12 20 5666 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d400f01b6f70d2cf52fe3aaa349b4938.pdf b30c4673b1f9be95f122bb769e87dc7e PDF Text Text Clima(c)tic Change: Twenty Million Hands and the Living, Wavering Globe [Mia slides] Last August, I heard an NPR discussion1 of climate change in relation to the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill designating almost $800 billion to energy security and climate change. The show’s host emphasized that, per the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC), fossil fuel usage must fall dramatically within ten years to keep Earth’s warming by 2100 below 1.5°C.2 She asked the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, “Is this process that we’re currently following going to get us there?” To my astonishment, Ms. Stone-Manning replied, “Yes. Yes is the answer.” The unequivocal answer was surprising given the BLM’s equivocal charge: as manager of federal lands, one of its responsibilities is to award oil and gas leases.3 So, somehow, partly as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act, we will as a nation, albeit a politically divided one, meet requirements to limit warming to 1.5°C while still doling out oil and gas leases and without asking our citizenry to make substantative behavioral changes. Ms. Stone-Manning’s response reminded me of the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, which the United States initially joined, before withdrawing under President Trump and re-joining under President Biden. These Accords set as their upper target 2°C of warming by 2100 and their ideal target as 1.5°C. The latter requires a 50% cut in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. What distressed me about the 1 The show was “1A,” hosted by Jenn White. It aired on August 12, 2023. What Ms. White actually said is this: “The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has repeatedly said that the world has to phase out fossil fuels quickly to keep earth’s warming below 1.5 °C increase, which we are currently not on track to do… Time is of the essence. We have a limited amount of time – again by 2035, the UN Intergovernmental Panel says we have to phase out fossil fuels to keep the earth’s warming below that 1.5 °C increase.” Per the IPCC 6th assessment report, fossil fuel emissions need to be reduced 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 °C by 2100. Ms. White’s imprecision is symptomatic of a broader problem: the implication that fossil fuels have to be entirely phased out by 2035 can only signify how little she has imagined the difficulty of merely reducing them by half in that time period. And, by the way, what happens after 2100? 3 An even more egregious example of such ambivalence (the word is mild) is how the United Arab Emirates, host of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), planned, per a BBC review of leaked documents, to use that conference to pursue oil and gas deals with foreign governments. But is this really surprising when the President of the COP28 happens also to be the CEO of the UAE’s giant state oil company? 2 1 �Accords, however, was that the agreed-upon means in no conceivable way could meet that goal. The modeling studies grounding the Accords clearly showed that. In fact, annual global greenhouse gas emissions are higher now than they were in 2015.4 The Accords set 2030 as their deadline for a 50% cut; over half of that time has elapsed; and we are further from that goal now than when we started (slide).5 Fundamental reasons explain why we’ve made so little progress cutting greenhouse gases, reasons which we haven’t seriously confronted politically or socially. We may think, for example, that electric cars will save us; we even call them, falsely, “emissions-free vehicles.” This falsehood epitomizes the problem. We are too comfortable imagining vehicles have no emissions if we see no tail pipes. We forget that the missing tail pipe is actually a power plant’s smokestack. Such forgetfulness is encouraged by those who understand that part of what they’re selling is a clean conscience, moreover one which allows us to get on with our lives without substantively changing them. Even if we correct this forgetfulness, we too comfortably believe the gases causing climate change are mostly the consequence of vehicles and residences; hence the solution is electric cars and solar panels. Globally, however, ground transportation and residential sources account for only a third of annual anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Our fossil-fuel dependence goes well beyond vehicles and homes.6 4 There’s discrepancy among reported global greenhouse gas emissions, in part depending on whether only CO2 is considered or CO2 plus other gasses and actions (which collectively are called “CO2 equivalents [CO2e]”). In terms of CO2, 2022 estimates range from 36.1 (Liu, Deng, Davis and Ciais [2023] Nature Reviews Earth and Environment 4: 205 – 6) to 36.8 Gt CO2 (the International Energy Agency’s 2022 report, “CO2 emissions in 2022”). Preliminary 2023 data suggest CO2 increased another 1.1% from 2022 (https://globalcarbonbudget.org/fossil-co2-emissions-atrecord-high-in-2023/). As for CO2e, the UN’s emissions gap report (https://doi.org/10.59117/20.500.11822/43922) gives a 2022 value of 57.4 Gt. Whether measuring CO2 or CO2e, these reports agree that the corresponding 2015 value was lower (e.g., 35.6 Gt CO2 or 47 Gt CO2e). Differences in estimates may also reflect treatment of natural but extraordinary emissions, as from forest fires. For example, the 2023 Canadian forest fires collectively burned an area the size of Washington state and produced ~3 times the CO2 emitted annually by all of Canada, but some approaches would omit these sources as extraordinary and natural. Yet it is foreseeable that such sources will soon become ordinary, and whether a source is “natural” or not will have no effect on how much the planet warms. 5 Put otherwise, it’s estimated that we can afford to add a cumulative total of about 250 Gt of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to give ourselves a 50% chance of keeping warming below 1.5 °C; we’re currently on pace to emit that much carbon dioxide within ~ 7 years. Lamboll et al. (2023) Assessing the size and uncertainty of remaining carbon budgets. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01848-5. 6 The children’s book Petro Pete’s Big Bad Dream describes some of the dramatic changes in our everyday lives should fossil fuels abruptly disappear or not be used. It has been widely criticized as Big Oil’s attempt to brainwash 2 �In particular let me call attention to four material mainstays of modern civilization which are fossil-fuel intensive: plastic, steel, concrete and ammonia fertilizers. Collectively they require ~20% of the world’s primary energy supply and generate at least 25% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.7 Consider all the plastic you handle every day. Consider the steel and plastic required for even an electric car. Consider the steel, plastic and concrete needed for solar-panel installation and building construction, including LEEDcertified green buildings. Consider projections that plastic production will double by 2045 (slide) and the world’s building stock by 2060. That latter is equivalent to building a new New York City every month of every year between now and then.8 Consider the immense quantities of fertilizer needed to sustain 8 billion people and their animals.9 Consider how energy-intensive food production in the western world is, where every calorie of food requires about a dozen calories of fossil fuels, and where in the United States, 30-40% of that food is thrown away.10 Consider, in short, how fossil-fuel intensive a transition to a green economy will necessarily be. Now ask yourself: what dream are we dreaming, which says we can go green without really changing? That message is loudly proclaimed by many on the left: “Let’s have a green revolution,” they say, “so we don’t have to change!” Can there be revolution without profound change? Many on the left say, make fairly minor changes so you don’t really have to change. Many on the right say, it’s all an exaggeration or a hoax, change isn’t needed; if anything, we should change back. Instead of focusing on the disagreement between right and left, notice their substantive agreement. The difference is between not changing and changing very little.11 kids. This criticism is undoubtedly true – but that doesn’t make the cascading effects of our fossil-fuel dependence, to which the story calls attention, untrue. To conclude the latter from the former is its own kind of brainwashing. 7 Smil, How the World Really Works, p. 78. 8 The NYC analogue is from Reilly O’Hara around the 10-minute mark in Peter O’Dowd’s “A ‘concrete’ solution to climate change”: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/12/07/concrete-climate-change-solution. 9 ~15% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are due to livestock farming, to satisfy our desire for meat. 10 For the dozen calories claim, see Ghosh (2016), The Great Derangement, p. 147. 30-40% is the USDA’s estimate. 11 Right and left often arrive at opposite conclusions from the same premise, or, as in this case, (basically) the same conclusion from opposite premises. Such phenomena are marks that something other than thinking is happening. 3 �Should we take seriously that climate change is an exaggeration, a hoax, mere, self-interested alarmism? On the one hand, of course we should. The computer models which divide the earth into enormous numbers of grid squares and try to calculate the consequences of every significant biological, chemical and physical process in each square are beyond the critical ken of a human mind. A projection 100 years into the future requires a million billion calculations (slide). Many are simply parameterizations of phenomena we don’t understand. The interdisciplinarity upon which climate research rests is also often authority-driven – collaborative in the mode of deference more than of criticism. Major incentives to jump on the climate-change bandwagon exist, including career and funding incentives. We’d be naïve to imagine all that away, as, even more importantly, we’d be naïve not to wonder about the competence which synthesizes so much specialized knowledge, assuming we can tell what is and isn’t knowledge. On the other hand, warranted skepticism does not deliver us to the knowledge that it’s all a hoax. Far from it. We’ve had warnings, growing in clarity and urgency, since a pioneering paper by Arrhenius in 1896.12 In 1938, Callendar calculated that the planet had warmed ~0.25°C over the previous half-century due to CO2 production by fuel combustion. He then developed a basic model which predicted that around 420 ppm atmospheric CO2 we should expect ~1°C of warming relative to 1938 (slide).13 We are now around 420 ppm CO2 and we’ve had ~1°C of warming relative to 1938. Since then models have become more complicated and refined, offering high-resolution predictions of what global temperature increases mean at regional scales; they’ve added ocean and atmospheric circulation and positive and negative feedbacks; they’ve incorporated responses of the living world; they’ve even charted possible social and political responses. But the problem’s basic contours, the relation of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion to planetary warming and the consequent dangers, have 12 Arrhenius’ Swedish colleague, the mostly forgotten Arvid Högbom, actually called attention to the problem in 1894, which in part stimulated Arrhenius to examine it more carefully in his theoretical 1896 paper. By 1904, Arrhenius concluded that the planet would warm due to human activities, though probably in a beneficial way. 13 See Callendar (1938) Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 64: 223 – 40, particularly Fig. 2. 4 �been reasonably well understood for decades. To some degree we’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted by seeking ever-greater refinements of the simulacra by which we make this problem visible, as if simulacra could stand in for the world where that problem must be addressed and as if the indefinite pursuit of knowledge weren’t itself a deferral of behavioral change. Accepting then that climate change is real, how alarmed should we be? After all, the world has had higher CO2 concentrations than now. The last time the planet had comparable CO2 concentrations was 4.3 million years ago in the mid-Pliocene; the planet was about 3°C warmer than now. That may not sound like a lot, given diurnal temperature changes in New Mexico of ~15°C and seasonal ones of ~20. But those 3°C corresponded to a planet many would find unfamiliar, with sea levels 75 feet higher than today, Florida a mere nub and southeastern Mexico under water (slide). Our nearest relative 4 million years ago was Australopithecus; it would be another million years before the genus Homo appeared. Obviously, there weren’t 8 billion people on earth. Human civilization 4.3 million years ago was still roughly 4.3 million years in the future – a reminder that civilization is young. Besides different atmospheric CO2 concentrations, earth has also had dramatically different past temperature regimes. It has been much colder – I’m not talking Pleistocene ice ages, but something more extreme – Snowball Earth episodes 600 to 700 million years ago when the planet was close to globally glaciated (slide). The planet has also been much warmer, including during the Cretaceous hothouse 110 million years ago and, 56 million years ago, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when the poles were ice-free and alligators swam in an Arctic lined by palm trees. If it comforts you to know the planet can handle much colder and warmer temperatures, if you think that means there’s nothing to worry about, consider rates of change.14 During the Cretaceous hothouse, the planet warmed about 0.000025°C per century, for a total warming of 5°C over millions of years. During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the rate of warming was a thousand times 14 The rates which follow are from Kump (2011) Scientific American July: 56 – 61. 5 �faster: 0.025°C per hundred years, again for a total warming of 5°C over tens of thousands of years – a warming coincident with an extinction event.15 In contrast, we’ve already warmed about 1°C in the last century, with future warming projected at as much as 5.7°C by 2100, depending on what we do (slide). That 5.7°C, equivalent to the warming which occurred over millions of years during the Cretaceous hothouse and tens of thousands of years during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, is according to the IPCC’s least optimistic emissions scenario, but that scenario is the one which most accurately matches actual cumulative emissions since 2005, predicting them within 1%.16 The, to-my-eye unrealistic, goal of the Paris Climate Accords is to limit warming to a mere 1.5-to-2°C this century. We’re banking on that, with most of us not realizing how dramatic a rate of planetary warming that actually is, to say nothing of what may happen after 2100.17 These numbers make even more sense from another angle: it took hundreds of millions of years to accumulate fossil fuel reserves which we’ve injected into the atmosphere over a few centuries (and most in one century). In terms of biogeochemical cycles, that’s a discrepancy in rates of six orders of magnitude. In short, the rate of planetary perturbation is extraordinary, especially in the context of the relative stability of climate which has pertained for most of the period civilization has flourished.18 That 15 It’s not surprisingly unclear whether or how the extinction event (which was marine) and the warming are linked. Another dramatic change in planetary temperature occurred during the Eocene-Oligocene Transition between 33.9 and 33.4 million years ago, when the planet cooled as much as 0.01 °C per century (Paleoceanography 11(3): 25166, 1996). This also coincided with a significant terrestrial and marine extinction event. 16 Schwalm, Glendon and Duffy (2020) RCP8.5 tracks cumulative CO2 emissions. PNAS 117 (33): 19656 – 7. 17 The Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events during the last glacial period are the closest analogues to our current situation of which I’m aware, in terms of scale and rate of warning. Ice-core evidence suggests that, around 11,500 years ago, the Greenland ice sheet warmed ~ 8°C in about half a century. How this extreme warming event in Greenland corresponded to the planet as a whole is uncertain; contemporaneous ice cores from Antarctica show less and slower warming. If we assume nonetheless that the warming was global in extent, we can do a back-ofthe-envelope comparison as follows: since the Arctic is currently warming ~ 4 times faster than the global average, an 8-degree warming over Greenland in 50 years is roughly comparable to ~ 4 degrees of present-day global warming in a century – well within what’s possible per current projections. The warming 11,500 years ago was short-lived, however (half a century, followed by centuries of slower cooling) in contrast to present expectations, which anticipate up to 5.7°C by 2100 and quite possibly further warming thereafter. 18 Indeed, abrupt civilization collapses, as occurred nearly synchronously with the Akkadian (Sargonic) empire, the Egyptian Old Kingdom and possibly the Indus Valley civilization, are strongly correlated with abrupt climatic shifts (e.g., Weiss et al. [1993] Science 261: 995 – 1004). 6 �rate of change is a more threatening aspect of climate change than the fact of warming. We are not just facing a world of enhanced drought and intensified storms, where the Great Salt Lake becomes an empty basin and metropolises drain dry the aquifers on which they rely and rest,19 while sea levels gradually rise and forest fires rage. We are facing a world which is fundamentally and rapidly reorganizing; where the last calendar year, 2023, was possibly the hottest in the last 100,000 years but likely won’t hold that record for long;20 where, in most of our lifetimes, the Arctic’s radiation-reflecting, heat-reducing toupee of sea ice, whose maximum extent twenty years ago was 14 million square kilometers, will disappear seasonally;21 and where, partly as a consequence of the melting sea ice, a major conveyer of heat on the planet, the Atlantic Meriodonal Overturning Circulation, will dramatically weaken or even shut down,22 fundamentally changing the distribution of heat on earth (slide). This will matter not just to us but to innumerable organisms who, like us, depend on fairly predictable patterns which already are becoming unreliable. It’s not clear that most organisms and ecosystems can respond fast enough. In the Pleistocene ice ages a primary response was migration – moving north and south and up and down mountains as ice advanced and retreated. But those migrations typically occurred over longer timescales than we face, and, perhaps even more importantly, 19 Per a recent study of ~ 75% of global groundwater withdrawals, aquifer declines have accelerated dramatically in the last 40 years for a third of all regional aquifers, while groundwater declines > 0.5 m/year are widespread (Jasechko et al [2024] Nature 625: 715 -21). Major metropolises, such as Tehran (population 13 million) and Mexico City (22 million), are seeing subsidence rates of up to 50 cm/year due to groundwater depletion, with projections that large sections of Mexico City will be without reliable water within months (which pertains already to some parts of the city; Paddison et al., 2/25/24, “One of the world’s biggest cities may be months away from running out of water,” CNN). Subsidence due largely to water withdrawal is also being measured not in inches but in feet in parts of California’s Central Valley (Dan Charles, All things considered [NPR], 7/23/21), source of over half of all nuts, fruits and vegetables grown in the US. Subsidence poses obvious risks to infrastructure, but even these risks are dwarfed by the impending, local exhaustion of freshwater in large parts of the world. 20 Schmidt (2024) Nature 627: 467. 21 When I started graduate school in 1999, a seasonally ice-free Arctic was predicted for around 2100. When I finished graduate school in 2006, a small number of studies suggested it could happen by 2050. Now it’s looking increasingly likely that it could happen in the 2030’s: e.g., Kim et al. (2023) Nature Communications 14: 3139. 22 Zhu et al. (2023) Nature Communications 14: 1245; van Westen et al. (2024) Sci. Adv. 10, eadk1189. 7 �on a planet much less fragmented by human-created barriers.23 We are currently in the midst of the 7th mass extinction event24 in earth’s metazoan history, with extinction rates a thousand times greater than background. We should worry, how much worse will it get?25 In lieu of imagining all species as rugged individuals with independent fates, we should also worry about how interconnected the ecological world is and how linked many of our fates may be. So here we are, faced with an ongoing mass extinction event and dramatic rates of planetary change. What are we doing? We are persisting in the dream that we can carry on more or less as we imagine we always have, that necessary changes are only on the fringes. Indeed, the Inflation Reduction Act sets aside $161 million to restore landscapes to historic conditions, because, according to the BLM Director, “a restored landscape is more naturally in balance… [T]hat natural cycle that has been with us for the millennia, that’s what we need to strive to restore...”26 Setting aside the question of whether nature has ever really been in balance, setting aside as well the question of what we mean by nature (slide), we still should confront the smaller question – why are we trying to restore natural cycles of past millennia in a dramatically changed and changing world? I see groups dedicated to eradicating alien species. I hear in the ecological register a disturbing echo of a terrifying political project. It really worries me. But I also don’t understand what our thinking is, to eradicate immigrant species when the scale of planetary change likely can be met for many organisms, probably including humans, only by massive 23 One political response to challenges partly due to climate change has been to reify borders – to build walls – and not just in the US (e.g., Poland’s 185-km wall on its border with Belarus; Hungary’s 320-km wall separating it from Serbia and Croatia; Lithuania’s 480-km wall, also on its border with Belarus; Finland’s proposed 1300-km wall on its Russian border; and India’s ongoing efforts to wall 75% of its 4000 km border with Bangladesh.) The Akkadian empire did the same thing, building a 180-km wall to repel migrants, in its failed effort to stave off its own climatechange-associated collapse in the early bronze age. Walls will be catastrophic not only for humans but other animals. Moreover, walls will wall in as well as wall out; in a changing world a wall will inevitably be two-edged. 