Reflections on Week 22 (May 27 to June 2)

  Link to readings

OK, I'm pretty sure I actually liked this week.

Quick review on this week's readings:

May 27 "Education of The Human Race" by Lessing: 1/5 At least it's not a poem like the similar one last week. I sometimes consider moving these up in the hopes that they're included as examples of how not to think, but that seems like cheating.

May 28 Assorted Poems by Moore: 2/5 Bring back real world Magic flavor text.

May 29 "The Barber's Fifth Brother" From 1001 Nights: 2/5 Bring back weird and/or swashbuckling 1001 Nights excerpts.

May 30 "The Building of The Ship" by Longfellow: 3/5 It's a decent poem. Weirdly rambly metaphor reminds me of the one scene in Human Revolution where the CEO tells you he's the captain of this football battleship company or whatever.

May 31 Intro to Leaves of Grass by Whitman: 4/5 I don't love this, but I think it's one of the best explanations of American Exceptionalism I've ever read.

June 1 Dr. Faustus by Marlowe: 5/5 We love the bad end!

June 2 "Profession of Faith by a Savoyard Vicar" by Rousseau: 4/5 I don't know that I entirely agree with or love Rousseau, but I think he's a very accessible philosopher that makes some good points

Average: 3/5 The first week with an average (saved by my man Kit Marlowe) at or above 3!

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

While I assume I'll find other philosophers I like more, I want to stick a big ol' flag on Rousseau as the guy who needs to be in high school/gen-ed philosophy. He's old enough to be a "safe" classical choice, but his basic points of:

1. Don't be endlessly skeptical for no reason

2. We exist and are affected by things

stand in strong opposition to the navel gazing "everything is pointless" that is so cliché for elementary philosophy. The world is unknowable and you're useless is not inspiring (almost) anyone. We can certainly teach those philosophers, but a more dynamic starting point would do both people (more meaningful life) and philosophy (people actually give a crap about that gen ed) a world of good.

June 5– “Of the Rent of Land” from "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith (1776)

 Rent!

June 5– “Of the Rent of Land” from The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776)

Summary: The more valuable land is, the more rent you can charge for it.

Commentary: The best part about reading historical pieces first hand is seeing all the places where the popular stereotypes about them are wrong. Adam Smith is often held up as some sort of libertarian super-capitalist. In reality, he mostly just talks about market economy in general, and often at least tangentially engages with thought that'd be more associated with socialism or communism today. In this selection, the phrase "rent of the landlord" or a variant like "to the landlord" appears about half a dozen times. In most cases it's like some sort of ghost that skims off the top for no particular reason. It sounds like friction or taxes or something. 

But land, in almost any situation, produces a greater quantity of food than what is sufficient to maintain all the labour necessary for bringing it to market, in the most liberal way in which that labour is ever maintained. The surplus too is always more than sufficient to replace the stock which employed that labour, together with its profits. Something, therefore, always remains for a rent to the landlord.

There's just some extra there for them. In theory, you could argue the landlord maintains/improves the land in order for the farmer to use it more effectively,  thus improving profits for both of them, but the only time anything like this is mentioned is in the context of canals or roads which (at least today) is mostly done by the government (who pays the landlord to use the land for it even!) From a cursory Google, it looks like they mostly paid for it back then too.

We do get this section towards the end:

In a hop garden, a fruit garden, a kitchen garden, both the rent of the landlord, and the profit of the farmer, are generally greater than in a corn or grass field. But to bring the ground into this condition requires more expence. Hence a greater rent becomes due to the landlord. It requires too a more attentive and skilful management. Hence a greater profit becomes due to the farmer.

It's not clear to me what the landlord is doing that the farmer wouldn't. Does the landlord prep the ground and the farmer only plant and tend the crops? It seems like it'd make more sense for the farmer to do all of it than to hope the landlord did it the way they wanted.

Beyond that, some interesting discussion on how different commodities have different prices in different places. He talks a bunch about how meat is cheaper than bread in some less developed areas, but (again through only a brief search) it seems unlikely. Maybe something like squirrel where there's a billion of them everywhere, but he's talking about beef, and they require a lot of grain to make a pound of cow.

June 4– From "Egmont" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1788) translated by Anna Swanwick

 I guess I don't have much choice here I am the Egmont

June 4– From Egmont by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1788) translated by Anna Swanwick

Summary: Reading plays is still hard.

Commentary: We need more theatre with live crossbow firing on stage. I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone shoot a real crossbow live. Maybe a dinky prop one at a Renn Faire, but they struggle to pierce styrofoam at 20 yards.

They mention the Spanish inquisition, so have this:

June 3– From "On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals" by William Harvey (1628) translated by Robert Willis and revised by Alexander Bowie

 Giant Heart!

June 3– From On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals by William Harvey (1628) translated by Robert Willis and revised by Alexander Bowie

Summary:

Commentary: That's a long title. The intro, dedication, etc. is even longer, at about 15 pages. This is followed by another 3 pages of "Author's Motives" which is the start of tonight's section.

I skimmed the intro on the way to the reading, and it seemed more interesting and easier to understand. I don't know if it's the translation, the science, the age of the text, or what, but this one was very challenging to read and understand. There's a lot of obscure scientist name dropping. 

We get this great phrase:  "It becomes erect, hard, and of diminished size during its action..."

June 2– “Profession Of Faith Of A Savoyard Vicar” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) translated by Robert Berman(?)

 Looks thicker, more like vicar!

June 2– “Profession Of Faith Of A Savoyard Vicar” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762) translated by  Robert Berman(?)

Summary: I exist, and stuff exists.

Commentary: This was weirdly appropriate for the start of pride month. Discussion of nature and morality, marriage. 

Pull quote: "In the first place, I know that I exist, and have senses whereby I am affected."

I like to think of it more as, "If I don't exist, what's the point of doing philosophy?" but close enough.

Reflections on Week 21(May 20 to 26)

  Link to readings

Can we just skip to this week's reviews?

Quick review on this week's readings:

May 20 Shakespeare's Sonnets: 3/5 Not the sonnets I would've picked, but I can't complain too much.

May 21 "An Essay on Man" by Pope: 0/5 Fuck your didactic essay-poem.

May 22 I Promessi Sposi by Manzoni: 3/5 We finally get chapter 1!

May 23 Poems by Hood: 3/5 It's Rent!

May 24 Wealth of Nations by Smith: 2.5/5 As I said in my comments, this one really straddles the line between "no, duh" and informative.

May 25 "Heroism" by Emerson: 0/5 It's the opposite of Heroism. If you told me this was satire, I'd believe you.

May 26 King Lear by Shakespeare: 3/5 Two part ones and two Shakespeares! This week almost had potential. 

Weekly Average: 2.1 This was a real rollercoaster.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

Dear Dr. Elliot, how can you put "Heroism", "An Essay on Man", and "The Poetic Principal" in the same collection?

I know we're not supposed to agree with everything in here, and part of it is supposed to show development of thought, but some of these are aggressively bad.

June 1– From "Dr. Faustus" by Christopher Marlowe (1592)

 Let's do a pure audio tonight.

June 1– From Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1592)

Summary: I like the versions of Faust where he goes to hell best.

Commentary: I don't like the last chorus at the end of Dr. Faustus. I saw a version once that just ended with him screaming and getting dragged offstage. It was awesome.