Ordered Historical Space and Free Will
I’ve just finished War and Peace. Tolstoy spends quite a lot of time exploring the inevitability of history. Though it appears that such a stance finds itself wholly in the predestination camp, I am not sure the predestination camp is where his stance actually belongs, necessarily. If innumerable free-wills form a composite active mass, then the resulting outcome is impossible to understand. Tolstoy is quite liberal with his criticism of “historians” who seem to argue from the appearance of connections between a particular result and a free-will agent assumed to be the antecedent. Such an inductive approach would look like the following: N. or A. did (or refused to do) X. and/or Y., therefore Z happened because N. or A. was involved and X....
Aloysius
Britt and I went to a swank party last night with a pretentious theme. The idea was to dress and act as pretentiously as possible. Imagine people in tweed or shooting jackets puffing on pipes or cigars and attempting to quote Umberto Ecco or discussing the latest art house film. I was really close to bringing a teddy bear (named Aloysius) and talking to it adroitly as I sipped my Sherry, a regular Lord Sebastian I would be; but alas, teddy bears are rather inconvenient to lug around so Aloysius stayed home. This party was perfectly set up as to enable me to scratch several drinks off of my list. I don’t want to give the impression that I am really very much like Sebastian, because I’m not; I maintained complete control, and managed to make my...
Que c’est Grand
When it is impossible to stretch the very elastic threads of historical ratiocination any farther, when actions are clearly contrary to all that humanity calls right or even just, the historians produce a saving conception of “greatness.” “Greatness,” it seems, excludes the standards of right and wrong. For the “great” man nothing is wrong, there is no atrocity for which a “great” man can be blamed. “C’est grand [It is great]!” say the historians, and there no longer exists either good or evil but only “grand” and “not grand.” Grand is good, not grand is bad. Grand is the characteristic, in their conception, of some special animals called “heroes.” And...
Goodness
I have felt much more thankful recently; especially for good community. Conversations have been outstanding, notably the ones this past Sunday at lunch with some newer friends. I don’t think I have much to say now, I am simply encouraged and am challenged to develop this simple joy into a richer vibrant fullness, which no doubt, if nurtured, will spring into everything I do. It seems that so much intellectual and creative effort is spent in debunking things, I know that this is the case for me often enough. Perhaps I am being prodded into the more difficult task of uplifting things, or at least of saying something meaningful about goodness itself rather than sidling up to the task by pointing out all the worthlessness of other things in relation to the...
Wit
One of my favorite movies of all time is Wit, which is based off of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Margaret Edson. Really, it is just a filmed version of the play itself, I don’t think anything is actually changed. Emma Thompson stars as Vivian Bearing, the incomparable professor of 17th century metaphysical poetry, i.e. John Donne. Bearing has been diagnosed with advanced metastatic Ovarian cancer, and agreees to an extensively brutal attack of chemotherapy in an experimental effort to wipe out her cancer that has advanced to such a degree it is considered impossible to cure. You really ought to watch it. The play is one about compassion and human suffering, it is about the temptation to exalt knowledge and the search for knowledge...