Talk about Walking

What a delightful Almanac poem today!

Where am I going? I’m going
out, out for a walk. I don’t
know where except outside.
Outside argument, out beyond
wallpapered walls, outside
wherever it is where nobody
ever imagines. Beyond where
computers circumvent emotion,
where somebody shorted specs
for rivets for airframes on
today’s flights. I’m taking off
on my own two feet. I’m going
to clear my head, to watch
mares’-tails instead of TV,
to listen to trees and silence,
to see if I can still breathe.
I’m going to be alone with
myself, to feel how it feels
to embrace what my feet
tell my head, what wind says
in my good ear. I mean to let
myself be embraced, to let go
feeling so centripetally old.
Do I know where I’m going?
I don’t. How long or far
I have no idea. No map. I
said I was going to take
a walk. When I’ll be back
I’m not going to say.

"Talk about Walking” by Philip Booth from Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999 (Viking Press). Reprinted with permission.

Study Abroad course, July 2016: American Philosophy, British Roots

American Philosophy, British Roots: a walk across the pond
July 11-22, 2017 - an informational meeting will be held on October 26, 2016 on the MTSU campus in LRC 221 at 6 pm... and, visit our booth at the Study Abroad Fair in the Student Union on November 9 between 10 am and 2 pm.

An on-site exploration of specific British locales associated with philosophers and writers in the modern peripatetic (“walking & thinking”), empiricist, pragmatic, and other philosophical and literary traditions who’ve influenced and been influenced by their counterparts in America.

Among the sites we'll see and tread upon: Darwin's Down House and Sandwalk...

Henry James's Lamb House...

John Locke's Oxford...

Bertrand Russell's Cambridge...

the Yorkshire Moors...

and much more besides. Apply at OEA SUMMER PROGRAMS

For more info, contact Professor Oliver: phil.oliver@mtsu.edu or at http://delightsprings.blogspot.com/2015/09/study-abroad-course-july-2016-american.html

• Estimated program fee including lodging, daily breakfast, most ground transportation, excursions, and site visit admission fees $2,375. (Does not include airfare, other meals, tuition, insurance, EA fee, and miscellaneous personal expenses) -- Scholarships available, contact the Education Abroad office educationabroad@mtsu.edu, Peck Hall 207 - (615)898-5179
• 3 credit course, PHIL 3350, no prerequisites, all welcome
• All students must be pre-approved by the Office of Education Abroad prior to submitting a program application.

Visit our booth at the Student Union on Nov.18 between 10-2

This course revives a tradition originally rooted in Aristotle’s ancient school in Athens, the Lyceum, whose students by legend were said to have roamed the campus grounds with their mentors during classes. Many philosophers and writers since have extolled the benefits of ambulatory thinking, and Britain in particular continues to nurture a vibrant walking culture whose leading lights have included philosophers like John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell, novelists like Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Jane Austen, and poets like Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge and Keats.

Across the pond, meanwhile, prominent American peripatetics like Emerson, Thoreau, and William James have advanced novel versions of naturalism, transcendentalism, and pragmatic empiricism that both extend and confound their British ancestors. The resulting Anglo-American dialogue is rich in implication for the future development of all those traditions. The connecting thread is walking. We will follow in the footsteps of some of the British figures most closely linked with these traditions and that development, and interrogate their ideas in the style and manner that first gave them breath.

Our method will involve selected readings, specific questions pursued on the very ground where targeted British figures first conceived the ideas under scrutiny, and an opportunity for students to participate in the process of trans-Atlantic intellectual cross-pollination.

Before, during, and after each site visit, students will emulate the peripatetic method of discourse by splitting into small roving conversational groups of two or three to discuss issues prompted by assigned readings, discussion, and site-visit content. Each will then post summaries of their conversations and subsequent reflections on a blog-site created specifically for the course. They will then continue to engage with the instructor(s) and one another in ongoing face-to-face discussions and online discussion threads that will ultimately provide the core basis for a final written project directed by the instructor(s) and posted by each student within two weeks of our return.

Readings Students will read selections from the following texts, either in print or etext versions.

