institute Philosophy, Society Advancement American Philosophy (past president), Society Health and Human Values, Christian Science Peirce Society (past president), Virginia Philosophical Association, Tennessee Philosophical Association, Southern Society.Philosophy and Psychology, Hasting Center.
Connections

Married Shirley Marie Mellow, June 3, 1967. Children: Sheila Marie, James Richard.Father:Julius Lachs. Mother:Magda (Brod) Lachs, Spouse:Shirley Marie Mellow, child:Sheila Marie Lachs, 
child:James Richard Lachs. https://prabook.com/web/john.lachs/435166

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Apr 2, 2021


Centennial Professor of Philosophy John Lachs will retire and receive emeritus status on Aug. 15, after more than 50 years of teaching at Vanderbilt University. Lachs’ thought-provoking lectures have been perennial favorites among not only students but also many alumni, who eagerly have signed up for his many appearances at Reunion and Vanderbilt Chapter events.

“Professor Lachs’ scholarly insights and engaging teaching style have left an immeasurable imprint on Vanderbilt,” said John Geer, the Ginny and Conner Searcy Dean of the College of Arts and Science and professor of political science. “He has influenced countless lives by making philosophy remarkably accessible to everyone. You can’t help but come away from a discussion with Professor Lachs feeling as though you see the world—and yourself—a bit more clearly than you did before. I am grateful for his many years of service to the College of Arts and Science. His retirement is well deserved, and I wish him the very best.”

Lachs, who received his doctorate from Yale University in 1961, joined Vanderbilt’s faculty in 1967. His philosophical interests have centered on metaphysics, political philosophy and ethics, with a particular focus on American philosophy and German Idealism. He is the author of multiple books, including most recently Meddling: On the Virtue of Leaving Others Alone (Indiana University Press, 2014) and Freedom and Limits (Fordham University Press, 2014).

During his more than half-century on campus, Lachs is proud to have taught more than 10,000 Vanderbilt students who enrolled in his highly popular Introduction to Ethics course. He also was the first reader on 72 graduate student dissertations, an extraordinary number for any faculty member.

“It’s incredibly rewarding when I come across alumni of all ages who share great memories from their time in my classes,” Lachs said. “And some of my former students are now sending their grandchildren to my lectures. I’m deeply grateful to have been able to evoke so many Vanderbilt students’ enduring passion for ethics.”

Lachs, who received the Vanderbilt Alumni Education Award twice for his significant contributions to educational programming as a speaker for Reunion and other alumni events, has been a popular instructor for classes offered through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt.

In recognition of Lachs’ contributions to learning at Vanderbilt, alumni couple Elizabeth Sauereisen Allen, BS’83, and Greg Allen, BA’84, are helping to establish the endowed John Lachs Ethics Research and Engagement Fund, which will support undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. The couple will match all contributions to the fund, up to $50,000, made by June 30, 2021.

“Professor Lachs has changed the way multiple generations of Vanderbilt graduates view the world,” said Greg Allen, who earned his bachelor’s in philosophy. “In particular, he has provided a solid foundation in ethics for so many students, and both Elizabeth and I want to ensure that this important legacy remains part of the Vanderbilt experience for years to come.”

The Allens are active within the university community. Greg is a member of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust, and Elizabeth serves on the College of Arts and Science Board of Advisors. In addition to a need-based scholarship at the College of Arts and Science, they have established the Sauereisen Director of the Undergraduate Business Minor Program, the Greg S. Allen Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow in Philosophy, and the Greg S. Allen Dean’s Faculty Fellow in Philosophy. The couple has four children, including Vanderbilt graduate Erik Allen, BA’15.

Help Vanderbilt honor Lachs by sharing a special memory or note of congratulations.

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To the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy:

I write to share the sad news that John Lachs, a founder and beloved leader of our Society, passed this afternoon. We will of course remember John and his vital contributions to American philosophy at our 2024 meeting in Boston. Information about the memorial will be shared as soon as it's available. For now, his friend Herman Saatkamp shares this brief tribute:

"John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Vanderbilt University, passed away on November 14, 2023. He was instrumental in forming the Society of the Advancement of American Philosophy, the Santayana Society, The Works of George Santayana, and many other organizations and publications related to philosophical scholarship. He retired in 2021 after teaching at Vanderbilt from 1967. His influence on our profession, students and colleagues will remain a central feature of American philosophy.  He lived his philosophy, was in love with life, and was remarkable in facing death."
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