I finished Great Short Works of Joseph Conrad yesterday after a month long struggle. It's not that I didn't enjoy the book because I did, it's just that as an anthology I think I found myself bored with some of the repetitive nature of the stories. I think I would have enjoyed them better in isolation. This particular book included the stories An Outpost of Progress, The Lagoon, The Nigger of the Narcissus, Youth, Heart of Darkness, Typhoon and The Secret Sharer. Youth and Typhoon were my favorites.
An Outpost of Progress was the first ever story I've read of Joseph Conrad. It was in my opinion, better than Heart of Darkness; but, as I stated above, I think that I would have enjoyed reading Heart of Darkness if I hadn't read four other short stories by Conrad right before. I was surprised by Outpost in what it was. I was assuming that Conrad was going to be a bit more, how can I put it, burden-of-the-white-man friendly. While there are some elements of his time that we might find distasteful in a 21st century context, he wasn't as Colonialist or Imperialist in his perspective as I had preconceived. Outpost is the prime example of this as he is much more introspective and questions the morality of colonialism by showing the two white characters as a bit stupid.
I found Youth and Typhoon the most entertaining because of the subject matter. Generally speaking, I like to have a book take me outside of the norms of my everyday life. Conrad was writing about everyday life, but I am removed enough from the seafaring days of the late 19th century, early 20th century that it might he might as well have been writing a fantasy novel for me. Youth and Typhoon were the most fantastic. The Nigger of the Narcissus was an interesting tale as it took a classical myth and turned it into a dark play on the story set in contemporary times. Heart of Darkness was slow-going for me because I was getting restless with reading Conrad stories. It is on my list of things to read still because I have a stand-alone copy. I was about to take it off that list and realized that I should read it in isolation to get a better understanding of it and to take it on its own footing. The Secret Sharer was rather bland for me. The Lagoon was good, but nothing overly remarkable.
The Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus was an interesting read because it covers Conrad's theory on Aesthetics and Art. He describes art as "a single-minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying in its every aspect. It is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colors, in its light, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in the facts of life, what of each is fundamental, what is enduring and essential - their one illuminating and convincing quality - the very truth of their existence" (Conrad, 57). For Conrad, then art is the attempt at discovering truth. He contrasts artists with scientists and thinkers. The scientists and thinkers speak to man's common sense, to his intellect and to his desire of peace. They speak to man's desire to believe. Artists however appeal to man's sense of wonder. Artists appeal to the parts of man that are hidden behind their appeal for order and facts.
"Fiction - if it at all aspires to be art - appeals to temperament. And in truth it must be, like painting, like music, like all art, the appeal of one temperament to all the other innumerable temperaments whose subtle and resistless power endows passing events with their true meaning, and creates the moral, the emotional atmosphere of the place and time. Such an appeal, to be effective, must be an impression conveyed through the senses; and, in fact, it cannot be made in any other way, because temperament, whether individual or collective, is not amenable to persuasion. All art, therefore, appeals primarily to the senses, and the artistic aim when expressing itself in written words must also make its appeal through the senses, if its high desire is to reach the secret spring of responsive emotions" (Conrad, 58). For Conrad then, writing is about eliciting an emotion from a reader. It has to appeal to the senses in order to reach that area where man hides his emotions. Interestingly, he states that writing must achieve the plasticity of sculpture, the color of painting and the magic suggestiveness of music. He calls music the "art of arts". I find that an author calling music the art of arts an interesting occurrence. It suggests a humility in Conrad. To achieve the aim of becoming art, Conrad demands that the form be perfect so that the end can be achieved. His chief aim is "to make you see" through his prose.
"Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. And thus, doubtful of of strength to travel so far, we talk a little about the aim - the aim of art, which, like life itself, is inspiring, difficult - obscured by mists. It is not in the clear logic of a triumphant conclusion; it is not in the unveiling of one of those heartless secrets which are called the Laws of Nature. It is not less great, but only more difficult" (Conrad, 60). The aim of art is to arrest, however briefly, the busy workers of earth and compel them to glance a moment at the object of art, to make them smile. And while this is an intensely difficult task, when that smile, when that moment of pause does occur "behold! - all the truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile - and the return to an eternal rest" (Conrad, 60). It's an interesting theory of aesthetics and one that demands a little more study from me.
The one part that I found incredibly interesting in Heart of Darkness is the Russian fellow who becomes enamored with Kurtz. This son of an Arch-Priest of the Government of Tambov is going to make an excellent short-story character. My aim will be to enlarge his mind further.