• Amato, On Foot: A History of Walking - “Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling,” pp.101-124; “The Transformation of Walking from Necessity to Choice,” 255-278
• Coverley, The Art of Wandering - “The Writer as Walker” & “The Walker as Philosopher,” 11-38; “The Return of the Walker,” 205-231
• Dewey, Art as Experience and "The Influence of Darwinism on Philosophy"
• Gilbert et al (ed.), The Walker’s Literary Companion
• Gros, “A Daily Outing-Kant,” and “Strolls,” in A Philosophy of Walking,153-167
• Horowitz, On Looking (tba)
• Hosler, [Darwin’s] Sandwalk Adventures
• James, The Meaning of Truth (tba)
• James (Henry & William), selected letters (tba)
• Minshull (ed.), The Vintage Book of Walking - “Why Walk,” pp.1-28; “Walk With Me,” 239-269
• Mitchell (ed.), The Joys of Walking - Stephen, “In Praise of Walking,” 18-38; Dickens, “Night Walks,” 43-56, and “Tramps,” 95-112; Trevelyan, “Walking,” 57-79; Hazlitt, “On Going a Journey,” 86-94
• Nicholson, The Lost Art of Walking, on London, 86-113; “Walking Home and Away From Home,” & “Perfect and Imperfect Walks, Last Walks, and Walks We Didn’t Take,” 217-261
• Orlet, “Gymnasiums of the Mind” in Philosophy Now, issue 44
• Russell, An Inquiry Into Meaning and Truth: the William James Lectures
• Russell, The Conquest of Happiness (tba)
• Schiller, Essays in Humanism - Preface; “Truth,” 44-61; “Reality and ‘idealism’,” 110-127, “Darwinism and Design,” 128-156, “The Place of Pessimism in Philosophy,” 157-165
• Solnit, “The Mind at Three Miles an Hour” in Wanderlust: A History of Walking, pp.14-29
• Sprigge, American Truth, British Reality - “Introduction,” 1-6; “Bradley contra James,” 363-370; “Conceptual Thinking as Distortive of Reality: James and Bradley,” 434-438; “Darwinist Critique of Christianity,” 558-561; Conclusion, 573-583
• Thoreau, “Walking”
• Toibin, The Master

In the weeks prior to departure, students will be expected to read Orlet, Solnit, and Thoreau, and as many of the paired readings below as they can manage. Additional pairings of text(s) and locale(s) may be appended during the course, in response to conversations and circumstances “on the ground”.

Itinerary & paired readings

Tue. Jul 12, 2016 Guide - will meet group members in arrival hall of London Heathrow airport and accompany them to hotel with a 2-hour panoramic tour en-route. Private minicoach - will arrive at London Heathrow airport and provide transfer to hotel with a full-day city tour en-route. Admission: Strawberry Hill (Horace Walpole’s Gothic Castle).

Admission: Dickens House (maximum of 15 people can visit at one time - 30min interval between timeslots - 1-1.5hrs duration per time slot) hrs 10am - 5pm. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Bayswater Inn, Queens Park Hotel, Royal Eagle Hotel, Central Park, London, England. READ: Dickens, in The Joys of Walking

Wed. Jul 13, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times.  London Oyster Card £20 Including Activation Fee. Admission: Highgate Cemetary (about 90 min total for tour of West Side and browsing East Side on own - grp tours only available weekday mornings and very limited availability). Admission: Keats House (prebooked groups Tuesday - Friday 10am to 12pm). Admission: Freud House (suggested to allow 1.5 hrs for visit - opening hours Wed - Sun 12 - 5pm). 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Bayswater Inn, Queens Park Hotel, Royal Eagle Hotel, Central Park, London, England. READ: “Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling,” in Amato.

Thu. Jul 14, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times. Private minicoach - will arrive at hotel and provide a full-day excursion to Kent and Sussex. Admission: The home of Charles Darwin (Down House). Admission: Lamb House. Admission: Restoration House, Rochester (the Satis House of Dickens' “Great Expectations”, the home of Miss Havisham). 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Bayswater Inn, Queens Park Hotel, Royal Eagle Hotel, Central Park, London, England. READ: Hosler, [Darwin’s] Sandwalk Adventures; James (Henry & William), selected letters (tba); Dickens,  “Tramps,” in Mitchell.

