Sunday, July 29, 2012

Genius should expect to be treated as a fool or a knave

A self-appointed genius that expects all to be in its awe lacks one defining characteristic of genius—a realistic assessment of its appeal. The most foolish thing in any intelligence is an expectation that it will be universally recognized.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Hélas

Oscar Wilde’s 1881 poem “Hélas” begins:

To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?—
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.

Wilde is expressing his reservations about the virtues of the romantic era in comparison to the classical era. Ancient wisdom (Stoicism in particular) offers a regime of “austere control” which aims to make the psyche invulnerable and self-sufficient. Romanticism, on the other hand, makes the psyche vulnerable to “drift with every passion,” making it a “stringed lute on which all winds can play.” The scroll of Wilde’s mind has been written twice—first with the classics, then with romanticism. In the mood the poem expresses, the second writing seems merely “boyish” in comparison to the more mature ancient wisdom. The puerile scribbles of romanticism have merely covered up and marred the profound wisdom of the ancients, wisdom which might otherwise have laid bare the “secret of the whole” of human existence.

The poem continues:

Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life’s dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? ...

Wilde was only 27 when he wrote the poem, so it seems hardly plausible that he is lamenting the demise of his intellect. He seems rather to be wishing he had been born in an earlier time, in which the authority of the classics was still untrammeled by Enlightenment skepticism and Romantic cynicism.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Pragmatism

There are those who would like to redefine truth as what is practical. But in order to ascertain if something is practical, we will need to establish certain facts. Establishing the truth of these facts is either going to lead us to an infinite regress, or, at some point, force us to confront the old fashioned demand to bear witness to the truth.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The lowest common denominator

A business owned by one man or woman will sometimes seek to be profitable, sometimes to be charitable, in accordance with the judgment of that one. A business owned by many men or women must seek to please them all. They are unlikely to have the same objectives in their charity, and can agree only on the one objective of profitability. This, the lowest common denominator, will therefore prevail.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Skepticism

Skepticism is a virtue if it comes at the right time, when we are trying to decide upon the truth or falsity of a claim. If it comes too early, when we have yet to understand what is being claimed—if we use it merely as an excuse to evade the effort to understand points of view different from our own—then it is certainly a vice.