24 Accepting the Capitanian as a mass extinction event in the mid-Permian. 25 Even seemingly small changes in planetary heat can have surprising consequences. A marine heat-wave of between +0.5 and +3°C in the bottom waters of the eastern Bering Sea in 2018-19 is thought to have led to the deaths of >10 billion snow crab – not because they couldn’t endure the heat, but because the higher temperatures enhanced their metabolic requirements, leading to famine and cannibalism. A water temperature change from 0°C to 3°C can double a crab’s caloric requirements in the laboratory. See Szuwalski et al. (2023) Science 308: 306-310. 26 As quoted in the NPR interview cited earlier. 8 �migration – and I wonder, what is it exactly that we’re trying to preserve, and why? Is this another manifestation of how we want to have a revolution without changing, of how we want, as it were, to spin our wheels? I observed earlier that civilization is young. In roughly 10,000 years, we’ve gone from Neolithic clusters to New York City, while the global human population has exploded (slide). When Socrates lived, the world probably hosted about 100 million people, roughly the same number as now live in just three cities: Tokyo, Jakarta and Delhi. It took all of human history to reach a billion people around 1800; and another century-plus to reach 2 billion when my grandmother was born. When my mother was born, 2.5 billion people lived on earth. When my sister was born 25 years later, there were 4 billion. In 2022 we hit 8 billion, with 11 billion expected by 2100. Let me state the obvious: this enormous growth has occurred in nearly exact conjunction with our intensive utilization of fossil fuels.27 This should impress upon us our extreme dependence on fossil fuels, even while we imagine we can painlessly switch to new energy sources without substantively changing our lives. In fact, per the Inflation Reduction Act, we plan to restore natural cycles to patterns from the last millennia, as if the dramatic transformation of earth by human activities over those same millennia doesn’t really count. If we wish to be serious about climate change, we must do much more. We must let go of many familiar things. We must understand that restoration is mostly off-the-table, or else is a nostalgic aesthetic illusion. We must stop pretending we can achieve a transformation without parallel in human history on the back of only minor inconveniences. Two paths stretch before us (slide). One relies almost exclusively on technology, whether existent technology yet to be built to scale, or technology that doesn’t even exist, in the hopes that it will deliver us from having to make substantive changes (as if technology itself weren’t a substantive change) – and, further, in the hopes that it doesn’t have unforeseen consequences, though history is rife with 27 Likewise, India’s and China’s rise as global powers is not coincidentally linked to their intensive use of fossil fuels. 9 �those consequences – not least of which is climate change. I call this path the path of techno-theology. Rather than praying to the storm god to have mercy on us, we will pray to AI.28 This path leads, inevitably, to geo-engineering – or rather, to further geo-engineering.29 For, against the backdrop of our increasing awareness of its planetary consequences, what has our massive utilization of fossil fuels become but a kind of geo-engineering? The oceanographers Revelle and Suess observed in 1957 that “human beings are now carrying out a large-scale geophysical experiment … that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future. Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic matter stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.”30 Doesn’t such a large-scale experiment sound like geo-engineering? That is not to say it’s a geo-engineering with a master engineer in charge. Like every human endeavor it’s been some combination of chosen and fallen into, conscious and unconscious. But so will any future geoengineering be as well. I dread the day when a rogue nation or trillionaire unilaterally commits earth to another uncontrolled experiment in the name of salvation. I dread the mind-set which imagines we’re sufficiently self-present to undertake the governance of the natural world, the dominion over the universe which Bacon prophesied,31 or which imagines that dominion is instead the province of AI. I dread the ideologies, so many already in circulation, which will justify any action in terms, not of the existential threat of a changing planet, but of the absolute supremacy of human beings and of sub-groups among them. It seems to me this is the track we are most likely to follow, because of that Sirens’ song it sings to 28 This possibility is already nascent in Bacon, for example in the 129th aphorism of Book I of the New Organon, with its emphasis on the divine honors owed inventors and its claim that the benefits of these inventors’ discoveries serve all mankind and last all time. 29 My objection to geoengineering is in the metaphysical comportment underlying it, as I will discuss later. Insofar as we foresee that our actions necessarily have planetary consequences and modulate (or don’t) those actions in accordance with the consequences we anticipate, we are in some fashion geoengineers – as I am suggesting here. 30 Tellus (1957) 9(1): 18 – 27. 31 Aphorism 129 of Book 1 of The New Organon. 10 �us that we won’t have to change – though that promise is a lie, and we will eventually discover ourselves as changed as Milton’s fallen angels. Among the forms of this techno-theology is the technological creation of illusions we desire – the technological creation of a cave we like. We don’t want just to geo-engineer the world; we want to retreat from the world that is into one of our own devising. This comes to mind when I consider the Fabian allure of massive climate simulations, but no less when I consider the aptly-named Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or when I watch parents at playgrounds engrossed not by children but by phones.32 Or when I ponder why cars are so important to us, those wheeled would-be biospheres with their own entertainment systems and climate control. These are all, at least in part, escapes, caves we retreat to in order not to stare at the sun or to feel its heat. Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, thinks Virginia Woolf’s character Clarissa Dalloway as she prepares her party and contemplates her mortality; fear no more the heat o’ the sun, thinks another of Woolf’s characters, Septimus Warren Smith, even as he is about to plunge holding his treasure (slide). They’re both quoting a line from a funeral dirge in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline; and this retreat I’m describing, this techno-theological embrace of the cave, this path which I think we’re mostly following, is in equal measure that song of sorrow which declares we are afraid to live. Well we should be! It takes gigantic courage to live even a single day. That’s the techno-theological path stretching before us – the path of technological illusion and of god-like faith in technology, but also of retreat into made-up worlds, the bubbles of social media, CGI and cars, while in our hearts suspecting this also deforms us and tears us apart. The other path, the more difficult and the more hopeful one, places the burden of response and responsibility not only on technology, though we will need it, but on ourselves. It rejects that we are helpless to change or that our 32 We can no longer imagine even taking a neighborhood stroll without a computer in our pockets whose memory is millions of times, and processing speed hundreds of thousands of times, that of the computers which first put a man on the Moon. 10% of worldwide electricity generation goes into information and computing systems – according to Roy Scranton (Learning to Die in the Anthropocene), roughly the same amount of electricity as was needed to illuminate the globe in 1985. 11 �only hope of change is to convince politicians and corporations to make changes for us. We have become shockingly accustomed to imagining ourselves as mere followers and our politicians, for whom we frequently express disdain, as nonetheless leaders. They’re not necessarily leaders; in this country, they are first and foremost our representatives. The difficult, more hopeful path begins by taking seriously that they do represent us; that corporations do too; that what we behold in them is a representation of what we are. While it’s comforting and not wholly false to imagine tycoons making gzillions of dollars off of us helpless dupes, we must take seriously that what they sold us we also wanted. Let me underline this point with a recent example. Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, excited outrage last month when he blamed the public for climate inaction: “The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it. The people who are generating those emissions [i.e., all of us – LW] need to be aware of and pay the price for generating [them]. That is… how you solve the problem.” Setting aside the likely hypocrisy, self-interest and poor faith of Woods’ claim, we nonetheless need to hear its truth, rather than quickly condemning it as, according to The Guardian newspaper, “[an] attempt to skirt climate accountability.”33 Such condemnations are their own variety of skirting accountability. Indeed, the climate activist group 350.org specifically exonerated all of us when it used Woods’ claim to motivate a petition which read, “Fossil fuel giants like ExxonMobil are to blame for the climate crisis – not us. If you agree, add your name” (slide).34 Likewise The Guardian article cited a climate economist who compared Woods to a drug lord “blaming everyone but himself for drug problems.” But if a drug lord is culpable, does that mean drug users are not? I am alarmed by so limited a notion of freedom, according to which we accept ourselves as powerless rather than endure even a modicum of responsibility – as if freedom didn’t imply responsibility but instead was freedom from 33 I am referring to the article by Dharna Noor and Oliver Milman published on 3/4/24 in The Guardian I’m quoting their 3/15/24 email with the subject line “Exxon CEO just blamed the climate crisis on the public.” A subsequent email on 3/23/24 expanded the list of the guilty: “Last month was the ninth consecutive hottest month on record, ever. The climate crisis is here, and the culprit is the fossil fuel industry. But they are not alone – utility companies are also responsible.” Once again, however, we consumers are off the hook. 34 12 �responsibility. This desired freedom from responsibility fuels the dream that we can meet the extraordinary challenges facing us without having to change substantively. We too easily accept that our civic responsibility is to consume rather than sacrifice, to vote on occasion, to write a check to a political candidate, PAC, party or charity or, less often, to go to a protest, even while none of these demands what is more fundamentally needed: that each of us change. Our response can’t be an exception from our normal lives; it has to be what’s normal about them. The assumption that the heavy-lifting can be accomplished only by governments or corporations exculpates us. It’s not entirely untrue, which is why voting, donating and protesting matter, but it also basically assures the status quo while delivering us from having to consider how those governments and corporations truly represent us. Part of what can be recognized in those representations is despair. It seems that we don’t in our hearts believe we can change; it seems that in our hearts we accept that this representation, whether corporate or political, and despite regularly communicated contempt for it, still expresses the dark truth of who we are and of all we can become. We might as well resort to CGI creations of god-like superheroes because, despairing, we can’t imagine ourselves as powerful agents otherwise. We have more faith in technology, including technological illusions, than in ourselves. What if we were to put faith elsewhere than the technological divine? What might that look like? I have three suggestions, each both simple and on the far side of human possibility. If we take them seriously, we must also take seriously why they’re on the far side of possibility. The three suggestions are: Live small, not large. Live slow, not fast. Think differently. Rather than accepting the nihilistic premise that nothing you do matters, consider the exhilarating, terrifying premise that anything you do may matter. You may not know the ways it matters, to whom or to what. Mattering may not be reducible to meaning. But anything you do may matter, at least insofar as anything you do is matter. This is a consequence and expression of finitude. If we and our world were infinite, we could 13 �subtract or add to that infinity without changing it. But we and our world are finite; we and it must change.35 We are like that dream of Pierre described near the end of Tolstoy’s War and Peace,36 where he sees a living, wavering globe consisting of drops tightly packed together. Every drop which moves and shifts causes other drops to move and shift in turn. So it is in our lives: not one of us can move without moving something else. That seeming accident is a condition of possibility of every motion we make. Think about yourself finitely, pushing the earth to push off from it. An oil rig is not just ExxonMobil’s; it also expresses you who are but several drops away. When you drive, your gasoline has travelled vast distances, and that’s now part of your motion. That gasoline was once a fossil-fuel deposit; before that, it was a living being. Its carbon cycled many times through the food web, before getting buried and, over millions of years, being compressed and transformed into something else, which one day we sucked from the earth and transported across the globe so that the controlled oxidation of it would propel your vehicle while once again accomplishing a new transformation, spiritualizing what was once alive into the gas trees breathe and you and I exhale. Being finite means being part of this enormous web which you can’t control or fully foresee, but within which you are not without freedom or responsibility. This web, this unavoidable mediation which finitude implies, is what geo-engineering forgets. It’s arguably what Descartes forgot.37 Both secretly infinitize us; both imagine us as subjects fully present to ourselves for whom absolute agency is possible. For them, the drop each of us is doesn’t shift or get shifted by other drops but is isolatable; no web inextricably entangles us; and hence, surveying all that is, a subject can act with full consciousness. A subject can command itself to doubt; it can doubt away the 35 As recognized by Pascal: “We are floating in a medium of vast extent…; whenever we think we have a fixed point to which we can cling and make fast, it shifts and leaves us behind… Nothing stands still for us. This is our natural state and yet the state most contrary to our inclinations” (Pensées 199, ‘Disproportion of man,’ translated by Krailsheimer). Physical conservation laws can also be interpreted as consequences of the finitude of the world. 36 Vol. IV, Part 3, Chapter XV, pp. 1064-5, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky. 37 It’s also what our ideology of perpetual growth forgets – an ideology central to capitalism. As for Descartes, his forgetfulness was not shared by his contemporary and critic, Pascal, who regularly linked finitude and mediation (or middleness), as in Pensées 199. 14 �entire world; and having found the seat of certainty in its own thinking, a disembodied and hence definitized thinking, it can then re-create and author the world. This is Descartes’ trajectory in the Discourses and Meditations. It’s also the trajectory of technological illusion, which would replace the world that is with the illusion of a world we author.38 It’s finally the trajectory, if not task, of geoengineering. A famous climatologist39 argued that, given climate’s susceptibility to small changes of initial conditions, the so-called butterfly effect – where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one place contributes to a hurricane elsewhere – given this susceptibility, he said, all we had to do was “tame this butterfly.”40 Were this climatologist more of a poet, we might hear irony in his claim; but what we might hear poetically as articulating a hubristic and hopeless project can also be heard as the assignment. It imagines every butterfly can be tamed; but even more dangerously, it posits a tamer outside the web of mediations, a disembodied, decontextualized knower whose command to the legion of tamed butterflies is itself beyond the jostle of any neighboring drop (slide). Think differently. Picture yourself as a drop jostled by and jostling its neighbors. We must relentlessly re-imagine ourselves thus. We must accustom ourselves regularly to undertake the thought experiment Rousseau challenges Emile with, in the book of that title:41 “We [i.e., Emile and his teacher] go to dine in an opulent home. We find the preparations for a feast… All this apparatus of pleasure and festivity has something intoxicating about it… While the meal continues, while the courses follow one another, while much boisterous conversation reigns… I lean toward [Emile’s] ear and say, “Through how many hands would you estimate that all you see on this table has passed before getting here?” What a crowd of ideas I awaken in his brain…! Instantly all the vapors of the delirium are dispelled. He dreams, 38 We tend to confuse our mediated and necessarily partial access to the world that is with our authorship of it. Finding ourselves in a synecdoche, we assume we’re the poet. 39 The climatologist was Kerry Emanuel; he made these comments during an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, August 1st, 2007. An audio file is available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12421331. 40 “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars and spreads its wings out to the south?” Job 39:26. 41 Emile, Book III, p. 190 in Bloom’s translation. 15 �he reflects, he calculates, he worries. While the philosophers, cheered by the wine, perhaps by the ladies next to them, prate and act like children, he is all alone philosophizing… [W]hat will he think of this luxury when he finds that every region of the world has been made to contribute; that perhaps twenty million hands have worked for a long time; that it has cost the lives of perhaps thousands of men…?” We must think in terms of twenty million hands and thousands of lost lives – not all of them human – and indeed those numbers are surely underestimates. Even when simply walking the placita, we should imagine that what energizes our steps were once living beings who stretched themselves toward the sun.42 We must as best we can make choices worthy of the sun-stretching creatures who enabled them, of twenty million hands and thousands of lost lives. This is not an exhortation not to live, to deny ourself life, to do nothing because there is nothing untouched by twenty million hands and thousands of lost lives. Instead it’s an exhortation to live up to those hands and lives. Derrida described such a comportment in these terms: “Il faut bien manger” he wrote, but also “il faut manger le bien”43 – which as a play on words means several things: it means, of course we must eat, but we must also eat well – and not only that, we must eat the good. We must eat the good well. We must do it because we can’t not do it. To be finite implies, inexorably, that we must eat the good, that no action is without reaction, no gain without loss. We can’t not eat the good, we can’t act in the world without the possibility of harm, we can’t self-consciously leave no trace, nor is the trace which we may leave simply up to us. So what we can’t not do let us do as well as we can (slide).44 If this is not an exhortation not to live, neither is it an exhortation to embrace extravagance, to 42 Mary Oliver’s “Wild geese” comes to mind, especially the last sentence: “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things.” 43 See Derrida’s conversation with Jean-Luc Nancy entitled “Eating well, or the calculation of the subject” in Points, edited by Elisabeth Weber, especially pp. 277-87. 44 The French uses the impersonal expression “il faut” where I use the pronoun “we.” The “we” is problematic; there is a question of what or who “we” is, as there should also be a question of what eating is. Eating is not simply what subject does to object; eating changes both eater and eaten. The referent of “we” thus necessarily changes. 16 �pronounce, like Louis the XVth, “After me the flood.” Look to the future: look not only at the hands and lives of those who have touched what is already before you, but also to the hands and lives of those yet to come, who not you but your choices will touch. What entangles us stretches from past to future. Our actions may memorialize and prophesize. It is in this context of an imagined future, moreover one which no longer includes you or me, as well as in the context of imagining our global contemporaries who even now live lives much less replete than ours, that it makes sense to live small and slow. Put simply, if you do, you will use less and leave others more.45 What I’m suggesting may sound naïve, as if I’m unaware of the notorious problem of collective action. If each of our contributions is a mere drop in the ocean, why worry about my drop if no one else worries about theirs? This argument of apathy, however, is just the flip side of the infinitization I’m critiquing. It posits that the only options are to be infinite or nothing. Such a coarse dichotomy has long characterized our thought. For example, we have long believed we could dump waste into the ocean or atmosphere and that, in effect, it would be infinitely diluted – that the vastness of ocean or atmosphere would reduce it to nothing. But it was, in fact, finitely diluted. Slowly those drops accumulated, so that now, for example, plastic, invented in 1907, is found in every region of earth from the Himalayas to the deepest ocean trenches, as well as in our food, our bodies and our mothers’ milk, to say nothing of the atmosphere’s rising greenhouse gases (slide). This whole lecture is about taking that disproportion between nothing and the infinite, a drop,46 seriously, about admitting that yes, you are a drop, but every drop matters, you matter. The pretense that drops don’t matter expresses, in one mode, a deluded if aggrandizing infinitization, as if we count but only as infinite; but in another mode, the complement of our aggrandizing delusion, it confines each of us to a cell of impotent isolation, where our drops don’t collectively constitute a wavering globe, much less our exalted, lonely individualities a world. But there is 45 You’ll eat less good more well. “For, after all, what is man in nature? A nothing compared to the infinite, a whole compared to the nothing, a middle point between all and nothing…” Pascal, Pensées 199. 