Fri. Jul 15, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times.

Private minicoach - will arrive at hotel and provide a full-day excursion to Cambridge. Guide - meets group in Cambridge and provides a half-day walking tour. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Bayswater Inn, Queens Park Hotel, Royal Eagle Hotel, Central Park, London, England. READ: Russell, An Inquiry Into Meaning and Truth: the William James Lectures, and The Conquest of Happiness (tba).

Sat. Jul 16, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times. Free day - Optional trip to Paris for the day. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Bayswater Inn, Queens Park Hotel, Royal Eagle Hotel, Central Park, London, England.

Sun. Jul 17, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times. Group makes own way to Bradford by train and then by public transit to local area attractions. Admission: Bronte Society and Bronte Parsonage Museum plus guided walk, Haworth. Taste of the Moors Walk - Approx 1.5 hours with guide (readings from Wuthering Heights) - Groups over 20 will be split into 2 groups. 3-4* hotel standard room such as The Dubrovnik Hotel, Bradford, England. READ:  “The Writer as Walker” & “The Walker as Philosopher,” in Coverley.

Mon. Jul 18, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times. Group makes their own way by train to Stratford Upon Avon. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Best Western Grosvenor, White Swan, Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. READ: The Walker’s Literary Companion (tba)

Tue. Jul 19, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times.

Admission: Shakespeare's Trust, entry to 2 properties. Group makes their own way to Oxford via train. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Holiday Inn Express Oxford - Kassam Stadium, Oxford, England. READ: “Why Walk,” “Walk With Me,” in Minshull.

Wed. Jul 20, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Holiday Inn Express Oxford - Kassam Stadium, Oxford, England.

Thu. Jul 21, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times.

No transportation included. Guide provides morning walking tour in Oxford (Lewis Carroll orientated). Admission: Christ Church. Free afternoon in Oxford. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Holiday Inn Express Oxford - Kassam Stadium, Oxford, England. READ: John Locke (tba); Lewis Carroll (tba)

Fri. Jul 22, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times.

No transportation included. Free day in Oxford. 3 Star Hotel Standard Room such as Holiday Inn Express Oxford - Kassam Stadium, Oxford, England. READ: Schiller, Essays in Humanism (tba); Sprigge, American Truth, British Reality (tba)

Sat. Jul 23, 2016 Breakfast included. Please check with hotel reception for specific times.

Transfer from oxford hotel to LHR via private minicoach.



For more info contact phil.oliver@mtsu.edu. Apply at OEA SUMMER PROGRAMS - https://mtsu.studioabroad.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=56043

Podcast

Hume's equanimity, & Sacks's courage

The passing of neurologist and humanist Oliver Sacks, though we saw it coming, is still very sad. But it is heartening to know that he approached his end with the salutary precedent of David Hume fully in view, as he related in that remarkable post-diagnosis essay last February:

It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it “My Own Life.”
“I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution,” he wrote. “I have suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment’s abatement of my spirits. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company.”

I have been lucky enough to live past 80, and the 15 years allotted to me beyond Hume’s three score and five have been equally rich in work and love. In that time, I have published five books and completed an autobiography (rather longer than Hume’s few pages) to be published this spring; I have several other books nearly finished.

Hume continued, “I am ... a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.”

Here I depart from Hume... And yet, one line from Hume’s essay strikes me as especially true: “It is difficult,” he wrote, “to be more detached from life than I am at present.” Over the last few days, I have been able to see my life as from a great altitude, as a sort of landscape, and with a deepening sense of the connection of all its parts. This does not mean I am finished with life.

On the contrary, I feel intensely alive, and I want and hope in the time that remains to deepen my friendships, to say farewell to those I love, to write more, to travel if I have the strength, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.

This will involve audacity, clarity and plain speaking; trying to straighten my accounts with the world. But there will be time, too, for some fun (and even some silliness, as well). This is not indifference but detachment — I still care deeply about the Middle East, about global warming, about growing inequality, but these are no longer my business; they belong to the future. I rejoice when I meet gifted young people — even the one who biopsied and diagnosed my metastases. I feel the future is in good hands...