Friday, August 26, 2016
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
The Form of Goodness and Plato's physics
(Originally written August 24, 2016 in Book 26)
The Form of Goodness gives the objects of knowledge (the forms) their truth. "It is the course of knowledge and truth; and so, while you may think of it as an object of knowledge, you will do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge" (Jones, 133). The form of the good gives not only the other forms their truth and ability to be known, but their very being.
For Plato, all knowledge comes through the dialectic. Thus, one must live near and converse with a good-souled man to pick up knowledge. The truth of the forms comes not in tidy little maxims, but in conversation. A moral and intellectual osmosis occurs naturally over time between the two seekers. But, if not everyone can have this opportunity, Plato offers his myths (analogies) to give some light on the truth. These myths are not descriptions of reality, but imitations.
For Plato, man was not merely a curious observer of the universe. The forms (objects of knowledge) were not simple, brute facts to be acquired. Man is moral, aesthetic social and religious in nature. The forms are likewise such. "The world and man form an organic unity. The reality out there waiting to be known is somehow consonant with the moral knower" (Jones, 135).
The assent to learning the form of Goodness is difficult, painful and isolating. But it is worth the effort and trials. "Without having had a vision of this form no one can act with wisdom, either in his own life or in matters of state" (Jones, 137).
The assent to knowledge is isolating because the majority who have not yet ascended live in ignorance and prejudice without realizing they are living in that state and worse, one happy imn their ignorance.
One of Plato's central themes is the social nature of man. Being social he has moral obligations. Being social in nature, man is likewise obligated to his society. When he learns the form of the Good he is obligated to teach it to others and use it in his public affairs.
Man finds his life worth living as he contemplates absolute beauty, essential beauty.
For Plato, beauty is truth and truth is beauty.
Both The Republic and Symposium highlight the essential social aspect of man in ascending towards knowledge. "If one reaches the top it is only beacause of an opportunity for association with some initiate who has been willing to descend again into the cave" (Jones, 143).
The dialectic is essential to the acquisition of knowledge because knowledge of the truth (Beauty, the form of the good) is a cooperative advancement towards the good.
Plato believed that the knowledge of things like justice and equality could not come to man from empirical sources, but empirical sources show how equal things are not absolute equality, but fall short. He argues that we know absolute equality prior to birth because absolute equality is not physical.
1) Either we know something or nothing
2) We know at least one thing
3) There is at least one thing known
4) Knowledge is possible
5) "Forms exist, for only forms have the characteristics immutability, eternity, requisite for knowledge" (Jones, 145).
The proofs for forms from Plato are weak because instead of offering conclusive evidence of the forms it hangs on the inability of others to refute it. Problematically for Plato is that just because an arguer cannot refute the existence of forms doesn't mean that a refutation doesn't exist or that the arguer might not come up with one in the future.
Chapter 5 - Plato: the special sciences
Physics
Only Timaeus (of all Plato's dialogues) takes a deep interest in physics. Plato thought finding the truth about man, and politics more important than discovering the nature of the physical world. Besides that, he thought the effort futile because of the nature of the physical world and the failures of earlier philosophers to come to agreement on that nature.
The thesis of Timaeus, "if physics is about the phsycial world, it is not knowledge; if it is knowledge, it is not about the physical world (Jones, 148).
The physical world is merely a changing likeness of the eternal forms so any physics conclusion is a mere opinion.
Physics offers mechanistic descriptions, which are far less important to Plato than teleological explanations (causes).
Plato denied that colors are self-existent: the color anyone experiences is really just a change in the motion passing from the object and the observer's eye.
Everything sensible is an imitation of some form - the reflection of the corresponding form in some medium.
The medium for these imitations is space. Space is unintelligible and essentially resistant to rational analysis. The only analysis one can give about space (the medium by which all sensible objects appear to observers) is that it is, and that it must be.
The basic stuff of Plato's physical theory are the sensible images of the four forms earth, fire, water and air.
Plato concieved the physical world in geometrical principles and assumed that anlysis of the physical world could be done via geometry.
The geometry of physics can be further reduced to arithmetic because the geometrical nature of the four elements can be reduced to numbers. But in this reduction physics begins to cease being about the sensible world through rationalization and thus, ceases to be physics and becomes about the forms.
The Form of Goodness gives the objects of knowledge (the forms) their truth. "It is the course of knowledge and truth; and so, while you may think of it as an object of knowledge, you will do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge" (Jones, 133). The form of the good gives not only the other forms their truth and ability to be known, but their very being.
For Plato, all knowledge comes through the dialectic. Thus, one must live near and converse with a good-souled man to pick up knowledge. The truth of the forms comes not in tidy little maxims, but in conversation. A moral and intellectual osmosis occurs naturally over time between the two seekers. But, if not everyone can have this opportunity, Plato offers his myths (analogies) to give some light on the truth. These myths are not descriptions of reality, but imitations.