46 17 �a world, a living, wavering globe of drops, in which each of us is a single drop who matters.47 Live small and slow and think differently for that world. This advice is more dramatic than it sounds. We easily dream of circumstances which will enable us to live as we imagine we like without unwanted consequences. This is like imagining ourselves disembodied, mattering without being matter, meaning immaterially. It articulates a desire that we not be finite or mortal. I suspect that we live large and fast partly to distract ourselves from that finitude, from the death which awaits, as a substitute for the gigantic courage it takes to live even a single day. Yet such a response accelerates catastrophe. The illusion that we’re infinite, that change can happen without us changing, is not a salve for our fragile mortality but a destructive expression of it. It secretly confesses that none of us really believes we will die, as perhaps none of us really believes in climate change. There is another option: that we try to believe; that, trying to believe, we make an offering to the future and of the future; 48 that we not insist that future be ours; that we let it be someone else’s.49 The talk of a new green revolution sometimes sways this direction, but so long as it promises immense change which won’t require us to change, it’s a pipedream if not something more malevolent: 47 This may signal a return to the sacred, if we accept Amitav Ghosh’s suggestion (op. cit.): “It is impossible to see any way out of this crisis without an acceptance of limits and limitations, and this in turn is, I think, intimately related to the idea of the sacred…” (p. 161). 48 The French scholar Rémi Brague gave a lecture at St. John’s (Santa Fe) many years ago in which he identified as one of the crises of modernity the decline in the human birth rate. He interpreted this decline as expressing despair about the future, as articulating that we no longer believe in a future worth giving. I agree with such a diagnosis of despair; I agree as well that it behooves us to believe in a future worth giving, and to do the hard things such a belief demands, but, contra Brague, I think it imperative that we appreciate that the recipients of such a gift are not, and cannot be, restricted to human beings. Indeed we can no more know the recipients than the future. 49 One is always at risk of re-infinitizing the subject. Letting the future be someone else’s still secretly assumes the future is mine to yield. Even just letting the future be may fall into this conundrum. It’s reminiscent of the catch-22 in Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, where Isaac – whose apt Biblical name invokes the possible sacrifice of both past and future – endeavors to relinquish his patrimony but can’t escape thinking that it is his to relinquish. As a result, his may still be a version of thinking infinitely, albeit in a negative mode, rather than thinking finitely. Perhaps Molly comes closer to the latter, she who “dont want nothing” (p. 97), mistrusts a divination which has become of gold rather than god, and at the end of the book keens for her Benjamin, sold into slavery and dead. But the spiritual “Go Down, Moses,” for which the book and the last tale are both named, still suggests a future organized by a promise, a promise clearly not met by the book’s end but, like Isaac’s patrimony, not truly relinquished either. 18 �a future we pretend to yield to an other while secretly and stubbornly insisting it remain ours.50 That pipedream pretends that massive solar arrays, nuclear power, windmills, hydrogen, etc., will allow us to build for the future without giving up that future to someone else;51 it pretends we can be responsible to the future without really changing our present, including without decreasing our consumption. Take energy for example. We may dream that someday it will be boundless and free, but it won’t be. Energy will always come with consequences. Its production and use will require a material infrastructure likely including fossil-fuel-intensive steel, concrete and plastic. It will generate waste, including, for nuclear energy, dangerous radioactive products whose half-lives can far exceed the history of human civilization.52 We shouldn’t overlook that hydrogen, if it’s to be our panacea, is a highly explosive panacea. And if a butterfly can cause a hurricane, what can a windmill do (slide)? Put otherwise, don’t look to get something for nothing;53 that only amounts to the illusion of a good conscience.54 Don’t trick 50 Such a situation, including its unfurling ramifications, is well-described again in Go Down, Moses, as in this passage from “The Bear” (pp.257-8): “…old Carothers’ bold cramped hand far less legible than his sons’ even and not much better in spelling, who while capitalizing almost every noun and verb, made no effort to punctuate or construct whatever, just as he made no effort either to explain or obfuscate the thousand-dollar legacy to the son of an unmarried slave-girl, to be paid only at the child’s coming-of-age, bearing the consequence of the act of which there was still no definite incontrovertible proof that he acknowledged, not out of his own substance but penalizing his sons with it, charging them a cash forfeit on the accident of their own paternity; not even a bribe for silence towards his own fame since his fame would suffer only after he was no longer present to defend it, flinging almost contemptuously, as he might a cast-off hat or pair of shoes, the thousand dollars which could have no more reality to him under those conditions than it would have to the negro, the slave who would not even see it until he came of age, twenty-one years too late to begin to learn what money was.” 51 Hence the college’s thoughtless slogan campaign tying “Building for the future” to “St. John’s forever.” 52 Iodine-129 has a half-life of almost 16 million years, for example. 53 To get something for nothing implies an infinity, while suggesting simultaneously how nigh nothing is to anything. 54 Consider carbon offset programs. The science behind these has always been suspect, with concerns about whether they can be done at the necessary scale in the right places, how long-lasting savings will be and whether savings can accurately be determined. Yet worse is the world’s largest carbon offset firm, South Pole, selling carbon credits for reductions which they knew didn’t exist (Blake, “The great cash-for-carbon hustle,” The New Yorker 10/16/23). More broadly, however, the problem lies in our failure to recognize that responsibility is always excessive. To measure and delimit it is to turn any responsibility into the alibi for irresponsibility, as we saw above in the 350.org petition. Appreciating responsibility as necessarily excessive is a corollary of understanding that what we eat, what we internalize and make our own but also at the same time destroy, is in fact the good, for the loss of which there is no compensation. The pretense at the core of capitalism (but also of prevailing notions of justice), that no loss is without compensation (whether in the mode of offsets or criminal penalties) implies irresponsibility. 19 �yourself into believing you can give to the future without giving something up.55 Here’s a more tangible form of this advice: we must pair attempts to choose energy sources more wisely with concerted efforts to use them more wisely – and specifically to reduce how much energy and matter we use. I’m ambivalent but partly glad that the St. John’s Santa Fe campus has gone solar. I’d be more glad and less ambivalent if our solar conversion were accompanied by a campaign to reduce our energy use, if our murals enjoined us to take the next step rather than extolled the step already taken (slide). Per capita energy consumption in the United States is among the highest of any nation. If we want to limit ourselves to “only” 1.5 or 2°C of warming – as dangerous as that may be – if we want to reduce global fossil fuel emissions by 50% in the next 6 years, we can’t do it without dramatically reducing how much energy we use in ways which will present real but surmountable problems. Other first-world countries56 consume per capita half the energy which Americans consume. I grant substantive differences exist between us and them, but it seems to me the most stubborn impediment to making real reductions in our energy consumption is not those differences but our unimaginative and fantastical insistence that we shouldn’t have to change. As a result, so much of the rest of the world strives to live like us, when we desperately need to live more like them. Gandhi worried in 1928, “God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West… It would strip the world bare like locusts.”57 But India and China and much of the world have taken to westernstyle industrialism, and that stripped world which Gandhi dreaded is increasingly the reality before us, as the rest of the world follows our example while we refuse to follow theirs (slide). My argument for living small and slow is not just that there’s no other way to face the 55 Technology is the claw by which we bring the future closer. It’s a way of materializing time, even commodifying it. We should wonder whether the technological solution isn’t always at the expense of the future. If we admit, however, that technology is an inevitable aspect of what we are, we will also have to admit that we are always expending the future in some form. This again comes down to eating the good but endeavoring to eat it well. 56 For example, Germany and France. 57 As quoted by Amitav Ghosh (op. cit.), p. 111. 20 �extraordinary challenges before us and no better way to accustom ourselves to the lives we will eventually have to lead. It’s also not just an ethical argument about living up to twenty million hands and thousands of lives past and future. The third prong of my argument is what I’ve been saying about how the world reflects us. As much as we may want to blame governments, corporations, even capitalism, and as much as none of those are without blame, we still must take seriously that these reflect us. They express something that we must take responsibility for as our own. Our words may say, “End fossil fuels,” but our actions take for granted their ready abundance. The only way I see to change that is to change how we consume (eat), live and think. We can’t just talk about this; we have to do it. That means recognizing no one is without responsibility for our predicament. Typically, if no one is without responsibility, no one is held responsible. But I’m saying each of us must hold ourself responsible.58 Change is coming, whether we give assent or not. If we try to affirm it, we need to do more than vote, donate, protest or go solar. We need to change. This may not sound revolutionary compared to a new green revolution – but of the two (which aren’t mutually exclusive), I’m advocating the essential one. I’m not saying it will be sufficient if enough of us do our small part. Other things need to happen, including at corporate and political scales. But those things will not happen if enough of us don’t do our small part. As much as we may like to believe we are victims of capitalism run amok, of ExxonMobil, of politicians, these also mirror us. They show us versions of ourselves.59 They give us what we, at least in part, ask for. Ask for something else. Become something else. Corporations, governments and economic systems aren’t simply controlling us; they’re also expressing us. Any revolution without that admission is just a spinning of wheels. Some of the dread darkness of the political era into which so much of the 58 To suppose that I should not act until those act who have behaved even less responsibly than me is to place the burden of our collective response on those who have behaved the absolutely least responsibly. 59 My insistence, or at least invitation, that we recognize our corporate, political and economic reflections runs the risk of becoming a kind of consumption or subsumption, a gobbling up of the other as secretly, within a naïve idealism, the same; yet the other which reflects us in myriad ways need not only be our reflection, nor is it clear that in a reflection what is seen is same and not other. 21 �world is falling stems from our propensity first to alienate, then to vilify, our own reflections – while also believing that it is only those reflections which have the freedom, power and burden of responsibility.60 What I’ve said today is not just about climate change. It’s about how we are using up and running down the earth and, in parallel, exalting and diminishing ourselves. We see the earth as a pantry for us to raid; and as various stocks within it become depleted, we don’t question our behavior or assumptions but merely look for new stocks. For the most part we have not interrogated our prejudice that we are entitled to the earth, that it is ours to exhaust, that no other beings besides human beings – and perhaps even among them only some – truly matter (slide). This exaltation we’ve implicitly bestowed upon ourselves is a kind of self-infinitization, whereby even the governance of the natural world falls under our thinly secularized techno-theological sway; but in lock-step with it comes our diminishment as isolated individuals, impotent and unfree, incapable of response and of responsibility, in effect nullities. Cast between these overtly dueling but secretly linked poles of the infinite and nothing, climate change becomes an avatar of our finitude. Ignore the avatar and the threat will not retreat; but neither will it retreat should the avatar be addressed. That desired retreat follows from the false premise that our finitude is escapable. It is not. We are neither infinite nor nothing but, drop-like, between the two. We need a response which endures that disproportion rather than, through fantasy and denial, embraces one end member or the other, thereby accelerating and compounding catastrophe. Some will hear me as prophesying doom, but I am actually advocating hope – not an easy hope, not a hope without effort or struggle or loss, not an empty hope which consoles by anesthetizing, but the harder and truer hope which admits that we must change – and that we can. Something new is coming, just as it did at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago in the form of an asteroid. That asteroid augured both calamity and immense possibility, the end or 60 If we live in a benighted age, the question still remains: how far advanced is the night? Could we perhaps even now be on the cusp of dawn? 22 �transformation of the dinosaurs,61 and the rise and transformation of the mammals. From it was born the once-new world we recognize and sometimes love. A thin layer of the element iridium is sprinkled across the planet, marking that event and the boundary separating a world familiar to dinosaurs from one more familiar to us. Many now claim that we’ve entered a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. Since epochs typically last hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years, I’m struck by the sheer optimism of that designation, which I find both endearing and repellent. How innocent and how hubristic that we think it’s an epoch! It strikes me as far more likely that the Anthropocene will have been a boundary event like the impact at the end of the Cretaceous,62 marked by a layer not of iridium but of plastic, and distinguishing yet another new world from our now-old and familiar one. This new world may not be ours. It doesn’t need to be ours. A new world which includes us can’t only be ours. Like the dinosaurs, if we63 are to persist, we must become something different, something smaller, something which, though almost as light as air, nonetheless greets mo(u)rning with song (slide).64 61 How to read “or”? Transformation may be an alternative to extinction, to an end, but it is also a specific form of the end. The first reading reads continuity where the second reading reads discontinuity. 62 The Anthropocene as a boundary event was initially suggested by Scott Gilbert, per Donna Haraway (2015) Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene, Chthulucene: Making Kin. Environmental Humanities 6: 159 – 65. 63 Don’t overlook that the pronoun in this final sentence, despite its seeming stability, refers to things in flux. Its referent is changing (as is characteristic of pronouns). See also the footnote on p. 16 about translating “il faut (bien) manger (le bien).” 64 Every new beginning also marks a loss. 23 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Transcripts—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College at the Santa Fe, NM campus. Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 23 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clima(c)tic Change: Twenty Million Hands and the Living, Wavering Globe Description An account of the resource Transcript of a lecture given by tutor Llyd Wells on April 19, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Climatic change demands of us climactic change. We have yet fully to admit it. Perhaps we never shall. Can we be serious about climate change? How? That's the core of this lecture, which will try to be serious scientifically, philosophically and literarily." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wells, Llyd Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-19 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Climatic changes Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7925" title="Audio recording of lecture">https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7925</a> Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_WellsL_Clima(c)tic_Change_text_2024-04-19 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/bfb5565cd09a5353c501c72bd4e4d060.mp3 9754bdcf9768c6593f5fdbfdd7dfb93f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:58:48 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clima(c)tic Change: Twenty Million Hands and the Living, Wavering Globe Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Llyd Wells on April 19, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "Climatic change demands of us climactic change. We have yet fully to admit it. Perhaps we never shall. Can we be serious about climate change? How? That's the core of this lecture, which will try to be serious scientifically, philosophically and literarily." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Wells, Llyd Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-19 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Climatic changes Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_WellsL_Clima(c)tic_Change_2024-04-19 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/fc9310f3b7761d7d361f3e64ac35eaed.mp3 019f526933d86415cb2861c44199dffa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:02:56 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Buddhist Metaphysics? Making the Case for Enlarging Metaphysics with Mādhyamika Philosophy, or, How Emptiness is Relevant to What There is Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Pierre-Julien Harter on April 12, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “Buddhist metaphysics, especially in the Madhyamika version which insists on the emptiness of all things, has often been interpreted as anti-metaphysical. Yet, it seems that Buddhist philosophers were still after the same question Aristotle wondered about – what is it for something to be? – even when they answered that all things are empty of essence or inherent nature. Taking a detour through Aristotelian and Medieval philosophies, this talk attempts to use a more historical definition of metaphysics to argue that a similar feature can be found in both Western metaphysics and in Buddhist Mādhyamika thought, a double approach displayed in the special and general metaphysics of the Medievals and of the two truths of Buddhist thinkers. This supports reading Buddhist Mādhyamika texts as offering metaphysical accounts of reality, but also, conversely, allows us to enrich both our conception of the content of metaphysics and of the kind of activity it claims to be.” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Harter, Pierre-Julien Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Mādhyamika (Buddhism) Metaphysics Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_HarterJ_Buddihst_Metaphysics?_2024-04-12 Friday night lecture Rohrbach lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1f498d8c95bd2a6649a37831bb522e52.mp4 682f0714cd84458f79f989ec4f8cdebf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 00:54:50 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Being a Book Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on February 23, 2024, by Daniel Harrell as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Mr. Harrell describes his lecture: "When the so-called New Program was established at St. John’s College in 1937, conversation was to play no essential role—at least if you believe the first statement of the program, written by Scott Buchanan. Where you would expect the word 'conversation' you find 'instruction' instead, as in this brief description of the seminar: Meetings of seminar groups will occur twice a week with any additional meetings that special circumstances or difficulties may indicate. There will be two instructors in charge, and the instruction will make use of a wide range of devices from explication de texte to analysis of intellectual content and the dialectical treatment of critical opinion. When I read this description, I like to think that the importance of conversation to our endeavor emerged over time: a matter of discovery rather than dictate. Has something similar happened with the importance of books to our endeavor? We have always stated this importance in terms of what makes certain books great; but what makes them books, I have come to think, is even more central to our experience of reading them, discussing them, and learning from them. Perhaps there is no way to dictate by 'great' how we come to find ourselves in these books, just as there was no way to dictate by 'instruction' how we came to find ourselves in a conversation about these books. But what makes books books? What does it mean to be a book? This is the question of my lecture. And my hope—despite the St. John’s frame I use here—is that the lecture will be of interest to any reader of books, even if it fails, by my lights, to make full sense of a book." