Scientia et Humanitas

A note from the editor:

I am the Editor-in-Chief of the current volume of Scientia et Humanitas, MTSU's undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary research journal. We would love to represent work in the fields of Philosophy and Religious Studies in the current volume. Would you be willing to pass the information below along to your department listserv or to students who have authored outstanding work? Thank you in advance for your time.

Scientia et Humanitas is still accepting submissions for Volume 13. Our journal publishes 10–30-page research papers from all disciplines. Faculty, please encourage authors of outstanding research to submit. All students currently attending or recently graduated from MTSU may submit. If your work is featured in the current volume, it will also be considered for the Deans’ Distinguished Essay Award. You may submit via our Submittable link on this webpage: https://www.mtsu.edu/scientia/submissions.php. The last day to submit is Monday, February 13, 2023. Feel free to reach out to Editor-in-Chief Aubrey Keller at scientia@mtsu.edu with any questions. 

Acceptance

Traditional Stoics accept what they cannot change, that is, they don't try to change it. They may be too quick to conclude that the universe as a whole and in parts is wholly and particularly beyond reach.

Traditional religionists and some philosophers accept what they consider divine will, though it transcend human understanding. They concede, on faith or first principles, that all must be for the best in the end. Case in point: Voltaire's Pangloss, a transparent gloss on Leibniz, accepting the devastation of mayhem, torture, the Lisbon earthquake…

Stoic pragmatists, though, are meliorists. They heartily accept the challenge of changing what they can for the better, accepting what they must in the end, but never in the long interim of human history presuming that suffering and injustice must subserve the best of possible worlds.

I'd like to think Margaret Fuller was that kind of philosopher, enthusiastically assenting to life as that kind of challenge.

""I accept the universe" is reported to have been a favorite utterance of our New England transcendentalist, Margaret Fuller; and when some one repeated this phrase to Thomas Carlyle, his sardonic comment is said to have been: "Gad! she'd better!" At bottom the whole concern of both morality and religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe. Do we accept it only in part and grudgingly, or heartily and altogether? Shall our protests against certain things in it be radical and unforgiving, or shall we think that, even with evil, there are ways of living that must lead to good? If we accept the whole, shall we do so as if stunned into submission—as Carlyle would have us—" Gad! we'd better!"—or shall we do so with enthusiastic assent?"

— The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James(Annotated) by william james
https://a.co/fIh4ALD

medicine for the soul

""Don't return to philosophy as a task-master, but as patients seek out relief in a treatment of sore eyes, or a dressing for a burn, or from an ointment. Regarding it this way, you'll obey reason without putting it on display and rest easy in its care."—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.9

The busier we get, the more we work and learn and read, the further we may drift. We get in a rhythm… we drift further and further from philosophy. Eventually this neglect will contribute to a problem—the stress builds up, our mind gets cloudy, we forget what's important…

Return to the regimen and practices that we know are rooted in clarity, good judgment, good principles, and good health. Stoicism is designed to be medicine for the soul. It relieves us of the vulnerabilities of modern life. It restores us with the vigor we need to thrive in life. Check in with it today, and let it do its healing."

— The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
https://a.co/hfz7VRV

SSA Spring Break, fyi

 I've received a text from the Secular Students Alliance:

One Spot Open: SSA Spring Break

Are you interested in rebuilding homes in Florida for spring break? Let us know today:  http://bit.ly/SSAspringbreak

 

 

Questions JAN 31

 Epicureans and Stoics, LH 4-5; FL 7-8, HWT 6-8

LH

1. According to Epicurus, fear of death is based on what, and the best way to live is what? Are (or were) you afraid of death, or of dying? Are you more afraid of losing others?

2. How is the modern meaning of "epicurean" different from Epicurus's? Do you consider yourself epicurean in either sense of the term?

3. What famous 20th century philosopher echoed Epicurus's attitude towards death? Do you agree with him?

4. How did Epicurus respond to the idea of divine punishment in the afterlife? Is the hypothesis of a punitive and torturous afterlife something you take seriously, as a real possibility? Why or why not?

5. What was the Stoics' basic idea, and what was their aim? Are you generally stoical in life? 

6. Why did Cicero think we shouldn't worry about dying? Is his approach less or more worrisome than the Epicureans'?

7. Why didn't Seneca consider life too short? Do you think you make efficient use of your time? How do you think you could do better?

8. What does the author say might be the cost of stoicism? Is it possible to be stoical but also appropriately compassionate, caring, sensitive to others' suffering, etc.?

HWT

1. Who were the three great founders of American pragmatism?

2. When does philosophy "recover itself" according to John Dewey, and what should it not doubt according to Charles S. Peirce? 

3. What did Richard Rorty say pragmatists desire?

4. As earlier noted in Kurt Andersen's Fantasyland, Karl Rove said what about "reality"? What do you say about what he said?

