I share the Samuel Johnson chapter from my book-in-progress.
Tag Archives: Plato
Johnson: Read the Bard, Not Tom Jones
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Clarissa, Henry Fielding, Horace, Republic, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, Tom Jones, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Greek Tragedy & the Fragility of Goodness
Martha Nussbaum contents that Aristotle’s use of Greek tragedy gave him a particularly rich vision of how to lead a good life.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Euripides, goodness, Greek tragedy, Hecuba, Martha Nussbaum, Poetics, Republic Comments closed
A Partial Defense of Plato’s Poet Ban
Perhaps Plato banished poets from his ideal society because he appreciated the destructive potential of stories. He’s relevant in light of today’s conspiracy theories.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1Q84, Aeschylus, conspiracy theories, Donald Trump, Euripides, Haruki Murakami, Homer, philosophy vs. poetry, QAnon, Republic, Sophocles Comments closed
Is Old Age Becoming Overrated?
A “New Yorker” article on aging turns to literature to debunk the notion that aging is a good thing.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Vanity of Human Wishes", "Sailing to Byzantium", "Tithonous", Aging, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Aristotle, As You Like It, Ecclesiastes, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, King Lear, Merchant's Tale, old age, Rasselas, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Love’s Wavering Image
Spiritual Sunday I share a lovely Longfellow poem about gazing into dark waters, featuring the hypnotic rhythm and rhyme that we associate with the poet. The speaker recalls a time in the past when he was depressed and wished the tide would carry him away. He no longer feels that way but imagines others experiencing […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Bridge", Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, parable of the cave, Republic Comments closed
Philosophy Needs Literature
Friday The other day Eva Bahovec, a good friend who teaches in Ljubljana’s philosophy department, had me meet with two students preparing to write Women’s Studies dissertations. Although philosophy and Women’s Studies are not my areas of expertise, Bogdan Repič and Polonca Mesec want their studies to have a literary component, which is where I […]
My “Last Lecture”
I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Divine Comedy, Goethe, Heart of Darkness, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum Wayne Booth, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Samuel Johnson, segregation, Sir Philip Sydney, Terry Eagleton, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wayne Booth Comments closed
Theories about Lit’s Impact
A transcript of a talk given at the University of Ljubljana on “how literature changes lives.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Frederick Engel, Horace, Karl Marx, Martha Nussbaum, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Rachel Blau du Plessis, Samuel Johnson, Sir Philip Sidney, Wayne Booth Comments closed
My Dinner with Mladen
An account of a dinner with an old Slovenian friend and intellectual.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged intellectual conversations, Ion, King Lear, Mladen Dolar, Oedipus at Colonus, Pierre de Marivaux, Republic, Samuel Beckett, Sophocles, Wayne Booth, William Shakespeare, Worstward Ho Comments closed