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Harrell, Daniel Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating, "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: Make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a recording of my lecture available online. Make a typescript copy of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation in the St. John's College Greenfield Library. Make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Books Definition (Philosophy) Meaning (Philosophy) St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Harrell_Daniel_2024-02-23_ac Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6c4c757e7425b577506708f80e82b7fb.mp3 f66d52c6038b9060c3f79457d1e0c46f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:23:42 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "A Monument Without a Tomb:" St. John's Celebrates Major Scenes from Shakespeare's First Folio Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a tutor panel given by tutors Alison Chapman, Charlie Barrett, Krishnan Venkatesh, & Jay Smith as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “In his preface to the First Folio (1623), Shakespeare’s friend and fellow author Ben Johnson described the bard as a “monument without a tomb,” attempting to capture Shakespeare’s enduring vitality as both poet and playwright. St. John’s College students know deeply the truth of these words, as the bard lives in so many parts of our campus – in our seminars, in our tutorials, and on stage in the Great Hall. In honor of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, the Dean’s Lecture Committee is pleased to present a Tutor Panel that will consider major scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. The talks given by the Tutors will be in conversation with the scenes performed by Chrysostomos earlier in the week. We hope that members of the community will attend both events and bring their thoughts and reflections for the question period.” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Chapman, Alison Barrett, Charlie Venkatesh, Krishnan Smith, Jay Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library as been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. First folio of Shakespeare. 1623 Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_ChapmanA_et_al_A_Monument_Without_A_Tomb_2024-04-05 Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d375635fcf9b833868b79b45f2256d82.mp3 976cb40f88a2f71d76f78861fc5ebbb6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:06:44 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Modernity for Fools and Knaves: Machiavelli’s Mandragola and Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by tutor Frank Pagano on March 29, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: “In chapter 15 of The Prince Machiavelli famously recommends “going to the effectual truth of the thing rather than to the imagination of it.” If political writers wish to be effective, then they must act on the truth that all the world is comprised of fools and knaves. This fact turns out to be a great good fortune because the fools and knaves can be tricked into Machiavellian orders. The premise of the lecture is that we moderns have been twice tricked into the contemporary order of things. Machiavelli’s comedy, Mandragola, displays the first trick. It portrays a young man who forms a conspiracy to convince a (beautiful) married woman to sleep with him. The conspiracy includes her husband, mother and confessor. The Machiavellian conspiracy is an enterprise to subdue the Christian conscience. It is wildly successful, and the comedy ends as the conspirators happily march to church together. The second trickster is Francis Bacon. He does not openly expose his trick, but Shakespeare does in the comedy (?) All’s Well That Ends Well. It presents a clever woman who conspires to trick a willful man into consummating unwillingly their marriage. He is tricked into destroying the virtue of filial piety. The marriage is consummated, but All’s Well does not end as the Mandragola. Who are the fools?” Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pagano, Frank N. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-03-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Machiavelli, Niccolo, 1469-1527. Prince. Machiavelli, Niccolo, 1469-1527. Mandragola. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. All's well that ends well. Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SFPaganoF_Modernity_for_Fools_and_Knaves_2024-03-29 Friday night lecture Worrell lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/1d45c90cbf6f4e6a54daba5a212d8124.mp4 7932f5c4f2094eb667ece8eb76da8fdd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data mp4 Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:02:16 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource “<em>The Concept of Irony, with Continual Reference to Socrates:"</em> Kierkegaard on the Infinity of Socratic Irony Description An account of the resource Video recording of a lecture delivered on September 23, 2022, by Mary Townsend as part of the Formal Lecture Series.<br /><br /><span>Ms. </span><span class="marksasqb3usa">Townsend</span><span> is an assistant professor of philosophy at St. John’s University in New York. She is the author of </span><i>The Woman Question in Plato’s Republic</i><span> (2017) and a graduate of Tulane University (PhD, 2015) and St. John’s College (BA, 2004).</span> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Townsend, Mary Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2022-09-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource A signed permission form has been received stating: "I hereby grant St. John's College permission to: make a recording of my lecture, and retain copies for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a recording of my lecture available online; make typescript copies of my lecture available for circulation and archival preservation at the St. John’s College Greenfield Library; make a copy of my typescript available online." Type The nature or genre of the resource moving image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp4 Subject The topic of the resource Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855 Socrates Irony Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context LEC_Townsend_Mary_2022-09-23_ac Alumni Friday night lecture https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/23dec77e99a4ada18779cea44fcd0772.pdf 5e24be07e1375e4c8a1c440318c26140 PDF Text Text Thursday April 4 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity CSL Report: Forum on the Alcohol on Campus Last Wednesday, March 27th, the CSL hosted a forum on alcohol consumption and how it impacts our community. The focus was on consumption on campus. The use of other recreational drugs was not taken into consideration. Mr. Huntley, Chair of the CSL, started the meeting with a question pertaining to the culture around alcohol on campus asking the participants to share their assessment on whether it is a healthy relationship. Participants considered different occasions in which alcohol is being consumed: college parties and events as well as regular private consumption. Students shared their personal reasons for drinking. The main reason cited was that alcohol helps the consumer to relax and socialize more easily. Regarding private consumption, the question and concern of writing essays under the influence of alcohol was raised. There seemed to be disagreement among the attendees on whether this is a widespread issue but if it was this would be indicative of a dangerous relationship to alcohol. Participants also argued that having an alcohol problem is highly subjective and personal. Most alcoholics self-diagnose. But a college environment can facilitate a blurring of the lines especially if one has a narrow understanding of alcoholism. Many students might not be binge drinkers but sometimes scheduled (binge) drinking could be considered problematic too. Pertaining to alcoholism among the student body, there were different interpretations of whether college life causes the problems or just intensifies already existing addictions. It would be helpful to have accessible campus specific data about this. Regarding campus events, the conversation was mostly centered around the Achilles Rager. Students shared the feeling that this event seems like the most unsafe of the year, particularly in terms of Title IX violations and physical health. The main factor contributing to this seems to be the lack of experience with safe drinking among the incoming first year students who use the occasion to try out new things and might go further than they ought to. This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that they do not yet have a strong social safety net. While some participants called for a cancellation or postponement for the event, others suggested a preventative approach. This approach would include training and raising awareness among returning students about first aid and safe partying. This might also reduce the strain on the RAs (Cont. on p. 2) Vol. II Issue 8 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Mayor presents on bike path Spoke to Students and Staff Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley attended a meeting in the Conversation Room on Wednesday, April 27th to present plans for the bike path on back campus. Along with him was Brian Cahalan, one of the mayor’s advisors, Eric Leshinsky, of planning and zoning, and representatives of the firm Meade and Hunte, who are responsible for making the plans for the bike path. Student and faculty attendance was limited, with only six students present and one faculty member, who left relatively early on. There were a few St. John’s staff members present as well. Buckley began the meeting by talking about adopting Dutch cycling infrastructure models to help address Annapolis’ contribution to global climate change. “The simplest climate solution is right in front of us,” explained Buckley, “We need to walk again, we need to bike again. And we’re not going to be able to do that without separated bike paths.” He claimed that the College Creek Connector would fill a major gap in the regional trail network, which would enable people to not only get more easily to Parole via the West East Express but would also connect to the B&A trail, forming a link all the way to Baltimore. The path, if approved, will meet campus property on the water by the Rowe Boulevard Bridge, which will have widened sidewalks to make it easier and safer for students and downtown residents to get to Graul’s. It will continue along the water until just before the small dock and boat launch, where it will join the dirt path running parallel to the creek for only about 50 feet, and then curve around behind the boathouse and up to Prince George Street. The slope behind the boathouse would be stabilized against erosion and receive better landscaping, while the living shoreline along the creek would be cleared of invasive species and replanted with native ones. A new boatshed would be built to house sailboats, and steps might be taken to improve boathouse accessibility. This would be in conjunction with other projects in the area, like a gateway park in the patch of woods off Rowe Boulevard and watercraft infrastructure at the end of Northwest Street, which are aimed at improving access to College Creek. Buckley emphasized that this plan will not happen without the College’s support and called on students to voice their opinions. “It’s not just an ask for the College, he said, “it’s an ask for the future.” El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Theater review: Much Ado About Much Ado About Nothing Last weekend the King William’s Players 2024 Season opened with a groovy production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Sophomores Eden Kammeyer and Ari David. Decked out with disco balls, flare pants, outrageous polyester shirts, and feather boas, the supremely talented cast boogied and jived their way through the two-hour show. Much Ado About Nothing concerns itself primarily with the relationships between its two main couples, Beatrice and Benedick, and Hero and Claudio, and how those relationships form and fall apart due to the deceptions of the other characters. Kammeyer and David set up this intrigue in a brilliantly colorful and campy 1970’s version of the Italian city of Messina, and they clearly told their actors to have fun with it. Full of cheeky physical comedy, sassy looks, fully committed characterization, and punchy line delivery, it was a riot from start to finish. Highlights include Ms. Rachel Hauben’s entire performance as Beatrice, her second to date, and by her own admission much superior to the first online version. Messrs. Charles Dang, Angus Preston, Ian Rossomundo, and M. Ned Haynie brought hilarious energy and impeccable comedic timing to the constabulary and watchmen. Ms. Katharine Bates played Don John delightfully cold and furious, styled to the nines in bold black and white patterns. And M. Z Larson and Ms. Sadie Lewin fell in and out of love as Hero and Claudio with heart wrenching sincerity. All in all, it was a delightful show and a fresh and funny take on Shakespeare's classic comedy. Keep your eyes peeled for posters going up for the KWP’s upcoming shows, the Shakespeare Showcase directed by Dolan Polglaze and Jordan Kammeyer, and Moby Dick, adapted for the stage and directed by Ranger Kasdorf. Andy Manne Aphorism of the Week: Silence is everywhere, yet no one has heard it so far. This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 4/4: Aristotle: Physics. I (A): 1 (184a10–184b16); II (B): (192b8–200b11) 4/8: Aristotle: Physics. III (Γ): 1–3 (200b12–202b29); IV (Δ): 10–14 (217b30–224a16) Sophomores: 4/4: Shakespeare: Hamlet 4/8: Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book I, Chapters 1–6; 15 Juniors: 4/4: Mozart: Don Giovanni 4/8: Kant: Foundation of Metaphysics of Morals. See official list for selections Seniors: 4/4: The Federalist, 78, 81 (selection); Supreme Court Opinions; Constitution, Articles III and VI 4/8: Dred Scott Decision and Dissenting Opinion, selected speeches of A. Lincoln and F. Douglas Friday-Monday, 4/5-7 Junior and Freshmen writing lounge. Opens Friday at 4 pm, closes Monday 7 am. Mellon 141 and 144. Friday-Saturday, 4/5-6 Graduate Institute Convening Weekend Saturday, 4/6: Admitted Students Day, Club Fair at 3:30 in the Great Hall Friday Night Lecture All College Seminar on "How Should One Read A Book?" by Virginia Woolf, 7:30 P.M., Great Hall Page 1 �Thursday April 4, 2024 St. John’s Collegian DC President Ali Shawamreh Overthrown, Evil Alter-Ego Crowned The Delegate Council meeting last Tuesday, the first meeting in April, ended in chaos as DC President Ali Shawamreh mysteriously disappeared. He noted that the agenda had been “highjacked” to feature an item labeled “The Magnificent Coronation of His Majesty Olive Shawarma, Righteous Regent of the St. John’s College Polity, in the Year 2024 of Our Common Era,” got up and disappeared behind one of the wooden barriers in the conversation room. CSL Report Cont. Photo Courtesy of Helen Felbek Mitchell Museum Report In his place emerged Olive Shawarma (pictured, right) who ordered a proclamation to be read announcing him as King of St. John’s College in Annapolis, in Santa Fe, in Cambridge, in Australia, in Canada, in India, and in all other places in which there is a St. John’s College to be king of; Archduke of the Paca Tub Room, etc. Lord Protector of the Delegate Council, and Defender of the Transcendental Idealism, as well as a variety of other titles. He was then crowned in a lavish ceremony and recited a coronation sonnet. The current exhibition in the Mitchell Museum only displays one piece. Entitled “Sampling a Sampler Sampling,” Polly Apfelbaum’s work challenges the viewer’s perspective. The piece is made of several different fabrics purchased in New York City’s Garment District arranged on the floor. Many of the fabric samples feature raw edges, and some of the patterns clash with each other. The originality of the piece prompts the audience to reconsider the place oftextiles in the world of art. What is art really made of? Does it change when we change our point of view? The exhibition runs until April 21 El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Natalie Goldman Come for me vol. 2 Continued Conversation on Orgasms Editor’s Note: This article is the second part of a series first appearing in The Gadfly. In my last article I settled some of the basics of orgasms with Annelise. However, I still had questions. I find that much like every person’s orgasm is different, every conversation about orgasm has new insights. This friend has chosen to stay anonymous. Before getting into the conversation, I would like to address questions I’ve heard about whether everything I wrote in the last article was true. I swear in this column to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God. AB: How easy is it for you to orgasm? Anonymous Interviewee: I would say it’s pretty easy, especially on my own, but with more experience it has also gotten easier with a partner. How long does it take you to orgasm? How long do your orgasms last? Approximately 8-10 minutes, the length of the orgasm depends on factors I am unaware of, but it is usually not the sort of thing that is constricted to time. What allows you to orgasm with ease? Not only just practice and experience, but increased ability to let go of my self-consciousness surrounding it. Is there anything in particular you’ve found that has helped you with that? Anon: Mechanically, and I won’t get into too much detail—for propriety’s sake—but I’ve developed the theory of The Rule of Two; being, you can’t just be doing one thing in order to have an orgasm. You must be stimulated in at least two areas. Diversity in Vol. II. Issue 8 performance is key to success. There’s that one episode of Friends where Monica is showing Chandler how to please a woman: it’s kind of just like that. I know you said you don’t want to get into too much detail, but is this stimulation purely physical or mental as well? I would say mental for sure, it’s good to be in a comfortable environment where you don’t feel inhibited to explore what turns you on. Do you feel that your orgasms with a partner are essentially different than the ones you have on your own? Orgasms with a partner are fundamentally different because it is no longer solely your environment that you need to feel comfortable with, but with another person seeing you completely uninhibited. Reaching that state with someone else is an extremely intimate and vulnerable position to be in. I think our modern discussions surrounding sex often disregards that it takes practice and self-knowledge to be able to do this with someone. Do you think anyone is likely to have an orgasm with a partner without having one on their own? I think it’s possible. We all have our own anatomies, and some people are able to explore that with someone else first. Why do people say “When you have an orgasm you’ll just know” with such certainty? I think it has to do with the thing I said earlier about time. When you enter into an experience that exists so outside of time, that the question “Am I having an orgasm?” just isn’t on the table, and then you’ll know. Allyson Brink Page 2 (Cont. from p. 2) during that particular night. Some course similar to the “Get inclusive” course that all new and returning students have to finish every year for first aid and practical knowledge surrounding alcohol consumption could be part of this. The tenor was that the burden should not be placed on the new students who already have a busy and overwhelming orientation schedule but that it should be considered a community responsivity. Overall, students seemed to agree that in such a small community like St. John’s we need to look out for an help each other. As sophomore representative Camilla Lopez put it “what hurts the individual, hurts the whole polity.” To that end, Ms. Lico and Ms. Silver are hosting an event on addiction in general on Thursday, April 18th, during lunch in the Hodson room. Food will be provided. If you are interested in attending a CSL forum, please join us in the dining hall at 11.45 pm on Wednesday. We also appreciate student input on forum topics. Just talk to or email Mr. Huntley or me. Helen Felbek About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Allyson Brink Helen Felbek Andy Manne Natalie Goldman Are you interested in having your opinion heard? Do you want to rant and rave against articles you’ve seen published here? Do you want to amaze the campus with your superior rhetoric? Do you just want a place to review your favorite 19th century operetta? If so, then the Collegian is the place for you! Just send us your articles, and help us diversify our coverage. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, April 4, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 8 of the St. John's Collegian, published April 4, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue8_2024-04-04_Corrected Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d590264b6a9513b4c062a1e0b592f4ed.pdf dcab19f315dd90c2e5513eb66051497e PDF Text Text Thursday March 28 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication From the polity Vol. II Issue 7 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Interview with Walter sterling jr. CSL Report: Forum on the Incoming Santa Fe Campus President Discusses Background, relationship between the city Thoughts on the Future of the College It’s just been the long arc of experience at of Annapolis and St. John’s This interview has been edited for length and clarity. challenges. the College. We’ve never been a luxurious institution. The first CSL forum after Spring break was held last Wednesday, March 20th. Despite the sophomore writing period many attendees were sophomores. The topic of the forum was the question of the relationship between the college community and the wider city of Annapolis. Mr. Huntley, Chair of the CSL, explained that there is a need for this forum due to recent conversations surrounding the plan of the city of Annapolis for College Creek Connector which seem to relate to this question. The conversation was also supposed to offer a space to prepare for the Bike Path Forum with Mayor Buckley and other people involved with the project to be hosted on Wednesday, March 27th. The consensus among attendees of the forum seemed to be that the college community should strive for more personal interactions with the residents of Annapolis. But the group identified a number of hurdles that might contribute to students isolating themselves from the wider city life. While many participants voiced the desire for more interactions with Annapolitans, many felt as if the city is not particularly inviting to college students. The downtown area, while walkable, is too expensive for most students’ budgets, too touristic, and the Naval Academy seems to have an overwhelming presence. But there was the acknowledgement that there are many events and resources that are useful and interesting to Johnnies such as events offered at Maryland Hall. The conversation also touched upon the concept of the “Johnnie Bubble.” One participant characterized the student life at St. John’s as a “non-secular monastic lifestyle” which many interpret as inherently insular. However, some participants argued that this monasticism should also include some outreach and engagement with the world. The argument was made that some people interpret the program and the reading list in a more action driven way than others. In the context of social engagement, the question was raised whether more students should “put the program into action” while being in college and not wait until after graduation to do so. This kind of engagement could improve relations with more marginalized groups in Annapolis as well. (Cont. on p. 2) How would you introduce yourself to the students of Annapolis? In terms of my background, I’m Walter Sterling. I’m a longtime tutor at the College. I joined the faculty in 2003, and had the opportunity to serve twice as dean, including over the past five years. I’m also a graduate of the college, graduated Annapolis, ’93, started with the class of ’92 in Santa Fe, took a year off, and then spent two years with the class of ’93. As many people know, my father is a tutor emeritus in Annapolis, and as maybe fewer people know, both of my parents are alumni of the College. So it’s fair to say that the College has been my life in a lot of ways. But it’s been important to me that I’ve had other experiences out of St. John’s. I went to graduate school in philosophy, I taught at some other colleges and universities. I left academia for a few years to work for a nonprofit in Philadelphia. I might just build on that comment to say I’ve always been restless about not being just inside the classroom, the world of books and study. As vast and important that world is, and as much as it shaped me, I’ve wanted to make a practical difference with part of my energy too. Why did you feel yourself called to apply for the position of president? Part of making that [practical difference] is doing the work that creates conditions that allow the heart of what we do to flourish, and thrive, and survive. That’s the sense of calling that connects to the work of the presidency. The way I put it in an interview for the Santa Fe New Mexican is that as a tutor, I’ve looked down the bench and seen other tutors who can do that work as well or better than I can. I see fewer people that have one foot in both worlds, deeply rooted in the mission, deeply shaped by it, but also deeply interested in budget, finances, marketing, fundraising, and all the practical exigencies. I’ve always wanted to stitch the academic and practical together, and wanted to have a foot in both worlds. How do you plan to address the some of the financial challenges the College is facing? I would say that pretty much for as long as I’ve been at the College, we have faced fiscal and enrollment We’ve always been a small place focused on our mission and the character of our community, and trying to preserve that, make it available to folks and keep it as vital as it can be, but we’ve always done that in a lean way. I would say, above all, what we need is to keep the education strong, keep the community of learning strong, so that we never want to do anything that leads to a steady weakening of the heart of what we do in and around the classroom. That’s why we’re all here. That’s what we’re trying to support, and that’s what gives us the opportunity to go out into the world and say, “come as students, come as faculty, come be a part of this ‘community dedicated to liberal education.’” That’s the phrase that starts the statement of the program that I like to cite over and over again. To keep that community strong and vital, we have to make it visible; be strong in our advocacy for it, and the difference it makes in our lives and in the world; fundraise in the name of that; and recruit students that are going to benefit from this by putting it out there for all to see and making it financially accessible to students for whom cost might be an obstacle. We’ve got to continue what we’ve been doing in recent years, which is to try to raise more money to keep up with the increasing costs of doing what we’re doing; and to continue to fight a difficult battle in contemporary culture, to show that this education is not only still relevant and vital, but that it’s needed now more than ever. Could you say more about advocating for the liberal arts outside of St. John’s, and how that fits in with the role of president? In terms of the role of president, we all know our presidents have many important roles on campus, but the presidents are also the primary face and voice of our institution to the outside world. They are the people that get in front of other educational leaders, potential friends and donors and foundations, and folks who are interested in supporting the College. They are the folks that can get a quote in an article here, or get a talk in there, etc., etc. ) So it’s always important for our presidents to be out there making the case for liberal education. (Cont. on p. 2) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 3/28: Euripides: The Bacchae 4/1: Aristotle: Poetics, Chapters 1–19 Sophomores: 3/28: Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part I 4/1: Shakespeare: Othello Juniors: 3/28: Rousseau: The Social Contract (See official list for selections) 4/1: Molière: The Misanthrope Seniors: 3/28: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, “The Window” 4/1: Virginia Woolf: To the Lighthouse, “Time Passes” and “The Lighthouse” Friday, 3/29: Pangaea’s Soccer vs. Football game, 4:30 pm, Lower Field Saturday, 3/30: Much Ado About Nothing, presented by the KWP, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium Essay Hell, 9 pm, Great Hall Sunday, 3/31: All-Day Knit-a-thon, 1 pm, Mitchell Museum Much Ado About Nothing, presented by the KWP, 7 pm, FSK Auditorium Wednesday 4/3: Erik S. Kristensen Memorial Lecture, 7:30 pm, Great Hall Friday Night Lecture: The Value of Suffering, delivered by Gregory Freeman at 7:30 pm in the FSK Auditorium Page 1 �Thursday March 28, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 7 Commentary on Frog and toad Bk I, Ch. i: "Spring" The indifferent raptures of a cozy bed are by no means unfamiliar to any of us. Every day, so it seems, our wonted cradle holds tightly to us, and no more wants us to leave it than we want to do so. Thus we find lethargic Toad, overcome utterly by the lulls and ablative inebriation of a deep stupor, while outside his den the yellow-green tongues of Spring flick forth from the April branches. Verdant Frog him awakes but to no avail—for Toad will not have any disturbance to his slumber, insisting that he be let to sleep until “half past May.” Polytropic Frog moves to his calendar, unattended since late Fall and still bearing the face of November. He updates the calendar—and continues to pull the pages off until he is greeted by May, which, having been shown to Toad awaking, convinces him to get up, and they take to the fresh road of Spring together. The core aporia of this chapter is the beguilement of a friend. Frog subtly deceives Toad—for what end and at what cost? Frog says that he will be lonely without Toad in the coming month if he awakes not, implying also his loneliness during the winter, which, given his surprise at the calendar’s unattended state, was borne by him in Toad’s absence. Toad, overcome by the coils of sleep, is unmoved by his friend’s pleas, which friend is moved to trickery. This trickery cannot have gone unnoticed by Toad for very long, for the environment of April is, of course, quite different from that of May. Nor is it in Frog’s interest for Toad to be thus permanently deceived—for then he would make his next hibernation in October, quite before his wonted time, which would grieve Frog no doubt. Nor is it at all the intention of Frog, a true and loving companion, to so drastically deceive his friend. Frog wishes instead to rouse his buddy in time to bear witness to the nascent verdure and accompany himself in his delight of Spring. Is it not in the nature of a true friend to want to, having enjoyed something of great delight, introduce his friend to such pleasure? Now, it’s important that College education help people with careers, but at the heart of our dedication to liberal education, the case we have to make is that almost every trend we see on a wider social stage shows why liberal education is needed now more than ever. I think, even if they wouldn’t express it in the idiom of liberal education, most people see the crises and they have a yearning for the kind of intellectual and spiritual resources that the liberal arts and liberal education are the natural home for, and we have to unapologetically carry that forward. What is the relevance of the Santa Fe president to Annapolis? In what way will your role impact us here? In a certain sense the most important role for the College officers on each campus in relation to the other campus is to maintain and sustain the health of our unified college. Our campuses only exist as part of this larger whole, and we stand and fall together, and always risk a certain kind of entropy, or a kind of benign neglect of each other. It’s our job to keep us stitched together, to continue to understand that we have one program. It takes work and a high degree of collegiality. I guess I could simplify my thoughts this way: the Let us therefore make no delay in welcoming Spring. We may learn from our tale that our greatest pleasures lie beyond our bed-covers; let us be not trapped by our idle chains, and let us venture beyond the warmth of our cozy haunt and into budding April, where the pleasant drops of Springtime ichor fall upon and reward us for our attentiveness. Let us join our friend Frog in welcoming the sunlight, and shed a little of our joy onto others. Tarik Mahmud The foolish reader conceives of Frog as a knave, a selfish deceiver who manipulates his pal for his own pleasure. But the wise reader knows that Frog has no ill intention at all in his guile, for by this little noble Interview with Walter sterling (Cont. from p. 1) What is this case? It is, to use the phrase from the capital campaign, that it’s about freeing minds. It’s about education meeting the fullest potential of our natural faculties, both to live a good life, and to give us the kind of agency to be able to serve as able, humane, skilled, self-conscious and self-possessed people in all areas of life. It’s also a requirement of citizenship in a democratic republic, and I think when we look out at the world and see constant and deepening crises that concern us on the political side, technological side, and social side. No one should pretend that liberal education solves those, but without liberal education, they’re insoluble and irremediable. So, in short, we equip our students for private and public life. lie he exposes to Toad the grandeur of a not-yet complete Spring and the largeness of the flowering April, while if Toad had remained in his languid state until halfway through the month of May, he would have beheld only the trailing tail of primaveral beauty (and would have been in grave danger of sleeping through my birthday on the tenth of the latter month). president on the Santa Fe campus, and the officers on both campuses, need to both be caring stewards of their local campus community with all of the preoccupation and partiality that that brings with it, and counteract that with constant attention to maintaining the good of the whole. To end on a lighter note, I’ll ask a question that in a very Johnnie way, can say a lot about a person: what is your favorite place to read? My favorite place to read is the library in Santa Fe, the Meem Library, which is my favorite building on campus. I find the architectural space warm but also sublime in its openness. It’s always felt to me like a wonderful place to nest and read, and uplifting place to do it. Thank you very much! I appreciate your taking the time to meet with me. About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: Thank you! El’ad Nichols-Kaufman El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud CSL Report (Cont. from p. 1) But the concern was raised that to a certain extent more engagement with the outside world would come at the cost of being less able to be an active participant in campus life as most Johnnies have the tendency to overcommit to extracurricular activities. Attendees expressed the sense that there is great value in interactions with non-students and people from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. How to have these meaningful interactions is ultimately each individual person’s responsibility but for some projects and issues an attempt at a collective response to this question might be necessary as well. Helen Felbek Page 2 Helen Felbek Croquet is coming up, and we are searching for people to cover the happenings around the game. If you are interested in doing player interviews, spectator fashion reviews or, actual coverage of the game itself, please write us to make sure we can give the biggest event of the year the attention it deserves. Aphorism of the Week: Corruption can sometimes be healed only by fire. That is why we sometimes have to burn our own houses. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, March 28, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 7 of the St. John's Collegian, published March 28, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-03-28 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue7_2024-03-28_corrected Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/19bcfc1971eeea4e1204402fce9e1e47.pdf 7295bbc7bc9e928d0821d2720b60b589 PDF Text Text Thursday February 29 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 6 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Board of visitors and governors meet in annapolis A Response to And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon Board Announces Fund for Improving Tutor Pay, Discusses Finance, Enrollment and Retention I have recently read an article written not too long ago concerning the ecosystem and possible imbalance thereof among Dining Hall cutlery. The study of this particular ecosystem and its functioning and ecological niches being still quite nascent, I find it proper to show the fruits of my own inquiries here. The question is as to the fluctuating populations of two species of spoon in the dining hall, particularly the large and rotund soup spoon (Cochlear jurulentum) and the comparatively smaller and more narrow tea spoon (Cochlear theaticum). Among various more subtle differences, we find that the most prominent morphological distinction between these species is in the shape of the food receptacle, which in C. jurulentum is far greater in volume, and more circular in shape: that of C. theaticum being, in addition to its comparative smallness, more tapered toward the anterior end, which distinction in anatomy is indicative of the disjunction of their ecological niches; this disjunction is confirmed by their separate population fluctuations, which was noted by the esteemed and ingenious gentleman Mr. Briggs. The extension of this conclusion to a predator-prey relationship, however, must be examined in more detail. While it is true that the sequential decline and rise of C. theaticum is characteristic of this relationship, it is not yet altogether clear whether this relationship is reflected also in the populations of C. jurulentum. For it remains to be seen whether the increase in the population of C. theaticum is accompanied by a correlative increase in that of C. jurulentum: the latter’s prevalence during the dearth of the former is not necessarily due to an actual increase in their numbers, but could be merely an increase in proportion. It is therefore still quite possible that the populations of these two species are largely independent of each other, and that the decline of C. theaticum is its own phenomenon. The hypothesized explanation for this decline, then, could be a scarcity of their primary food source; certainly I have found that I have been drinking more tea in the Dining Hall after C. theaticum’s reappearance. Tarik Mahmud The Board of Visitors and Governors met again on the Annapolis campus this semester from the 22nd of February to the 24th. While the board members were in town for the meeting, a rededication ceremony was held for Campbell Hall, now to be named Edensword Hall, in honor of Karen Pritzker’s father. The renovations currently underway at that building were made possible by a $15 million grant by the Jay Pritzker foundation and are expected to be completed by the end of the summer. Speakers at the event included Santa Fe president Mark Roosevelt, Annapolis president Nora Demleitner, Board Chair Warren Spector, and future Edensword RA Peter Quinn. During the meeting itself, a major announcement made was the creation of a fund for tutor and staff compensation. Spector said that in order to recognize Mark Roosevelt’s retirement, it was decided to focus on fundraising for salaries. An idea was proposed by vice-chair Pamela R. Saunders-Albin, in conjunction with Roosevelt, to create this special fund. The fund has received contributions from all the board members, and currently eight of the ten million dollars needed have been raised, with fundraising on track to meet the goal by the summer. This fund comes at a time when tutor salaries have been at the forefront of conversation in Annapolis, with a walkout held earlier this year to protest wages which have been largely stagnant since 2008, and were not properly adjusted for rising cost of living. This was especially seen to hit junior faculty members harder, due to the pay system for St. John’s tutors, where faculty receive a step increase every year at the College, which lets them progress from a minimum salary while beginning at the college to a maximum salary 1.82 times the minimum. “The most important thing to do in the short term is to raise junior faculty salaries, but in the long term, we need to raise all faculty salaries,” said Spector. Susan Paalman, Annapolis dean, who called on the board to address the issue at the previous board meeting, noted the urgency of the issue, given increased cost of living and the loss of qualified new tutors due to the low salary. She thanked the board for addressing it now, saying “this could not have come at a better time… This will give the community hope, and help us through difficulty.” This fund will allow the minimum salary to be raised to $70,000, and also allow for 2% annual increases, This Week in Seminar separate from the normal annual step increases. While this is still below inflation, it is an improvement from the previous situation in which no adjustments were made for inflation at all. The fund will also cover increases for staff, although these increases were not detailed in the board meeting. This fund should be sufficient to provide these increases for seven years, and afterwards the salary funding must be picked up by the College’s general fund. “This is vital to the future of the College,” said Spector, “I want to make sure the faculty knows we recognize their sacrifices.” Roosevelt concurred, adding that “No matter what differences there might be [between the board and faculty], they are all immaterial, compared to the enormous respect we have for the faculty.” Although the Board has managed to find a way to fund these much-needed increases to pay, many financial challenges still loom large for the College, and were discussed at the meeting. In addition to the fiscal year 2024 deficit, they are projecting a five million dollar deficit in fiscal year 2025, with increasing deficits in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. These are primarily caused by continued high costs of building maintenance and salaries, while tuition revenue is still below where it was in 2008. The College’s shift to a philanthropy focused funding model has helped alleviate this but has not been able to meet all needs yet. However, major bequests of several million dollars are expected in the next few years, which should remove some of the pressure on the college. One of the important financial considerations is the endowment, which has reached record sizes recently thanks to Hodson funds and other donations. It currently totals about $250 million. However, yields from the endowment have been lower than expected, with the seven year rate of return being 7%, lower than the passive benchmark rate of return. To address this, the board has begun a search for a new manager for the endowment. Another topic of discussion was enrollment, with incoming freshmen classes so far projected to meet goals on both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campus. In Annapolis, the target enrollment is 140 to 150 students, with 100 to 110 students hoped for in Santa Fe. Demleitner noted the success (Cont on page 2.) Upcoming Events: No regularly scheduled activities because of Spring Break. If, however, you will be on campus during the break, the following event will be occurring: Freshman: 2/29: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 3/18: Aristotle: Politics (See list for selections) Sophomores: 2/29: Montaigne: Essays, III, 13 (Of Experience) 3/18: Machiavelli: The Prince Juniors: 2/29: Locke: Second Treatise of Government, Chapters X–XIX 3/18: Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice Seniors: 2/29: Freud: Beyond the Pleasure Principle 3/18: Dostoevski: The Brothers Karamazov Saturday 3/2: Day trip to Andrew and NC Wyeth Studios, run by the Mitchell Museum. Sign up at the Museum office. Friday Night Lecture: No Lecture due to break Page 1 �Thursday January 29, 2024 St. John’s collegian Vol. II. Issue 6 Theological debate: Angelic Respona Written by I, El’ad son of Asher the scholar, son of Shimon, may his memory be a blessing. To Benettus Scottus and Andronicus Manifold and all the holy Kahal of St. John’s College in Annapolis Maryland, may the spirit of God rest upon them and may the Lord keep and protect them all. In a letter addressed to me a question of grave importance to the practical exercise of faith was posed: How many angels may fit upon the head of a pin? I am flattered by the reaching to me for an answer, a sign of great praise and esteem. Verily, I am one of the most humble scholars of the west, and not fitted to answer questions posed by such learned men, but as you have written me, I have no choice but to give some semblance of a response. The existing opinions on this are quite confounding. The Rambam says that the angels are not material bodies, but only forms distinguished from each other, which would seem to indicate that no angel could fit on a material pin. Scottus argues an angel could, however, and it is also known that Angels may touch things in contact with those they are ministering to, as it is written, and once the fetus emerges into the airspace of the world, an angel comes and slaps it on its mouth, causing it to forget the entire Torah, as it is stated: “Sin crouches at the entrance.” Thus, since the torah is a physical object in the mouth of a new born child, it can be touched by the angel as it belongs to its charge. Hence, it is possible for an angel to touch a pin, if a man be touching the pin. Mannicus, however, argues the question instead is whether an angel can touch an angel, since a pin is an angel, as it is like a needle, which has eyes. While we grant that a pin may be a needle, we ask, what do they mean by needle, must a needle have an eye? It is written that a woman may not go out on Shabbat with a needle that is not perforated, meaning that such a thing is still a needle. However, this raises an important question that must be addressed: what day are the angels touching the pin? What if this is a matter of shabbat? For an angel to reach a needle, the needle must grow relatively closer to the angel, which, as Rav Huygens teaches, means reaching for it is the same as throwing it. Throwing a needle on Shabbat is prohibited, as it For an angel to reach a needle, the needle must grow relatively closer to the angel, which, as Rav Huygens teaches, means reaching for it is the same as throwing it. Throwing a needle on Shabbat is prohibited, as it is written, Because the weavers of the tapestries in the Tabernacle throw their needles to each other when they need to borrow the other’s needle. Throwing was a labor performed in the Tabernacle; therefore, one is liable for performing it. However, the Gemara asks: it clear that they had to throw needles to each other? Perhaps they sat next to each other. The Gemara answers: It is clear that they kept their distance from each other. If they sat too close, they would reach each other and hurt one another with their needles. The Gemara asks: Perhaps, even though they kept their distance, they sat within four cubits of each other, and they would not throw the needles farther than that. Thus, we have managed to make great progress on the question: on Shabbat, no angels may fit on the head of the pin. Now, the future authorities examining this question only need to address the remaining six days of the week. Rav El’ad ben Asher Gems from the BVG meeting in About the St. John’s old collegian annapolis Collegian St. John’s first student newspaper, also called the (Cont from page 1.) of the discussion based St. John’s Collegian, ran from 1887 to 1976. Here are some finds from February 1895, 129 years ago to the month, which should be of interest to students today: “The sad drowning accident of Herman T. Wooters, a student at St. John’s, while skating in Peterson’s Cove, an inlet in College creek, between four and five o’clock, on the afternoon of January 23, cast a deep gloom over his fellow students, as well as those in the city who knew the young man.” “For the first time since it’s establishment in 1696, St. John’s can boast of a married man amongst her students. This somewhat unusual condition was brought about by the fact that one of the Juniors has taken unto him a wife. From all that can be gathered, it seems that the gentleman in question was married about a year ago, but kept the affair secret until a few days ago, when he boldly announced it... At present, the happy Benedict and his wife are living very happily, and the COLLEGIAN extends to them its congratulations and best wishes. P.S. Much speculation having arisen as to why the student married before he left the college, we beg to offer the following explanation: We are told, on good authority, that the gentleman contemplates ‘taking orders’ after graduation; in fact he has already begun to ‘dig’ into the bible. Now, he could not have advanced very far before he came to the passage ‘It is not good that a man should be alone.’ So we naturally suppose that the gentleman abided by scripture and took unto himself a helpfeet (sic).” “The second hop of the series occurred on Friday night, Feb. 1st, and was a source of pleasure to all who participated in it. The weather was down on us, but this seemed to only increase the zeal of the ‘fellows to get the femmes.’” application in helping meet these goals. “It not only completements our pedagogy perfectly,” she said, “but also answers many questions in higher education, like those on AI and discrimination in applications.” Approximately 140 people applied using the discussion based application. This year, a high rate of early applications helped improve prospects for enrollment, while a larger number of domestic applicants counteracted the decrease in international applications. Graduate admission, particularly in the low residency program, is also up on both campuses. Currently, there are 87 Graduate Institute students in Santa Fe, with another 27 in Annapolis. Retention, also a frequent topic of conversations at the Board Meeting, was also discussed, with members mentioning improved performance this year, with only a 3.9% withdrawal rate this year so far in Santa Fe. However, efforts to improve retentions are still a major focus, given the disproportionately higher withdrawal rate at the College compared to other peer institutions. Efforts to address this include continued support for the Career Development Office, which continues to offer funding through the Hodson and Pathways program, as well as host increasingly high number of events for students in a wide spectrum of fields. Additionally, the Deans of both campuses presented a planned program also called Pathways which will provide more resources for students interested in pursuing the ten most popular career pathways for students. Facilities were another major focus on for the Board, with approval being given for renovations to Pinkney over the summer after next, and a long needed IT overhaul. The Mayor of Annapolis presented information about the College Creek Connector, although the board did not make a final vote on that path. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 350 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud Once again, I am making my request for contributors: If you want a paper that reflects your interests, please write on the issues you care most about! Only through this can we continue to make the Collegian the best newspaper possible. Aphorism of the Week: We claim that we have conquered nature. If that is true, why has no one killed themselves by not breathing? �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 29, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 6 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 29, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-29 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue6_2024-02-29 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/95c7c49377178d5f0c97422988757d34.pdf aae0f710b6b2279e9fdaf9da477a5e8f PDF Text Text Thursday February 22 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Special issue: to the bvg Issue of Collegian Dedicated to Ideas, Student Perspectives As happens once or twice each year, the Board of Visitors and Governors will be meeting on the Annapolis Campus throughout the end of this week. Often, this occasion is either missed entirely by students, or treated as an inconvenience to usual use of spaces on campus. This semester, however, I hope to contribute towards changing this and ensuring student involvement in the decision making of the College. After all, the Polity is at its core a tightly knit community of learners, including, students, tutors and staff, and its governance should take into account the myriad of perspectives that compose it. In this issue of the Collegian, a variety of proposals and perspectives on the future of the College and progress that can be made going forward are presented: Helen Felbek makes a case for free menstrual products on campus, Peter Boersema reflects on enrollment, and Andy Manne reports on break housing, where the College’s decision to have a sliding scale fee should be applauded, and taken as a model for other fees on campus. For my part, I would like to use this slim column to also raise ideas and concerns students have raised in previous issues of the Collegian that I hope any Board member reading will notice, think about, and seek further student thoughts on from the many students around campus who are glad to share their perspectives. A major issue this semester has been tutor pay, which is almost universally seen by students to be low to the point at which it poses a danger to the College. Additionally, staff pay has been neglected for just as long, and makes it difficult to keep our grounds kept up, are buildings cleaned and students fed. Funding salary increases should be one of the board’s top priorities, and if cuts need to be made to student experience to fund such increases, so be it. Additionally, students have written about instituting an honor code, an issue which still divides the student body, and housing prices, where the new tiered system of pricing has drawn much ire. Concerns have been raised about how it will increase inequity on campus, breaking apart our community, and will add to the high cost of attendance. So many things, from laundry costs to meal costs, have been increasing, without proportional increases to (Cont. on page 2) Vol. II Issue 5 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis Improving Access. Improving Wellbeing. The case for free menstrual products on Campus An oftentimes overlooked issue to student wellbeing is the issue of period poverty. The NIH’s National Library of Medicine cites papers which define the term as “as the lack of access to safe and hygienic menstrual products during monthly periods and inaccessibility to basic sanitation services or facilities as well as menstrual hygiene education.”1 This issue is oftentimes not associated with developed countries. This, however, is a misconception. In the US 1 in 4 women struggle to purchase period products due to a lack of income.2 At least, residents in Maryland do not have carry the additional burden of the so called “period tax” or “tampon tax” (when menstrual products are taxed the same way as luxury good are) as period products are tax exempt since 1975.3 When we think of the issue, we usually think of demographics such as unhoused people or incarcerated individuals who encounter difficulties to access needed products. But college students too suffer from period poverty. According to a study recently conducted by the intimate health brand INTIMINA 1 in 5 (19%) female college students (from public and private colleges and universities across the country) fell forced to decide between buying period products and paying for food or other expenses.4 Additionally, nearly half (48%) said they have struggled to access menstrual products due to costs or other barriers.5 Other data by a 2021 study in the medical journal BMC Women's Health suggests that 14% of menstruating college students struggle to access period products on a regular basis.6 So, if we believe that St. John’s represents American society at all we have to assume that at St. John’s too some menstruating students are experiencing period poverty with all the negative ramifications that come with it. Thes side effects include but are not limited to health issues due to improper use of products such as Toxic Shock Syndrome and social repercussions such as social isolation which can among other things impact the ability to attend classes regularly. These negative effects even go as far as an increased risk of depression as a study published in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality found. Thankfully, the college has identified this issue. RAs receive some menstrual hygiene products to distribute to their residents and the Health Center offers free period products as well. This is a good start but not sufficient to fully address the problem. There is no list of how many of the nearly 6,000 universities and colleges in the US provide menstrual products at no cost but there is a growing movement initiatives. In Maryland, HB 205 requires local boards of education to ensure that each public school provide free menstrual hygiene products via dispensers. This bill went into effect in 2021.7 Anne Arundel County Public Library provides free menstrual products to patrons.8 In higher education there are no state requirements. However, in February of last year the University of Maryland proudly proclaimed “Necessities at No Cost. Period.” Sharing the happy news that fee period products were distributed to hundreds of UMD bathrooms. The cost for installation and dispensers amounted to a total cost of $135,000 with the student government contributing $48,000.9 But the University of Maryland has 40,813 at their College Park location alone.10 Thus, their cost does not compare at all to the initial investment necessary to bring dispensers to bathrooms at St. Johns’ Annapolis campus. According to the cost calculator of Aunt Flow, a women-owned company on a mission to ensure every person has access to sustainable and free period products, whose products, and dispensers I first encountered in a restroom at Princeton University, dispensers in 70 bathrooms would cost approximately $22,050 ($315 per dispenser). According to their calculations, the maintenance would be comparatively cheap with an annual operating cost of $800 (to provide 300 menstruating people with products). There are presumably some hurdles such as questions of who should restock the dispensers. But perhaps it is worthwhile to reach out to institutions that have successfully managed to establish free period product programs and learn from their expertise. It seems like a worthy endeavor as part of our never-ceasing efforts to make campus more welcoming to everyone. Helen Felbek 1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10372806/ 2 https://cdn.b12.io/client_media/HJ1wIVtI/e5c8dfb4-95f9-11ea-a54f-0242ac110003Maryland_APS_Period_Poverty_Fact_Sheet_052020.pdf 3 https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-tampon-tax-states-utah-california.html 4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2023/10/10/20-of-female-college-studentscant-afford-period-products new-survey-shows/?sh=218c8ce549f1 5 https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2023/10/10/20-of-female-college-studentscant-afford-period-products new-survey-shows/?sh=218c8ce549f1 6 https://www.npr.org/2023/09/19/1200291452/should-menstrual-products-forwomen-on-college-campuses-be-free 7https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2021RS/fnotes/bil_0005/hb0205.pdf 8 https://www.aacpl.net/blog-entries/aacpl-supporting-menstrual-health 9 https://today.umd.edu/necessities-at-no-cost-period 10 https://research.umd.edu/who-we-are/facts-and-figure This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/22: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VI, VII 2/26: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Books VIII, IX Sophomores: 2/22: Shakespeare: As You Like It 2/26: Montaigne: Essays; To the Reader, Of Cannibals, Of Cruelty, Of Repentance Juniors: 2/22: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 2/26: Locke: Second Treatise of Government, Chapters I–IX Seniors: 2/22: Conrad: Heart of Darkness 2/26: Freud: “Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through,” “Mourning and Melancholia” Saturday, 2/24 Friday Night Lecture: Dan Harrell: Being a Book. FSK, 7:30 pm Page 1 - - 11 am, Studio Theater: Board of Visitors and Governors Meeting Plenary Session 4 pm, Mitchell Museum: Exhibition Celebration for Sampling a Sampling Sampler 9 pm, Mellon Hall Lobby: Archon Gala Wednesday, 2/28 - 5 pm, Conversation Room: Film Discussion: Harry Smith’s Untitled Animation of Seminole Patchwork �Thursday February 22, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Vol. II. Issue 5 How Big Should St. John’s Be? On Enrollment, Budget, and Community The Board of Visitors and Governors meets here in Annapolis on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Enrollment is sure to be a subject of discussion. According to reporting from this publication, enrollment was a concern at recent BVG meetings. Last summer, President Demleitner stated that “low enrollment means stagnant class size, which means stagnant tuition, which means low compensation for faculty and staff.” (See “Board of Visitors and Governors Holds Summer Meeting”) Enrollment concerns were brought up again at the October BVG meeting in Santa Fe. (See “Board of Visitors and Governors Meets in Santa Fe” from Collegian Vol. 1 Issue 6) Enrollment is an important challenge for St. John’s. As of last fall, the college projected a deficit of around $5 million for each of the next three fiscal years. More money must be raised to close this gap even before the college can consider spending on other projects, such as increasing pay for staff and tutors. One way to do this is to enroll larger freshman classes, thereby increasing tuition revenue. This is what President Demleitner was pointing to in her summer comments. The fact that the number of high-school graduates is expected to begin declining in the next few years only makes these concerns more pressing. But enrollment growth, at least on the Annapolis campus, poses obvious issues. Seminars and tutorials already have about as many students as possible in them, so an increase in enrollment would require a proportional increase in the number of tutors. I need not mention the college’s inability to pay adequate faculty salaries, which has been much discussed this year. This year has also featured a housing shortage on campus. The reopening of Campbell Hall next year– which will by then be called Edensword Hall–will certainly alleviate it in the near term. But apartments in downtown Annapolis have become much more expensive in recent years. I see no reason for this trend to reverse. As off-campus rents continue to increase, a greater proportion of upperclassmen will need to be housed on campus. The number of dorm rooms imposes a limit on how much enrollment can increase. St. John’s can’t grow indefinitely. The student body should be able to remain at a sustainable size. We should also ask how greater enrollment would impact the nature of the college. On the one hand, a larger student body could support more diversity and a greater range of student activities. On the other hand, the admissions department must recruit larger classes that are composed of students that are wellsuited for the St. John’s program. Is the intimate nature of the campus community essential to the college’s education mission? I don’t think it is, but I’m open to hearing other opinions. If enrollment is a subject of discussion at this week’s meeting–I’m sure it will be–members of the Board of Visitors and Governors must ask and answer the question of how big St. John’s should be. This means finding a size that is both sustainable and conducive to the college’s educational purpose. Peter Boersema Correction: In last issue’s article on the College Creek Connector forum, some statements from Eric Leshinsky appeared to be responding to statements from the forum. Leshinsky was not present at the forum, and there has been no official response from the Campus Planning Committee to the city on this topic. The interview for the Collegian was conducted before the forum. . NEW CHANGES TO SPRING BREAK HOUSING POLICY FOLLOWING RELATED CSL FORUM If you were an international student, a student otherwise planning to stay on campus over spring break, or just someone who reads all of their emails, you may have noticed an email regarding changes to the College’s spring break policy last week. According to Jen Cline, the new policy stands that any student may request to stay on campus over spring break— provided that it is a last resort due to safety or financial concerns (of course including the usual issues facing international students). Additionally, while the standard fee of $150 per week remains the same, there is now a sliding scale for students whose official Estimated Family Contribution falls below $10,000. These changes are expected to be implemented on a trial basis for this upcoming break and will be evaluated at the end of the year to determine if they will be sustained. This change comes just a few weeks after the Committee on Student Life held a robust forum with students and administrators on the issue of break arrangements. Many of the students who attended conveyed an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction with the then status quo, putting particular emphasis on the difficult position that it placed international students in. With limitations on how many hours they can work, distant and disconnected family, and potential safety risks associated with returning to their home, many international students are put in a challenging position to provide for themselves over break—much less to afford the extra housing fee. While the question of who bears the responsibility for providing housing, the college or the student, is one that bears a longer discussion, it remains that the college’s position states that as of now they cannot afford to house students over break without additional fees. Even without running the dining hall or many other services, the cost to keep buildings open and necessary staff on campus during breaks is not covered by the annual fee. In the course of the discussion a few potential solutions were bandied around: the question of host families was quickly vetoed due to logistical complications, and similarly the thought of imposing a smaller fee on all students to cover those who stay over break. The possibility of a sliding scale was received much more favorably, however, as was the overall level of concern expressed by the students present. While it is impossible to say how much of an effect the CSL forum had on the new changes, it is gratifying to see that the college is trying to meaningfully address the issues facing students. As was remarked in the forum, if the college is going to encourage international and financially disadvantaged students to attend, then they need to make a point of helping them when they struggle— something that this spring break policy will hopefully help accomplish. Andy Manne About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Helen Felbek Andy Manne BVG, Cont. from page 1. scholarships or financial aid. The task before the board, to balance reducing the burden of high cost of attendance with the need to pay faculty and staff better is difficult, but is essential. Only this balance can ensure the future of the College, and students have many ideas how to reach it. All you need to do is ask us. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman Page 2 Peter Boersema Pensee of the Week We call our loved ones baby. What do we love more, their innocence or powerlessness? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 22, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 5 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 22, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-22 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue5_2024-02-22 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/a5d4bf0fe212dbbbe761f7965f6bcb9d.pdf 68a27266c8005048513f99c92892ca32 PDF Text Text Thursday February 1 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 3 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Admissions Update: Looking forward to the class of ‘29 Students in Support of Khafiz Kerimov Discussion Based Application’s First Year Proves Successful, Annapolis On Track to Meet Enrollment Goals In the wake of Mr. Kerimov not being reappointed as a tutor, there has been an outpouring of student voices expressing dismay at this decision. Not only have students gone directly to administrative officials and faculty, but there has also been a great amount of conversation within the student body about Mr. Kerimov’s case and the reappointment process in general. This kind of collective activism is something I’ve not seen in my time at St. John’s. Despite being a community based in large part on thoughtful engagement with texts and each other, I find that important issues are often not sufficiently addressed. I’ve before thought of this as a general apathy. We’re just too tired from studying to care about anything else! However, this time students spoke up. A letter expressing disappointment with the Instruction Committee’s (IC) decision was signed by over 220 students and alumni from both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses. The chairs of the SCI, the student committee concerned with matters of instruction, co-authored a letter imploring the IC to reconsider their decision. Students presented the Dean with personal narratives of how Mr. Kerimov profoundly impacted them. And last Tuesday, the Delegate Council passed a resolution recommending that the IC reappoint Mr. Kerimov. The DC’s action is momentous as resolutions are rarely put forth. These are formidable efforts all initiated by students to reflect on an issue that pertains directly to our education and what we want that education to look like even after we graduate. This is not just about Mr. Kerimov. It is about our say as students in our education, and how we trust the faculty and administration to uphold academic excellence and adequately value those members of the polity who are rightfully esteemed by us. Reappointment decisions are private by nature and, frankly, I don’t care to know all the intricacies of the IC’s decision. It is enough for me to believe that Mr. Kerimov is a great tutor and an integral member of the community, and that because of this everything should be done to keep him St. John’s. I encourage students to continue discussing this issue with each other, faculty, and the administration. It must be made firmly known that we are invested in the excellence of St. John’s and are willing to act for the sake of its preservation. Emma Cunningham-Bradshaw The Regular decision deadline for applications to St. John’s College passed this January, and the admissions process is in full swing, with Early Action and Early Decision applicants having been notified of their admission on December 1st, and Regular Decision applicants learning of their admission on the day of publication. Rolling admissions, which continue until the summer and account for about a third of the College’s applicants, will begin on February 15th. “Our goals this year are the same as they were last year. In Annapolis, we aim to admit 140-150 people, while in Santa Fe, we’d like to have a little bit more than a hundred students. We don’t know if we’re going to meet those goals yet,” explained Ben Baum, Vice President for Admissions. “We have roughly 1,000 students who have applied, college wide, so far. We anticipate maybe another 500 between now and August. That’s one of the reasons we don’t know whether or not we’ll meet all our goals, because we don’t know how many people will apply between now and then. 1,000 students sounds like a lot, for an institution the size of St. John’s, but it’s a much more complicated story.” Part of the complication comes from the relatively small portion of admitted students who choose to enroll. “With our goals, 140-150 in Annapolis, and 100 in Santa Fe, we’ll probably admit somewhere around 700-800 students. The reason for that is that not every student who we admit comes. Roughly 30% of the students we admit enroll,” said Baum. “30% may sound like a high number, but it is one of the best of our peers.” Additionally, a limited applicant pool constrains the College’s admissions possibilities, especially on the Santa Fe campus, which has historically struggled to meet enrollment goals. Baum explained that “Last year, Santa Fe fell a little short, I think we had 92 students… The reason for that is that we did not have enough applications. That’s a challenge for St. John’s on both campuses…. The breakdown of [applications] skews towards Annapolis. 2/3rd of applicants apply to Annapolis, and only 1/3rd apply to Santa Fe. As a result, it’s harder to meet the headcount goals in Sanra Fe… The reasons for that are probably a matter of geography to a certain extent. There are very few liberal arts colleges in the Southwest, and the population of New Mexico is much smaller than that of the area around Annapolis.” Some demographic trends are also shifting. This year has seen a decrease in international student applications, with an increase in domestic students. Another major change to the college’s admissions process this year is the implementation of the Discussion Based application, an alternative application which replaces the requirement for an essay or letters of recommendation with an interview with an admissions counselor, an interview with a tutor, and participation in a seminar. “We launched it in August, explained Baum. “It was an idea that originated in an officers retreat… we were talking about how while our application covers many great things about St. John’s, it doesn’t cover the discussion centered nature of what we actually do here, and so we asked ourselves to figure out a way we could include that. So we came up with the Discussion Based Application.” So far, 134 students have applied through this process, which has no equivalent in any other school in the country. Baum noted great strength in these applicants. “They are, no question, some of the strongest applications we’ve received. What we think that students saw this as an opportunity to do something different that would be maybe more exciting or maybe comfortable for them in the admissions process for students who already know that St. John’s is where they want to be.” Matthew Holtzman, a tutor who has been participating in some of the tutor conversations, and is also a member of the admissions committee, explained what the interviews look like. “Usually, I try to get a sense of why the student is attracted to the College in the first place, what the student’s impressions of the College were so far. If they attended a seminar, what was the seminar like, and if they had anything they wanted to say in the seminar… usually, that’s a good sign: if the student had something they wanted to say.” Beyond this interview, the student may either join a Saturday seminar, or participate in Summer Academy to fulfil the seminar requirement. Once this and the shorter written portion of the application are completed, the student is notified (Cont. on page 2) This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/1: Plato: Sophist, beginning–242B 2/5: Plato: Sophist, 242C–end Sophomores: 2/1: Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (see official list for selections) 2/5: Christian Creeds, Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (see official list for selections) Juniors: 2/1: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 1/22: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) Seniors: 2/1: Essay writing Period 2/5: Melville: Benito Cereno Thursday 2/1 - 9:45 pm, outside the planetarium: long weekend bonfire Friday Night Lecture: No Lecture due to long weekend Page 1 Saturday 2/3 - Midnight*, Studio Theater: Senior Sh*t Show Tuesday 2/6 - 3:45 pm, Hodson Conference Room: Pathways fellowship information session * For all the pedants out there who insist this should be marked as midnight 2/4, note that the AP style guide says midnight “is part of the day that is ending, not the one that is beginning.” �Thursday February 1, 2024 St. John’s Collegian Admissions, Cont. from pg. 1 Theological debate: within two weeks of the admission decision. On the Most Essential Question Learned members of the polity, Corruption comes upon our holy community from all sides, through wickedness and sin, forcing our minds toward ‘practical’ matters of politics, graduation, and actually treating our employees well. I fear that the entire matter of this Godly institution is being lost. Must I remind you, good doctors of this our most holy church, what we are here for? What is the study of chemistry, mathematics, physics, ethics, theology, literature for? You spit in the eye of God when you say it is for human matters. I address you in your darkness: do you not remember our question? What is erudition for? There is only one question worth answering, for it contains the very nature of The Most High: How many angels could fit upon the head of a pin? We must use every piece of knowledge we have in our great canon to give the satisfactory answer of St. John. So let me begin: Proposition: More than one angel may fit upon the head of a pin. Vol. II. Issue 3 Proof: Apollonius will remind us (Conics, Book I) that a conic may be produced by the rotation of a line at some angle. This, clearly, means that a conic, of which the head of a pin is one sort, is a thing with faces, for the line may stop at any point and we call this a face from whence it began. Now, as we are reminded in the Ezekiel 10:12: “And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.” Clearly, an eye is a thing for a face, two to one, as in the proportion of Man and God. Now clearly the head of a pin is a thing with faces and an angel is a thing with eyes. Thus, because the head of a pin has multiple faces, an angel must be able to place at least part of its surface to each of these faces. Therefore, it is entirely clear, an angel may balance by its two eyes upon one of the many conic faces, leaving the others to its brethren. The rest is obvious from here. QED. Such is only the beginning of a great learning which might be executed by our community. The rest is left to the polity to dispute in these selfsame pages. The Learned Doctor, Bennettus Scotticus Despite the different process, the applications are treated the same as regular applications. “What will happen is that I will submit my notes, and those will become part of the application,” explained Holtzman. Instead of reading an essay, the person reading the application will read my impressions of the student. When I’ve been on the other side of that, reading somebody’s notes, usually hat tells me the same sorts of things that an essay would tell me. I’m getting the same kind of information, just filtered through the eyes of one of my colleagues, which is helpful in the sense that I don’t have to do the same kind of deciphering.” Holtzman also noted that this process is not too different from the existing one: “I don’t think the discussion based application marks a radical change from the way we do things anyway, but it seems like a very appropriate substantive change. It is something different, and appropriate for us.” Both Baum and Holtzman indicated that the process so far had been very successful, and that they were optimistic that it will continue for years to come. “I think we can bring people into the college who can grow in their writing, who might just express themselves better in conversation,” said Baum. El’ad Nichols-Kaufman DC Budgeting And the dishes About the St. Update run back with John’s the spoon Collegian The Delegate Council Budgeting submission closed on January 19th this semester, with budget hearings beginning shortly before that in order to accommodate clubs like Waltz and Reality who planned to host events early in the year. In total, the Delegate Council has $45,000 in its bank account, and aims to allocate all of it this semester. However, clubs initially submitted $51,860 worth of budget proposals, not including thousands of dollars in late budgets. So far, as of the meeting on January 30th, the Delegate Council has allocated $29,994 dollars to clubs, as follows: - Reality: $6,210 Waltz: $4,760 KWP: $3,430 Futsal: $2,310 Jiujitsu: $2,190 Pangea: $1,955 Chorus: $1,646 Shammai: $1,006 Catholic Student Fellowship: $775 Board Game Club: $724 JSPN: $700 Video Game Club: $610 Folk Life: $500 3D Printing: $497 Drone Club: $475 Alexander Hamilton Society: $450 Orthodox Christian Fellowship: $450 Purls of Wisdom: $312 Chess: $221 Baking: $213 TEA: $166 Swim: $160 Law Club: $134 Polo club’s budget was not approved. The polity is not known for having an abundance of small mouths among its members but there is one thing many agree on: the soup spoons of the dining hall as of late are far too large. Luckily, as some may have noticed, the beloved teaspoon has recently made a reappearance. How long will they remain? It is difficult to tell. Their appearance is likely due to a top-heavy ecosystem wherein the dominant predators (soup spoons) have out-populated their own food supply (teaspoons) resulting in ecological collapse and a widespread die-off among predators. But with a lack of predators, the prey begin to come back and fill the empty ecological niche they once occupied. The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. It remains to be seen whether there will be a further evolution of the genus cochlear and if, with a lack of predators, there is an overpopulation that threatens keystone species such as the fork. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Caleb Briggs, Amateur Cutlerist Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Editor’s Note: Caleb Briggs I’d like to thank the Polity for responding to my cry for help in the last issue by sending in a wave of articles. Thank you all for making this paper possible! Emma Cunningham-Bradshaw I would also like to announce a plan for an upcoming issue of the Collegian on the 22nd. As the BVG will be meeting that week, I would like to dedicate that issue to four essays, of about 600 words each, on the issues students feel are important for the College and for the BVG to act on. If you have an idea for an essay of this type, please write to me! Submissions would be due on the 19th. Page 2 Bennettus Scottius Pensee of the Week Some built high towers, some became nobility, and some injected needles. But they all desired highness. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 1, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 3 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 1, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue3_2024-02-01 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/2b66476ec7790f975709befa9264b9ae.pdf 36213ad5927cae32590f47f46a123d18 PDF Text Text Thursday February 8 2024 The St. John’s Collegian A Gadfly Publication Vol. II Issue 4 Printed Thursdays in Annapolis From the polity Forum held on proposed path on college creek Bike Path: The NIMBY Mentality Needs to Stop New Plan for College Creek Connector Presented, Discussed by Students, Faculty and Staff Friends, Johnnies, countrymen, lend me your ears. I have a bike-related bone to pick with you. The college recently held a forum about the proposed city bike path which would cross a portion of our campus by College Creek. I was surprised to hear students expressing negative sentiments not only about the project itself, but also about the city of Annapolis and its relationship to the College. I’d like to address this broader issue: the prevailing Johnnie attitude towards outsiders calls for a re-evaluation. It concerns me to hear students voicing fears about strangers coming onto campus from the bike trail, as if this isn’t already the biggest public green space in town. This seemingly reasonless distrust of the city of Annapolis and its individual residents doesn’t sit right with me. It saddens me to hear students talk about this city as if we are at war with it. I’ve heard things like, “We’re surrounded by Annapolis on three sides already. We can’t let them have the fourth, too.” We are not besieged. We are in a location. It surrounds us, in a spatial manner, as locations tend to do. This location happens to be the city of Annapolis. (In fact, I hate to break it to you, but they already have the fourth side, too. It’s a public waterway.) There are lots of good reasons to consider rejecting the bike path proposal (e.g. maintenance and security costs, pollution concerns, crew and sailing safety issues). But the vague, isolationist sentiments I’ve heard in recent days have no place in such a discussion. Let’s talk about real things and stop worrying about hoi polloi encroaching on our oasis. It would be a shame if we obstructed the city’s attempt at community (and shoreline) improvement for no better reason than our fear of the outside world. Let’s take a break from being the most contrarian college in America, please, for just a moment. We don’t need to live in opposition to everything around us. Let’s look over our hedges and acknowledge our neighbors. Let’s at least ask ourselves— to what degree should we consider our responsibility to the greater community we belong to, beyond the private interests of our college? St. John’s does not and should not exist in a vacuum. To operate under such a (cont. on page 2.) In 2021, the City of Annapolis first approached St. John’s College with a proposal to build a bike path across back campus. That proposal, Ally Gontang, the College’s Vice President for Finance and Operations explained at a forum this week, involved having the path run along the access road that lies parallel to the creek. However, concerns from the Campus Planning Committee prompted the city to return with a new plan that would have the path run on a boardwalk off of the College’s property, in the creek. However, as this would cut off the College’s water access, and be more expensive for the city, a third proposal was made, which was the subject of a forum hosted by Assistant Dean Robert Abbott. “It’s a critical link between two other funded trail projects to connect Annapolis to Anne Arundel County and beyond,” explained Eric Leshinsky, Chief of Comprehensive Planning at the City of Annapolis who has been responsible for some of the planning work. Currently, Annapolis has a gap between trails running through the northeastern part of Anne Arundel County like the B&A Trail and proposed expansions to trails running in the northwestern part of the county, and this trail would make Annapolis more bike friendly and accessible by connecting to these regional networks. Additionally, the trail was proposed as part of a wider goal to improve public water access in the City. “College Creek is one of our least publicly accessible creeks and yet one of our most important natural resources,” said Leshinsky. While other creeks are surrounded by private development, College Creek is mostly surrounded by public semi-wild land, making it a rare amenity for city residents that has the potential to be more accessible. The forum was held at a stage when the plan is very much still in the early planning stages. Gontang emphasized that “nothing is set in stone,” saying that student perspectives are still very valuable at this stage, as it is not yet clear whether the College will agree to the plan, or what conditions it might attach to potential agreement. Leshinsky said that the plan “is at a conceptual design phase...The conceptual design for any project we do is informed by community input and we work to get as much support as possible from adjacent communities. We’ve already met with Bloomsbury Square residents and St. Anne’s Parish, and they are very supportive.” The current plan for back campus involves a boardwalk running along College Creek, with the path then crossing onto land about halfway down the College’s shoreline and continuing on land behind the boathouse. The construction would involve improvements to native plants on the living shoreline, construction of a “boat pavilion” to shelter kayaks and canoes currently stored outside, improvements to the floating dock and renovations to the boathouse focusing on accessibility. “It doesn’t obstruct the boathouse at all or any college activities along the waterfront. That’s really the big thing, explained Leshinsky. “We’re also adding some improvements to the campus around the boathouse that address existing College needs including a fully ADA-accessible path around the boathouse.” At the forum, concerns were raised about the view of the creek, environmental impacts of construction, practical ability of the sailing team to practice on the creek, safety concerns and damage to the character of back campus, as well as the fear of strangers coming onto campus. Suggestions were raised such as the creation of a bicycle rental program like the one in Santa Fe, and of ways to make the project be either more secure or less intrusive. Leshinsky said that feedback from the College’s leadership at this stage is very valuable. “Right now we are in a bit of a holding pattern as we wait for more input from the college on how to proceed… We’ve been listening at every stage to make sure it works for the college… this project won’t be successful unless it has a benefit to the college.” Many of the conversations focused on whether or not the College should engage more with the Annapolis community, and make its campus accessible to more people, with students arguing both in favor of more isolation and of more community involvement. Leshinsky noted that he finds this kind of conversation promising. “There is a certain segment of the student body that I know is interested in connecting with the city and working with it… the college can be more public facing and connected to the city and not loose its ethos. I don’t think this trail will change the ethos of the College. It will improve the campus experience and connect it to the city and county, but it won’t fundamentally change the college.” El’ad Nichols-Kaufman This Week in Seminar Upcoming Events: Freshman: 2/8: Plato: Timaeus, beginning–57 2/12: Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Book I Sophomores: 2/8: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; General Prologue, Knight’s Tale 2/12: Chaucer: Canterbury Tales; Miller’s Prologue and Tale, Reeve’s Prologue and Tale Juniors: 2/8: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) 2/12: Kant: Critique of Pure Reason (see official list for selections) Seniors: 2/8: Nietzsche: Use and Disadvantage of History for Life 2/12: Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil, Books 1, 2, 3 Saturday, 2/10 Friday Night Lecture: Leslie Kay: Are brains computers? A smelly challenge to assumptions. FSK, 7:30 pm Page 1 - Lunar New Year - 4 pm, Mitchell Museum: Why do we need