FL

1. The people we call the American founders were what?

2. Who was Jonathan Edwards and how was he like Anne Hutchinson?

3. Who was John Wesley and what did he demand of his followers?

4. Who was George Whitefield and what did he "implant" in American Christianity?

5. What did Thomas Jefferson tell his nephew?

6. What was Immanuel Kant's "motto of Enlightenment"?

More discussion questions:

• Have you experienced the death of someone close to you? How did you handle it?
• Do you care about the lives of those who will survive you, after you've died? Is their continued existence an alternate (and possibly better) way of thinking about the concept of an "afterlife"?
• Do you consider Epicurus's disbelief in immortal souls a solution to the problem of dying, or an evasion of it? Do you find the thought of ultimate mortality consoling or mortifying?
• How do you know, or decide, which things you can change and which you can't? 
• Were the Stoics right to say we can always control our attitude towards events, even if we can't control events themselves?
• Is it easier for you not to get "worked up" about small things you can't change (like the weather, or bad drivers) or large things (like presidential malfeasance and terrorist atrocites)?  Should you be equally calm in the face of both?
• Is it possible to live like a Stoic without becoming cold, heartless, and inhumane?
• What do you think of when you hear the word "therapy"? Do you think philosophers can be good therapists? 
• Do you think "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" is an appropriate goal in life? Can it be effectively pursued by those who shun "any direct involvement in public life"? 
• If the motion of atoms explains everything, can we be free? 
• Is it true that your private thoughts can never be "enslaved"? 

ALSO RECOMMENDED: De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods) Cicero's dialogue between a Skeptic, a Stoic, and an Epicurean... & JMH's smart commentary on it in Doubt: A History*... LISTEN (Sep '21)... Natalie Haynes on Lucretius and Epicurus (BBC radio podcast)... Feb 1 (more on Epicureans & Stoics)

Epicureanism: The Original Party School

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/133  

 ==

Philosophers in this comic: Epictetus. In The Enchiridion Epictetus gives the advice that in order to avoid suffering, we should not become too attached to particular things, so that when they inevitably end we are not caused undue harm. He starts with the fairly straightforward example of a cup that we like breaking:

With regard to whatever objects give you delight, are useful, or are deeply loved, remember to tell yourself of what general nature they are, beginning from the most insignificant things. If, for example, you are fond of a specific ceramic cup, remind yourself that it is only ceramic cups in general of which you are fond. Then, if it breaks, you will not be disturbed.

He then proceeds immediately to what seems a quite more drastic example:

If you kiss your child, or your wife, say that you only kiss things which are human, and thus you will not be disturbed if either of them dies.

Some may find that living in such a way is strange, to say the least.

Permanent Link to this Comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/264

==

Stoicism Man...The Next Great Stoic competition... Stoic apathy 

Over the years I've made a few slideshows (see "Oliver's slideshows" in the sidebar). Here's one:

Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics from Osopher

What Happens When We Die – The Marginalian

"…Whatever our beliefs, these sensemaking playthings of the mind, when the moment of material undoing comes, we — creatures of moment and matter — simply cannot fathom how something as exquisite as the universe of thought and feeling inside us can vanish into nothingness. 

Even if we understand that dying is the token of our existential luckiness, even if we understand that we are borrowed stardust, bound to be returned to the universe that made it — a universe itself slouching toward nothingness as its stars are slowly burning out their energy to leave a cold austere darkness of pure spacetime — this understanding blurs into an anxious disembodied abstraction as the body slouches toward dissolution. Animated by electrical impulses and temporal interactions of matter, our finite minds simply cannot grasp a timeless and infinite inanimacy — a void beyond being..."

https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/01/10/alan-lightman-death/

Don’t know, don’t care

It's important to know and care about what matters. So much in our public discourse does not.

"If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters—don't wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself."—EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 13a

One of the most powerful things you can do as a human being in our hyperconnected, 24/ 7 media world is say: "I don't know." Or, more provocatively: "I don't care." Most of society seems to have taken it as a commandment that one must know about every single current event, watch every episode of every critically acclaimed television series, follow the news religiously, and present themselves to others as an informed and worldly individual… Yes, you owe it to your country and your family to know generally about events that may directly affect them, but that's about all. How much more time, energy, and pure brainpower would you have available if you drastically cut your media consumption? How much more rested and present would you feel if you were no longer excited and outraged by every scandal, breaking story, and potential crisis (many of which never come to pass anyway)?" — The Daily Stoic

On the other hand, we're entitled to care about a few things just because we want to. How many days 'til pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training?

About 15. If you care.

More and More, I Talk to the Dead

"In my dreams, as in my waking life, the dead are still here, still talking to me." Margaret Renkl 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/opinion/death-grief-memory.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
More and More, I Talk to the Dead

How Will Chatbots Change Education?

