tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post7769309804291847768..comments2024-03-28T16:58:17.705-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: SyllabiGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-29880421614554188342015-01-28T22:49:28.758-05:002015-01-28T22:49:28.758-05:00I think you could adjust the tactic to almost any ...I think you could adjust the tactic to almost any class on 'classical' (dead white guy) anything- pro or con- it's just a repackaging that is better marketing to draw in those who actually really need to read those and make truly considered analysis of them.<br />I'd like to see someone do it in an English department for a literature class, so they could read something truly good for a change. douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03241790925053112959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-69860793417898853752015-01-28T22:22:18.277-05:002015-01-28T22:22:18.277-05:00Well, actually, I think the moderns they chiefly o...Well, actually, I think the moderns they chiefly object to <i>were</i> wrong. So maybe I should teach that class. If they only came out of it with a strong sense that Marx needed to be questioned just as rigorously, it'd be worth doing. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-21230251231338815272015-01-28T11:25:48.445-05:002015-01-28T11:25:48.445-05:00Love it.Love it.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-15360217736473265112015-01-28T03:12:54.917-05:002015-01-28T03:12:54.917-05:00""Or maybe they wanted a course called &...<i>""Or maybe they wanted a course called 'Why Classical Social Theory Was Wrong.'"--nailed it there, bro."</i><br /><br />I concur with your analysis, Tex- and by the Grim- that would be a great way to get kids to read those 'dead white guys', wouldn't it? Promote the class as a kind of 'know your enemy' thing. Truly subversive!douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03241790925053112959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-25213389098511658132015-01-27T22:01:39.581-05:002015-01-27T22:01:39.581-05:00I don't have that experience among the philoso...I don't have that experience among the philosophers I know. They're happy to bring up her name, which reliably promotes gleeful chuckles and guffaws. <br /><br />To be honest, I have a lot of trouble taking her seriously as a philosopher (as opposed to as a thinker). She's got ideas, but even her chief follower Leonard Peikoff described her system as "closed," and that's right: all the issues from metaphysics to ethics to politics are settled forever. <br /><br />Even religions don't manage that level of closure in philosophy. Christian metaphysics has changed substantially over the centuries, and continues to be debated. Christian ethics, even moreso. Christian politics? It used to be the Divine Right of Kings. <br /><br />She reminds me of no one more than Vizzini from the <i>Princess Bride</i> who, questioned about his intelligence, replies: "Have you ever heard of Plato? Aristotle? Socrates? Morons."Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-75395462822199283402015-01-27T21:48:59.859-05:002015-01-27T21:48:59.859-05:00Tex has it right. I know of people that practicall...Tex has it right. I know of people that practically freak out if you bring up her name. Like it's a trigger or something. You'd think she'd personally beat them. Eric Blairnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-41991909531517898422015-01-27T17:59:23.575-05:002015-01-27T17:59:23.575-05:00That's funny. She's anathema; they can sc...That's funny. She's anathema; they can scarcely bear to speak her name. Just acknowledging that she exists is demoting oneself socially in their circles. Also, there's a lot of "she can't be a real woman and have thoughts like that, so she's not a legitimate female philosopher" attitude.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-20114645640387582952015-01-27T17:41:00.700-05:002015-01-27T17:41:00.700-05:00I took an intro to philosophy course some years ba...I took an intro to philosophy course some years back and I remember the textbook author going out of his way to highlight women philosophers, to the extent that he included women who opined on philosophical issues in the popular press but had no other education or influence in the field.<br /><br />I didn't really have a problem with that, but what was strange is that he left out Ayn Rand. I'm not especially a fan of hers, but if you are going to include popular female philosophers, surely you have to include her.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-44436446038286712872015-01-27T13:09:47.522-05:002015-01-27T13:09:47.522-05:00One of these days , if the idiots get their way, w...One of these days , if the idiots get their way, we will see results of a White Strike, where every white male throws up their hands and goes fishing for a month. ravennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-64974194732149392932015-01-27T10:34:20.558-05:002015-01-27T10:34:20.558-05:00"Or maybe they wanted a course called 'Wh..."Or maybe they wanted a course called 'Why Classical Social Theory Was Wrong.'"--nailed it there, bro.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-6408010722749944402015-01-27T10:26:55.196-05:002015-01-27T10:26:55.196-05:00Well, I should add that Kant's writings on the...Well, I should add that Kant's writings <a href="http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/29530-kant-and-education-interpretations-and-commentary/" rel="nofollow">on the education of children are really very good</a>. The first part can be skipped, as he never raised children and was just getting all that stuff about the importance of breastfeeding from Rousseau. But he was a career educator, and so once you get to the part where he's talking about how to teach a child to be upright and moral, and to take an interest in intellect, it's extremely helpful. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-42175577992219798202015-01-27T10:15:59.361-05:002015-01-27T10:15:59.361-05:00Or maybe they wanted a course called "Why Cla...Or maybe they wanted a course called "Why Classical Social Theory Was Wrong."<br /><br />I think the best social theory is in Aristotle, really: the <i>Nicomachean Ethics</i>, the <i>Politics</i>, and the <i>Rhetoric</i> seem to me to be much more insightful than Locke. They're very practical manuals to the problems we encounter in trying to organize a society, problems that haven't changed all that much: the question of what it means to live a good life, of what a community's purpose is, the problems of the poor and the rich, the problems of who gets a vote and why, the problems of how rhetoric functions and what its limitations are as a system of problem-solving. <br /><br /><i>...understandably dominated by theories about how ethnically dominant men should run countries so as best to dispose of their women, children, and livestock...</i><br /><br />That's exactly what I don't care for in Hegel's anthropological works. You get it in Kant, too, though no one reads that part of his writings. His political writings are really interesting; the objectionable parts are in his writings on, oddly enough, physical geography. <br /><br />It's the part where he suddenly stops talking about universal qualities of all rational beings, insofar as they overcome their animal natures through rationality; and instead he starts talking about how best to whip your slaves. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-77132247907471390782015-01-27T10:06:30.321-05:002015-01-27T10:06:30.321-05:00Sounds like what they want is not a course called ...Sounds like what they want is not a course called "Classic Social Theory" (understandably dominated by theories about how ethnically dominant men should run countries so as best to dispose of their women, children, and livestock), and that they would prefer a course called "Modern Social Theory." The syllabus doesn't contain one yet? Hard to imagine.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.com