For Plato, man was not merely a curious observer of the universe. The forms (objects of knowledge) were not simple, brute facts to be acquired. Man is moral, aesthetic social and religious in nature. The forms are likewise such. "The world and man form an organic unity. The reality out there waiting to be known is somehow consonant with the moral knower" (Jones, 135).
The assent to learning the form of Goodness is difficult, painful and isolating. But it is worth the effort and trials. "Without having had a vision of this form no one can act with wisdom, either in his own life or in matters of state" (Jones, 137).
The assent to knowledge is isolating because the majority who have not yet ascended live in ignorance and prejudice without realizing they are living in that state and worse, one happy imn their ignorance.
One of Plato's central themes is the social nature of man. Being social he has moral obligations. Being social in nature, man is likewise obligated to his society. When he learns the form of the Good he is obligated to teach it to others and use it in his public affairs.
Man finds his life worth living as he contemplates absolute beauty, essential beauty.
For Plato, beauty is truth and truth is beauty.
Both The Republic and Symposium highlight the essential social aspect of man in ascending towards knowledge. "If one reaches the top it is only beacause of an opportunity for association with some initiate who has been willing to descend again into the cave" (Jones, 143).
The dialectic is essential to the acquisition of knowledge because knowledge of the truth (Beauty, the form of the good) is a cooperative advancement towards the good.
Plato believed that the knowledge of things like justice and equality could not come to man from empirical sources, but empirical sources show how equal things are not absolute equality, but fall short. He argues that we know absolute equality prior to birth because absolute equality is not physical.
1) Either we know something or nothing
2) We know at least one thing
3) There is at least one thing known
4) Knowledge is possible
5) "Forms exist, for only forms have the characteristics immutability, eternity, requisite for knowledge" (Jones, 145).
The proofs for forms from Plato are weak because instead of offering conclusive evidence of the forms it hangs on the inability of others to refute it. Problematically for Plato is that just because an arguer cannot refute the existence of forms doesn't mean that a refutation doesn't exist or that the arguer might not come up with one in the future.
Chapter 5 - Plato: the special sciences
Physics
Only Timaeus (of all Plato's dialogues) takes a deep interest in physics. Plato thought finding the truth about man, and politics more important than discovering the nature of the physical world. Besides that, he thought the effort futile because of the nature of the physical world and the failures of earlier philosophers to come to agreement on that nature.
The thesis of Timaeus, "if physics is about the phsycial world, it is not knowledge; if it is knowledge, it is not about the physical world (Jones, 148).
The physical world is merely a changing likeness of the eternal forms so any physics conclusion is a mere opinion.
Physics offers mechanistic descriptions, which are far less important to Plato than teleological explanations (causes).
Plato denied that colors are self-existent: the color anyone experiences is really just a change in the motion passing from the object and the observer's eye.
Everything sensible is an imitation of some form - the reflection of the corresponding form in some medium.
The medium for these imitations is space. Space is unintelligible and essentially resistant to rational analysis. The only analysis one can give about space (the medium by which all sensible objects appear to observers) is that it is, and that it must be.
The basic stuff of Plato's physical theory are the sensible images of the four forms earth, fire, water and air.
Plato concieved the physical world in geometrical principles and assumed that anlysis of the physical world could be done via geometry.
The geometry of physics can be further reduced to arithmetic because the geometrical nature of the four elements can be reduced to numbers. But in this reduction physics begins to cease being about the sensible world through rationalization and thus, ceases to be physics and becomes about the forms.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Plato's theory of ideas
(Originally written August 10, 2016 in Book 26)
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
Ch. 4 - Plato: The theory of ideas (continued)
For Plato, a good state for good men to live in was only achievable when philosphers became kings or kings became philosophers. Democracy was a failure because it was ruled by many and the many were ignorant, emotionally unstable and selfish.
Plato was both mystical and rational in his teachings.
Plato's primary concern was to discover the basis for a good state where a good man can be moral and happy. In order to answer the questions like, "what is a good state?" or, "what is morality?" Plato had to show that these questions were answerable. He had to prove the existence of knowledge and the capacity to have it. "Plato realized that these problems about change, the one and the many, and appearance and reality had to be solved before he could satisfactorily answer the Sophists" (Jones, 122).
Plato solved the dilemma of Heraclitus' flux and Parmenides' nothing changes by claiming there are two worlds. The physical world is Heraclitus' perpetual flux. The world of ideas is however, like Parmenides' immutable, unchanging world. Unlike man's ideas which owe their reality to a particular man, the ideas of Plato's theory owed their own reality and it was more real than the physical world. These are the "forms".