I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

 A good life. An exemplary death. The privilege and adventure are still ours.

Kant's depression

Legend has it that Kant’s final word on his deathbed was “enough” (genug). The aged peripatetic philosopher of Koningsberg let out a word that was also a sigh, and depressive reason seems to have had the final say. Eugene Thacker

If legend is accurate, Kant didn't do it right. Not many genuine peripatetics  surrender to depression.

How college sold its soul to the market

If college is seldom about thinking and learning anymore, that’s because very few people are interested in thinking and learning, students least of all. As Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa report in Academically Adrift, the number of hours per week that students spend studying for their classes has been falling steadily for decades and is now about half of what it was in 1961. And as anyone associated with a college can tell you, ambitious undergraduates devote the bulk of their time and energy, and certainly of their passion, to extracurriculars. Pinker, in the response I mentioned, wonders why he finds himself addressing half-empty lecture halls. I can tell him why: because his students don’t much care about the things he’s trying to teach them.

Why should they, given the messages that they’ve received about their education? The college classroom does or ought to do one thing particularly well, which is to teach you to think analytically. That is why a rigorous college education requires you to be as smart as possible and to think as hard as possible, and why it’s good at training people for those professions that demand the same: law, medicine, finance, consulting, science, and academia itself. Nor is it a coincidence that the first four of those (the four that also happen to be lucrative) are the top choices among graduates of the most selective schools...

Instead of treating higher education as a commodity, we need to treat it as a right. Instead of seeing it in terms of market purposes, we need to see it once again in terms of intellectual and moral purposes. That means resurrecting one of the great achievements of postwar American society: high-quality, low- or no-cost mass public higher education. An end to the artificial scarcity of educational resources. An end to the idea that students must compete for the privilege of going to a decent college, and that they then must pay for it...

William Deresiewicz

Alan Lightman

I don't know why it's taken me so long to discover the writing of humanist/physicist Alan Lightman, a native Tennessean whose grandfather (I learn from his memoir Screening Room) opened the old Hillsboro Theater (now the Belcourt) in Nashville in the '20s, and who wonderfully expresses a sense of secular spirituality I share - and in the voice (no less!) of the Creator!

Rationality and logic can be spiritual. What's more, there [is] still plenty of room for the mysterious. Because even if a very intelligent creature within this universe could trace each event to a previous event, and trace that event to a previous event to a previous event, and so on,  back and back, the creature could not penetrate earlier than the First Event. So my universe would have logic and rationality and organizational principles, but it would also have spirituality and mystery. Mr. g: A Novel about the Creation

Lightman's fictional Creator/narrator is the only kind of god, decidedly lower-case and constrained by nature, I could ever consider "believing in": a well-intentioned and compassionate but considerably less-than-omnipotent lesser god, regretful of the suffering of his animate creatures, unwilling to concede suffering's necessity, but ultimately incapable of eliminating it all by fiat. This is one of William James's speculative deities, needful and solicitous of a co-creative alliance against evil with suffering humanity. (Note to self: this might be a good text to use in CoPhi.)

Lightman's Accidental Universe includes an honest and unflinching concession to our mortality that still respects the ubiquitous impulse for "more life."

 ...in a few short years, my atoms will be scattered in wind and soil, my mind and  thoughts gone, my pleasures and joys vanished, my “I-ness” dissolved in an  infinite cavern of nothingness. But I cannot accept that fate even though I  believe it to be true...“A man can do what he wants,” said Schopenhauer, “but not want what he wants."

Suppose I ask a different kind of question: If against our wishes and hopes, we are  stuck with mortality, does mortality grant a beauty and grandeur all its own? Even though we struggle and howl against the brief flash of our lives, might  we find something majestic in that brevity? Could there be a preciousness and  value to existence stemming from the very fact of its temporary duration?

 Yes there could, Lightman affirms. Can't wait to follow the trail of that message through the rest of his ouvre, beginning with Einstein's Dreams.