USUPhilosophy

Since several students and faculty members are interested in the intersection of Catholic theology and philosophy, I thought I’d provide a link to an interview with John Haldane, a philosopher at St. Andrews (Scotland). The interview also touches on the thought of Anscombe, whom I know several of you are studying right now.

There is now an entry on “Philosophy of Humor” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It’s serious business, but here’s a passage about Kant’s philosophy of the funny:

Immanuel Kant, a contemporary of Beattie’s, did not used the term incongruous but had an explanation of laughter at jokes and wit that involves incongruity.

In everything that is to excite a lively convulsive laugh there must be something absurd (in which the understanding, therefore, can find no satisfaction). Laughter is an affection arising from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing. This transformation, which is certainly not enjoyable to the understanding, yet indirectly gives it very active enjoyment for a moment. Therefore its cause must consist in the influence of the representation upon the body, and the reflex effect of this upon the mind.

Kant illustrates with this story:

An Indian at the table of an Englishman in Surat, when he saw a bottle of ale opened and all the beer turned into froth and overflowing, testified his great astonishment with many exclamations. When the Englishman asked him, “What is there in this to astonish you so much?” he answered, “I am not at all astonished that it should flow out, but I do wonder how you ever got it in.”

We laugh at this story, Kant says, “not because we deem ourselves cleverer than this ignorant man, or because of anything in it that we note as satisfactory to the understanding, but because our expectation was strained (for a time) and then was suddenly dissipated into nothing.”

“We must note well,” Kant insists, that it [our expectation] does not transform itself into the positive opposite of an expected object… but it must be transformed into nothing.” He illustrates with two more jokes:

The heir of a rich relative wished to arrange for an imposing funeral, but he lamented that he could not properly succeed; ‘for’ (said he) ‘the more money I give my mourners to look sad, the more cheerful they look!’

[A] merchant returning from India to Europe with all his wealth in merchandise … was forced to throw it overboard in a heavy storm and … grieved thereat so much that his wig turned gray the same night.”

which I’m sure we can all appreciate now:

Ever wonder what you should be doing here at college?  What is college for?  Are you here for job training or to be educated?  What is the difference?  What does it mean to be educated, anyway?

If you are interesting in exploring these questions, you are invited to apply to a new College of Humanities and Social Sciences reading group called “What is an Educated Person? – a CHASS Reading Group” which will meet every Tuesday (spring term 2013) from 3:00 to 4:30 in RWST 311.

Expectations: Each week students will read selections from classic and contemporary seminal works on education and the meaning of life, post a brief reading reflection on a blog, and participate in the weekly discussion.  Discussions will be moderated by Dr. Harrison Kleiner and Dr. Susan Shapiro.  While the reading group does not count for USU credit, students may get Honors credit through an Honors Contract.

Thanks to the generous support of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the USU Honors Program, students will receive their program books for free.

Spring 2013 readings:
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (selections)
Plato, The Republic (selections)
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (selections)
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (selections)
Martha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity (selections)

Students of sufficient intellectual maturity who are eager to read, think, and discuss the purposes and meaning of higher education can apply.  We welcome applications from freshman to seniors and from every discipline and college.  Application information can be found at saintsocratessociety.com or email harrison.kleiner@usu.edu.

Application process:

Submit applications to harrison.kleiner@usu.edu.  Include as attachments to the email:
– A resume.  Your resume must include the following items: your contact information (phone, email, address); academic year; major; GPA; academic achievements; extra-curricular activities; the name and email address of a USU faculty member who can be contacted for a reference.
– Submit a list of at least 3 books that have helped to shape your self-understanding.

Finalists will be interviewed by a team composed of Drs. Kleiner and Shapiro.

Priority deadline for applications: Wednesday December 5, 5pm.

I am, once again, doing a “silence” project with my students.  Here is the write-up for this year:

“I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” – Pascal

“The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased.  If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, ‘Create silence’.” – Kierkegaard

Students are invited to participate in this voluntary exercise.  You are free to participate to whatever degree you choose, or not at all.  But I should say that I am convinced that the greater the degree of participation in the exercise, the greater the impact of it.  So if you are going to do this, I would encourage you to put on the letter and more importantly the spirit of the following “laws”.

The exercise begins tomorrow at the end of class and runs until December 3 at the end of class.  Students are agreeing to:

• not watch any television, movies, or other video
• not listen to an iPod or other portable music device
• not play any video games on any sort of device
• not check facebook, twitter, or any other social networking site
• not get on the internet (exceptions only for legitimate school work)
• check email for only 15 minutes a day
• treat their cell phone like a land line (plug it into the wall and leave it there)
• not text message, video message, or use any other messaging/texting on a phone, computer or any other electronic device

These are the rules of the exercise.  Following them is a matter of your discipline and honor.  The spirit of the exercise is plain enough – detach yourself from glowing screens and the “digital world” and re-enter the real world for a few weeks.  I think you can do this, and will enjoy the fruits of having done so.  But if  you cannot do it all, remember Chesterton’s maxim that “if something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”  Even if you can only cut yourself off from a glowing screen for 3 hours a day, that would be good.

As a sister project, which I think will come naturally, I would encourage you to give up multitasking.  The digital world inundates us with content, and presumes that more is better.  Multitasking is similar, it presumes that the point of life is to “get things done.”  But, in this season of thanks, perhaps we could refocus our priorities.  Be a lover instead of a doer; seek to be measured by your love rather than by your accomplishments.  After all, how would a lover like being part of a multi-task?  (Try texting on your next date while you talk to her and see how it goes over).  So be really intentional in the next few weeks in attending to what is before you.  Be a single-tasker.

Good luck!  Last thing: I encourage those who participate to write a very short (1 or 2 paragraphs) informal reflection on their experience.  Please post it to this post as a comment!