"This technology could become a boon to learning. It makes cheating easier, too.

I teach philosophy and religious studies at a liberal arts college. This is what I tell students..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/opinion/letters/chatbots-education.html?smid=em-share

Rachel Carson on the poetry of science and wonder

On this day in 1952, Rachel Carson delivered her majestic National Book Award acceptance speech about the poetry of science and wonder as an antidote to self-destruction themarginalian.org/2022/11/30/...

https://indieweb.social/@mariapopova/109772761357338545

Role models

""Take a good hard look at people's ruling principle, especially of the wise, what they run away from and what they seek out."—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.38

Seneca has said, "Without a ruler to do it against, you can't make crooked straight." That is the role of wise people in our lives—to serve as model and inspiration… Maybe it's a philosopher or a writer or a thinker. Perhaps WWJD is the right model for you…"

— The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
https://a.co/5Z2TUCF

[For me, Wm James is a philosophical role model. So, WWWJD?]

The original cynic

DIOGENES THE CYNIC once tried to enter the theater at the end of a performance, even as everybody else was leaving. When someone, puzzled, asked him why, Diogenes said: "This has been my practice all my life." (This history is recounted by Laertius in Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, among many other stories starring Diogenes the Cynic.)

As with every Cynic "anecdote" (or chreia, as they called it in ancient Greece), several layers of meaning are buried inside.

There is, first, the notion of philosophizing as a live performance, which Diogenes embodied like few thinkers, ancient or modern. On this view, philosophy is not a purely theoretical affair, something to be thought out and formulated in impenetrable jargon, but rather a way of acting and being.

When he wanted to prove a philosophical point, Diogenes used not just his speech but his whole body, his sensuous presence in the world. To make an argument, you just have to make a move — sometimes literally.

When some philosopher was trying to prove, before a gullible audience, that "motion did not exist," another story goes, Diogenes said not a word but "stood up and walked about" — the best possible counterargument most economically delivered…

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-to-swim-against-the-stream-on-diogenes/

Living for Pleasure–an Epicurean guide to happiness

No one today would dream of practising the physics, medicine or biology of the ancient Greeks. But their thoughts on how to live remain perennially inspiring. Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics have all had their 21st-century evangelists. Now it is Epicurus's turn, and his advocate is American philosopher Emily A Austin...

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/26/living-for-pleasure-by-emily-a-austin-an-epicurean-guide-to-happiness

Prioritize what YOU prize

A Stoic meditation an Epicurean can love:

""What's left to be prized? This, I think—to limit our action or inaction to only what's in keeping with the needs of our own preparation . . . it's what the exertions of education and teaching are all about—here is the thing to be prized! If you hold this firmly, you'll stop trying to get yourself all the other things. . . . If you don't, you won't be free, self-sufficient, or liberated from passion, but necessarily full of envy, jealousy, and suspicion for any who have the power to take them, and you'll plot against those who do have what you prize. . . . But by having some self-respect for your own mind and prizing it, you will please yourself and be in better harmony with your fellow human beings, and more in tune with the gods—praising everything they have set in order and allotted you."—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.16.2b–4a

Warren Buffett, whose net worth is approximately $ 65 billion, lives in the same house he bought in 1958 for $ 31,500. John Urschel, a lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, makes millions but manages to live on $ 25,000 a year. San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard gets around in the 1997 Chevy Tahoe he's had since he was a teenager, even with a contract worth some $ 94 million. Why? It's not because these men are cheap. It's because the things that matter to them are cheap.

Neither Buffett nor Urschel nor Leonard ended up this way by accident. Their lifestyle is the result of prioritizing. They cultivate interests that are decidedly below their financial means, and as a result, any income would allow them freedom to pursue the things they most care about. It just happens that they became wealthy beyond any expectation. This kind of clarity—about what they love most in the world—means they can enjoy their lives. It means they'd still be happy even if the markets were to turn or their careers were cut short by injury.

The more things we desire and the more we have to do to earn or attain those achievements, the less we actually enjoy our lives—and the less free we are."

— The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman
https://a.co/8wIuEGJ (Jan 25)

Lucretius and Epicurus (and Aristotle, and lots of other old dead philosophers) on the radio

I highly recommend this episode on Epicurean philosophy, an earlier one on Aristotle, and probably all of them. Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001bkw8?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

BBC 4 is wonderful. Where else can you randomly turn on the radio and hear a raucous studio audience laughing and applauding uproariously for Lucretius and Epicurus? https://t.co/M7Na74Um4z

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) August 28, 2022

History of philosophy in emojis

Thales: Heraclitus: Democritus: Socrates: Pyrrho: Aquinas: Descartes: Bentham: Berkeley: Smith: Marx: Freud: Hegel:

Existential Comics