Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Through the Looking Glass', 'The Sublime and the Good' and 'Letters to Regius'

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8 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / e. Being and nothing
21982 I only wish I had such eyes as to see Nobody! It's as much as I can do to see real people. [Carroll,L]
     Full Idea: "I see nobody on the road," said Alice. - "I only wish I had such eyes," the King remarked. ..."To be able to see Nobody! ...Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people."
     From: Lewis Carroll (C.Dodgson) (Through the Looking Glass [1886], p.189), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.7
     A reaction: [Moore quotes this, inevitably, in a chapter on Hegel] This may be a better candidate for the birth of philosophy of language than Frege's Groundwork.
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism
12251 Substantial forms are not understood, and explain nothing [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Clearly no explanation can be given by these substantial forms for any natural action, since their defenders admit that they are occult and that they do not understand them themselves, ...so they explain nothing.
     From: René Descartes (Letters to Regius [1642], 1642.01), quoted by David S. Oderberg - Real Essentialism 267 n5
     A reaction: [Oderberg gives refs for attack by Locke and Hume, p.66] Descartes' target is Aristotle's hylomorphism. The problem seems to be understanding what Aristotle meant, which is much more than mere 'shape'. More like 'controlling principle'.
21. Aesthetics / B. Nature of Art / 1. Defining Art
22709 We should first decide what are the great works of art, with aesthetic theory following from that [Murdoch]
     Full Idea: Our aesthetic must stand to be judged by great works of art which we know to be such independently. …So let us start by saying that Shakespeare is the greatest of all artists, and let our aesthetic be the philosophical justification of this judgement.
     From: Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.205)
     A reaction: She offers this view in specific contradiction of Tolstoy, which says we should first have a theory, and then judge accordingly. I take Murdoch to be entirely right, but it means that our aesthetic theory will shift over time.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 6. Value of Art
22715 Great art proves the absurdity of art for art's sake [Murdoch]
     Full Idea: The work of the great artists shows up 'art-for-art's-sake' as a flimsy frivolous doctrine.
     From: Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.218)
     A reaction: She keeps referring to tragedy (as the greatest art), but it is hard to see how we learn love and morality from a great pot or a great abstract painting. Wilde makes the doctrine frivolous, but I think it contains a degree of truth. Music.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
22714 Because art is love, it improves us morally [Murdoch]
     Full Idea: It is of course a fact that if art is love then art improves us morally, but this is, as it were, accidental.
     From: Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.218)
     A reaction: Is an enhancement of one's love necessarily a moral improvement? Love is a fine feeling, but how does it motivate? Has no wickedness ever been perpetrated in the name of love? 'All's fair in love and war'.
22712 Art and morals are essentially the same, and are both identical with love [Murdoch]
     Full Idea: Art and morals are (with certain provisos) one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception of individuals.
     From: Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.215)
     A reaction: The idea that art, morals and love are all just a single thing seems unhelpful. What about satire? What about duty without love? What about pure abstract painting? What about Stravinsky's highly formal view of his music?
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / g. Love
22713 Love is realising something other than oneself is real [Murdoch]
     Full Idea: Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.
     From: Iris Murdoch (The Sublime and the Good [1959], p.215)
     A reaction: I suspect that this is a necessary condition for love, but not the thing itself. The realisation she describes may not be love. You would attain her realisation if you shared a prison cell with a terrifying psychopath.
29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / c. Angels
16772 An angelic mind would not experience pain, even when connected to a human body [Descartes, by Pasnau]
     Full Idea: Descartes points out that an angelic mind, even if causally connected to a human body, would not experience the same sort of bodily sensations; it would, instead, simply observe flesh being torn, like a piece of paper.
     From: report of René Descartes (Letters to Regius [1642], III:493) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 25.6
     A reaction: Does that mean that the angel could not have the experience even if it wanted to have it. So they can't pick up a cup either? So they can't make themselves known to us, even if they are desperate to? So the Annunciation never happened?