The forms are non-physical, non-spatial and non-temporal. These forms cannot be known through perception. They are only objects of pure thought.
If for instance one is thinking about a triangle, he is thinking about the form triangle, not a particular triangle in the world; but, the universal one. The particular triangle he is seeing is an example that is participating in the universal triangle existing in the world of ideas.
The physical objects of this world aid man in thinking about the universal forms that those objects participate in (pertain to/resemble).
"In this physical world, then, everything is changing and nothing is ever exactly what it is; it is always becoming something different. In the world of forms, however, everything (as Bishop Butler said in another connection) is always that it is and not another thing" (Jones, 126). Because we think about the forms that are unchanging and not about the objects of this world that are changin, we can possess knowledge.
There are four states of mind: intelligence, thinking, belief and imagining. Intelligence is the highest state with the most larity and certainty. Imagining is the lowest.
Of the physical world one can have an opinion, not knowledge. He uses his imagination to percieve images, shadows and reflections. He may have beliefs about things or objects.
But, of the world of forms he may have knowledge. He thinks about the lower forms, the forms of things or objects in the physical world that participate in said form; i.e. He percieves a dog, Gallifrey, and has opinion of him but thinking, he thinks of dog, the universal form in which Gallifrey, a particular dog, participates in. Of the higher forms though, he uses intelligence or intuition to form knowledge. These higher forms are the ethereal forms.
Belief illuminates imagination. Knowledge illuminates belief and imagination. Intelligence illuminates all.
Each step up to the highest form illuminates everything beneath it. It frees the knower from conditions on his knowledge. If one were to get to the pinnacle of illumination he would intuitively know the form of the good.
The Classical Mind
W.T. Jones
Ch. 4 - Plato: The theory of ideas (continued)
For Plato, a good state for good men to live in was only achievable when philosphers became kings or kings became philosophers. Democracy was a failure because it was ruled by many and the many were ignorant, emotionally unstable and selfish.
Plato was both mystical and rational in his teachings.
Plato's primary concern was to discover the basis for a good state where a good man can be moral and happy. In order to answer the questions like, "what is a good state?" or, "what is morality?" Plato had to show that these questions were answerable. He had to prove the existence of knowledge and the capacity to have it. "Plato realized that these problems about change, the one and the many, and appearance and reality had to be solved before he could satisfactorily answer the Sophists" (Jones, 122).
Plato solved the dilemma of Heraclitus' flux and Parmenides' nothing changes by claiming there are two worlds. The physical world is Heraclitus' perpetual flux. The world of ideas is however, like Parmenides' immutable, unchanging world. Unlike man's ideas which owe their reality to a particular man, the ideas of Plato's theory owed their own reality and it was more real than the physical world. These are the "forms".
The forms are non-physical, non-spatial and non-temporal. These forms cannot be known through perception. They are only objects of pure thought.
If for instance one is thinking about a triangle, he is thinking about the form triangle, not a particular triangle in the world; but, the universal one. The particular triangle he is seeing is an example that is participating in the universal triangle existing in the world of ideas.
The physical objects of this world aid man in thinking about the universal forms that those objects participate in (pertain to/resemble).
"In this physical world, then, everything is changing and nothing is ever exactly what it is; it is always becoming something different. In the world of forms, however, everything (as Bishop Butler said in another connection) is always that it is and not another thing" (Jones, 126). Because we think about the forms that are unchanging and not about the objects of this world that are changin, we can possess knowledge.
There are four states of mind: intelligence, thinking, belief and imagining. Intelligence is the highest state with the most larity and certainty. Imagining is the lowest.
Of the physical world one can have an opinion, not knowledge. He uses his imagination to percieve images, shadows and reflections. He may have beliefs about things or objects.
But, of the world of forms he may have knowledge. He thinks about the lower forms, the forms of things or objects in the physical world that participate in said form; i.e. He percieves a dog, Gallifrey, and has opinion of him but thinking, he thinks of dog, the universal form in which Gallifrey, a particular dog, participates in. Of the higher forms though, he uses intelligence or intuition to form knowledge. These higher forms are the ethereal forms.
Belief illuminates imagination. Knowledge illuminates belief and imagination. Intelligence illuminates all.
Each step up to the highest form illuminates everything beneath it. It frees the knower from conditions on his knowledge. If one were to get to the pinnacle of illumination he would intuitively know the form of the good.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Two Short ideas concerning Socrates
1) Write a dialogue in Platonic style called Asclepius' Cock. Have him wonder why Socrates gave him the cock upon his death. The end of the story is that Socrates was giving him a cock, as is customary when one recovers from illness and the illness that Socrates has just recovered from was life.
2) Write a short story about the executioner of Socrates and his reaction to the whole mess.
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