third spaces? Conversation with Manual Reyes Restrepo and Maria Del Carmen Montoya 9 pm, Mellon Lobby: Pangaea Lunar New Years Party Sunday 2/11 - 3 pm, Mitchell Museum: Sampling a Sampler Sampling tour with Jenny Cawood. Wednesday 2/14 - Valentine’s Day �Thursday February 8, 2024 St. John’s Collegian NONE KILLED, AT LEAST 0 INJURED BY BLAZE ON MARYLAND AVENUE: Fusebox in Ruins On Monday, February 5, a fire broke out on the northwest side of Maryland Avenue between Prince and King Georges Streets. The blaze was largely contained to a fuse box on a utility pole, where it is believed to have originated. Rachel Hauben (A25) and Peter Quinn (A25) were walking past when they noticed the inferno and notified the authorities. “We were walking down Prince George Street and saw an orange and yellow column wrapping itself around the fuse box,” said Ms. Hauben, adding that the flames were “not terribly significant.” She estimated the 911 call was made sometime between 5:30 and 5:56 P.M. EST. Mr. Quinn tells a different story when it comes to the size of the conflagration. When questioned he said, “Oh it was incredibly large. We saw a fire and I figured there was a department for that.” The fire crew apparently had some trouble locating the combustion and, in fact, missed the site of the immolation before being shown where it was by Ms. Hauben and Mr. Quinn. In the midst of the confusion following such an incineration, one thing is certain: the fire department was called, had cordoned off the site, and would not respond to a request for comment by the time this reporter arrived on the scene. Caleb Briggs Theological debate: A Retort to “The Most Essential Question” The honorable scholar and learned doctor Bennettus Scotticus has proposed a new proposition to our perpetually pondering polity. He proposes that more than one angel should fit on the head of a pin. I take him to be an utter fool, and a man hardly worthy of Letter of appreciation for college Creek In downtown Annapolis, I have found it difficult to find many places of rest. Most areas in the vicinity that are calm require a bit of a walk, which I have no problem taking if I have the time, though sometimes, and especially late at night, I do not want to spend this walk. This, then, is the primary significance that College Creek has to me: it is a little place of quietude, far away from the clamor of Upper Campus, and is always within reach. Countless nights having been spent on your docks, myriad waves seen roll by: here’s a little letter of appreciation to you, College Creek, related in my wonted sentimental manner. Reader to reflect a little on this quiet corner of Campus and what it means to them. As someone who has long had a profound fascination with natural bodies of water, I for one have found such a beautiful connection to this brook. I think it’s easy to overlook a spot that doesn’t usually have much going on around it, but that is really what makes it so special. Tarik Mahmud I love your wine-dark water, and its salty taste is a little sweet to me, I admit. Translucent in the day and obscure at night, it is shallow enough to wade in but deep enough to swim in. delusion, in my opinion, would endanger much of what the college stands for. We spend so much time here discussing man as a “political animal,” in Aristotle’s words. From the Republic to Politics to Locke, Rousseau, and Hobbes, the program compels us to be interested in the human community. The very word “polity,” which we use to describe ourselves, asks that we examine what it means to be a citizen. Upon graduation, we will each enter communities of our own. I believe that part of the St. John’s education is learning how to participate in such a community— a πόλις— wherever that may be. I love your residents, the fish and crabs and birds and spiders, each of them tucked away in their proper place, and reliably found—the crabs on the pier-posts, the fish rising up and falling away like the tide, the spiders hanging on the railing and from the light, and the heron taking up his perch upon the dock. I love your coldness: refreshing in the summertime, potent in the winter. I love your voice, which has no sound—but I think there are some sort of words about you, since I always seem to be in dialogue around you. I love your ears, how they listen eagerly whenever I sing to you. I love the sky above you, which you so faithfully reflect on your face. I love the stars above you at sunrise, and the clouds over you at sunset. I hope this small epigram of love will encourage the Bike Path (cont. from page 1) So, please, discuss the bike path proposal all you want. Take whichever side you prefer; there are reasons for both. I only ask that we consider the broader citizenship of our institution. Yes, we are members of the St. John’s polity. But St. John’s itself is a member of the Annapolis polity, and therefore so are we. Do we act like it? Helen Wagner Pensee of the Week A man pointed a gun to another man, trying to force him to do something. He responded by saying "I will not obey you, and now you are forced by me to shoot." Who has more power? Page 2 Vol. II. Issue 4 the titles he claims. He has clearly not taken into account the nature of the pin. I will grant him the truth that pins are things with heads, but that is not all they are. They are intimately related, and often interchanged with needles, both in description1 and in use. Doctor Scotticus' omission of the relationship between pins and needles calls into question the veracity of his findings. A pin may be a thing with a head, but a needle is a thing with an eye. Just as, quite significantly, an angel is supposed to. If the good Doctor is correct in his statement that an "angel is a thing with eyes" therefore it may well be that a needle is an angel. And if a needle, so commonly interchanged with a pin, is an angel, then it may be said that a pin is an angel in and of itself. And if a pin is an angel, then it remains to be asked first a foremost—a necessary prerequisite before one can question how many angels fit on the head of a pin— whether two angels can occupy the same space, one upon the other as they must be for one to fit upon the head of the other. To think a man so learned as Doctor Scotticus would overlook such an important principal question truly calls one to question the deservedness of his reputation and the worth that he brings to our fine institution. Such is the beginning of a great learning to be done by Doctor Scotticus, and I await his humble return to the chalkboard. The Esteemed Barrister Andronicus Manifold About the St. John’s Collegian The St. John’s Collegian is the weekly newspaper of St. John’s College Annapolis. We work to bring quick and timely coverage of important events going on, to help develop a more informed student body. If you’re searching for more in-depth investigations and reporting, as well as essays, art and culture, check out the Gadfly, our affiliated publication, which is published once every three weeks. Want to submit an article? We always need more writers, whether for opinion or reporting! Submissions for news articles should be between 400600 words, while opinion should be kept short at 400 words. A longer, journalistic piece may be up to 1,200 words. Just email eanicholskaufman@sjc.edu with your article, and we will work to get it in print! Longer form articles and more in-depth exploration of ideas should go to the Gadfly, which accepts submissions at lbriner@sjc.edu. Contributors for this issue: El’ad Nichols-Kaufman, Editor Tarik Mahmud Helen Wagner Caleb Briggs Andy Manne CLASSIFIEDS INFORMATION WANTED Everyone keeps talking about this guy, I think his name is Herschel? Last name starts with R. Junior, SF transfer, music assistant. I just want to figure out who he is and why everybody seems to know him. If you have any info, email me! (befuddledjohnnie@gmail.com) �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> Description An account of the resource A student newspaper of St. John's College. <em>The St. John's Collegian</em> began publication in 2023 and is affiliated with <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/16"><em>The Gadfly</em></a>. <br /><br />Published weekly on Thursday, with the exception of weeks <em>The Gadfly </em>is published. <br /><br />Earlier publications with the title <em>The Collegian </em>and <em>The St. John's Collegian </em>are available in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/26"><em>The Collegian Collection</em></a>.<br /><br />Click on Items in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=69&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">The St. John's Collegian Collection</a> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, Md. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data pdf Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 2 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's Collegian, February 8, 2024 Description An account of the resource Volume 2, issue 4 of the St. John's Collegian, published February 8, 2024. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-02-08 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource St. John's College holds the rights to this publication. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.)--Periodicals Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SJCCollegian_vol2_issue4_2024-02-08 Student publication The Collegian The Gadfly https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/71f5edf44878427a1391ee4fe3f9f708.pdf c25446cfc18c1695f957b6add93a871c PDF Text Text HISTORY AND THE LIBERAL ARTS ---~<----- BY )ACOBKLEIN ---~--- �HISTORY AND THE LIBERAL ARTS by Jacob Klein Friends and enemies of the St . John's Program, visitors to the College and many of its alumni often raise the question: why is History neglected in the St. John's curriculum? They point to the obvious contrast between the chronological order in which the ••Great Books" are re a d and the remarkable lack of historical awareness displayed by the students . The time has come , I think, to deal with this question e xte nsively . I p ropose to do tha t in this lecture. Let us reflect on the role and significance of History in a libe ral arts cirriculum. * * * * * * * * * The fir st , rather simple, statement that can be made is this : Man, having the ability to understand and being inquisitive by nature, wants to explore everything that he sees about him -- the various plants and animals, the stars and the clouds and the winds, the surface of the earth, the rivers and the forests and the stones and the deserts. Whethe r this p reoccupation stems from h is inunediate and urgent need, whether his inquisitive attitude is merely an extension of his concern to provide the necessities o f life for himself, whether it is the manifestation of his very nature or simply idle curiosity, need not be discussed at this point . Whatever the origins of this desire, man wants to find out, to figure out , to know. In this sense, then , man may be said to be inquisitive not only about what surrounds him, at the present time, but also about the future: he wants to know what is going to happen to him as well as to everything else around him. And finally he wants to know what happened in the past. Out of this latter desire, we may somewhat naively say, grows History, i.e., the exploration of the past, the finding of the pas t, the description of what has happened in the recent as well as in t he most remote past . Curiously enough, as you know, the Gr eek word historia means originally , exploration of any kind. Gradually it came to mean, even to the Greeks, the exploration of the past and the description or narration of past events. Thus we have History, i.e. , historical books: Herodotus, Thucydides, chronicles of all kinds, histories of Europe, America , India, of Guatemala , of the city of Annapolis, of the Universal Postal Union , of St. John ' s College, of the Imperial Palace in Peking . Such histories may be more or less correct . Descriptions of events must be checked as to their accuracy .with the help of all the evidence available: books, old records, letters, inscriptions, etc. Special skills in exploring and checking the evidence must be developed. Historical science and the methodology of historical science become a branch of knowledge; history can be taught and learned . Departments of History and archives �- 2 - are established. Historical journals come into being, dedicated to the improvement and enlargement of historical knowledge. All this circumscribes what may be called the domain of History. Is this, then , what History is? You sense immediately; this is not quite i t , this is not a sufficient description of History and what History means . First of all , there isaspecial emphasis in the pursuit of History which is lacking in other branches of learning. Take the science of geology , f o r e xample. However important and interesting its investigations and findings might be , this science does not make universal claims , it r estricts i t self to a definite domain . There is no such thing as a " geological approach " to any given problem . And y et there always seems to be an " historical approach" to almost any kind of problem in a lmost any field . Secondly , it is not quite correct to state that history is the des crip tion and narration of past events . Not e verything that is past is "historic" . That one of us here went to Washington or to San Francisco last week or some time ago does not necessar i ly belong to any history . It might , though . From a c e rtain point of view, with regard t o a n event we judge a s ignificant one , we can - - retrospctively -- recognize the importance of e v e nts whi ch lead to that significant one . Nobody, i n d eed , ever assumed that all events and happenings a r e equally important and significant and could become r ecorded in history books . Even Tolstoy who formulated the idea of an all- comprehensive history , based on integrat ion procedures i n the face o f i n finite series of minute e v ents, of historical infinite s imals, as it were, did that mere l y to reduce hi story thus understood to absurdity . All wri t ten and traditional h istory is based on a principle of s elect i on. This mean s that we must have -- a nd in fact do have -- some y ardstick to measure the significance and importance of events whatever history we may b e writing. It is not too difficul t to discern thes e yardsticks in Herodotus o r Tacitus o r Gib bon, f or example; more di f ficul t perhaps , b u t not impossible, to discover them in Thucydides. We can even venture t o s ay that in g eneral the yardstick is provided e i ther (a) by the consideration of the present state of affairs , the salient features of which want to be traced back to their origins , in a sort of genealogical procedure, or (b) b y the desire to derive a lesson for the future either from mistakes and failures or from exemp lary actions in the p ast, which desire leads to what has been called, since Polybius, pragmatic history. Sometimes both kinds o f yardsticks a re combi ned. I say that both the universality of the tendency to subject any theme to an historica l investigation and the selecting of events or facts to be dealt with historicall y -- help us to win a better unde rstanding of this hunian enterprise called History. This ent erpri s e does not seem to be grounde d in an inherent property of events o r facts that permits us t o arrange t h e m i n a seque nce, a n histori cal sequen c e , but seems rather to depend on a certain way of looking at things which stamps them i nto an historical pattern . One might be tempted to apply Kantian terminology to this phenomenon -- and people have actually done so --: there might be something of an historical a priori, a form of our think- �- 3 - ing that inescapably leads us to see things in an historical perspecti v e . Let us consider this for a moment. Let us beware though lest we indulge in an empt y , if easy , construction . As far as pragmatic history is concerned , the solution is based on our sense of moral virtues or our understanding of practical maxims of condu ct . Hub0:s versus Moderation , Tyranny versus Freedom, false hopes and foolish fears v ersus p rudence -- these are presented and p o i nted out to us i n the unfolding drama of historical successes or cata strophes . Here , then , the historical scene is merely the enlargement of our d aily life , providing us with grea t examples in large script . History in this sense i s founded on completely "unhist o rical" points of v iew . That is why t his kind of history wri ting does not constitute a specific domain l ike Phys ics or even Poetry. Note that Aristotle, the great systematizer of h uman knowledge, in t he face of such history -the only one he knew - - did not treat it as a pragmateia , a discipline in its own right . The same Aristotle who investigated , defined, elaborated on every conce i vable a r t and science : grammar, logic, physics, botany, zoo logy, astronomy, the ology , psychology, politics, eth i c s, rhetoric , poetry, did not e laborate on history , although he so oft en pre f aces his investigations with a review of the position s and opinions he l d in the pas t . I conclude: ther e is no histori cal a priori in pragmatic h is tory . The same h o lds true of the gene alogical t ype of hist ory , a lthough n ot in the same way . The very n otion of genealogy comprises n~t ion s of origin, source , development, more gene r al lly , the notion o f a temporal order. But t h ese notions are n ot stri c tly historical one s . They also determine oul. und ers t anding of b iological p h enomena , or mor e general l y , the phenome na of change . They are not constitutive categories of historical e xper ience . They are operative in any myth, they help to picture the growth and t he decay of i nstitutions, t he e xpans i on of domi nion and power'. b u t the emphasis is on the nat ure of those institutions arid the ove rwhelming character of that power . The base s of this typ e of hi s t ory, exemp l ified in Polybius and the Roman historians, a re still unhistorical, mostly l egal a nd political. But when we turn to that universal tendency to view things historica l ly, to use the h istorical approach in almost a ny field , the p icture changes. I t seems , indeed, as if h ere the form o f History s hapes the material under consideration so as to ma k e anything we look at assume hi storical c lot h ing, as if the very bas i s of our looking at things we re we hear i t so o f ten -- History itself . When, a mome nt ago, I d e nied that thi s was the case in pragmatic and genealogical history , I implicitly asswned , by way of contrast, the possibility of such a view. The question, then, is whether this h is torical way of l o oking at things is itself a necessary form of o u r understanding. One way of answering this quest ion would b e t o app l y the following test: can we approach and solv e this problem hi storical ly? �- 4 - The pragmatic and genealogical types of history are the only ones known in antiquity and the understanding of the nature of history corresponds to them. But a new understanding of history begins with the advent of Christianity . Let u s consider briefly in wh at it c onsis ts . I shal l use two outstanding examples: Augustine and Dante. Augustine, in the City of God (XV-XVIII) , gives a Worl d History based on a fundamental distinction. Mankind consists of two parts: there are those who live according to Man , i . e., in sin , and those who live according to God ; there are two communities , the c ity of men and the city of God. The l atter is in the making and after the Second Ad v ent will become the everlasting kingdom of God . The ear thly city will the n be destroyed and its inhabitants will join Satan . As long as this world exists , both cities are intertwined. Augustine distinguishes six ages : 1) from Adam to the De1uge ; 2) from Noah to Abraham ; 3) from Abraham to David (the "prophe tic age " ) ; 4) from Davi d to the Babylonian captivity ; 5) from the Babylonian captivity to Jesus Christ ; 6) f rom Jesus Christ to the end of this world . This universa l history is conceived mainly in terms of the Biblical account ; but the great oriental kingdoms , as we ll as Greece and the Roman Empire , have their place allocated in the gen eral flow . This i s not a "Phi losophy of History "; it is rather His tory itself , i. e ., the description of succeeding ages according to God ' s providential ordering of all events . The important thing for us to note is that historical succession itself, the fact of History , the fact that men's lives weave the History of the World, is not an accidental property of t hose lives but their very essence . Our and our fathers ' years have flowed through God's eternal To-day , says Augustine in the Confessions : "from this everpresent divine 'To-day ' the past generations of men received the measure and the mold of such being as they had; and sti ll othe rs shall flow away, and so receive the mold of their degree of being. " History, t hen , reflects the essential temporality of man , but reflects no less the eternal timeless pattern of his being . In following up the chain of historical events we do not select signif icant links. We follow God ' s providential plan. Our historical perspective is our view of an eternal order, just as the flow is our way of incomplete existence. For us to "exist" is identical with to "exist historically". But that, again , means that our existence spreads out in time the timeless pattern of God's wisdom. This is neither pragmatic nor genealogical history . It is, one might say, symbolic history . History presents the symbols that unfold in succession the eternal relations between creation , fall, redemption , and salvation. Let us turn to Dante . Here , again , we see a World History conceived in terms of God's timeless providential pattern . History is the sinister chronicle of man's fall pursued through all generations of men . The Greek and Roman worlds occupy a far more important place in this chronicle than that of Augustine. The horrors of Thebes more than those of Babylon indicate the complete abnegation of God's grace . It is not �- 5 - the contrast between the city of Men and the city of God which determines Dante's general view of historical events, but rather the contrast and intertwining of God's spiritual and God's secular order, of Church and Empire. The secular order, stenuning from God, reflects but is not identical with the spiritual order . Troy and its destruction are symbols of man's pride and man's fall . "And it happened at one period of time , " Dante writes in the Convivio, " that when David was born, Rome was born, that is to say, Aeneas then came from Troy to Italy .•• Evident enough, therefore , is the divine e lection of the Roman Empire by the birth of the Holy City (i.e., Rome), which was contemporaneous with the root of the race from which Mary sprang." The history of the world is here a kind of symbolic duplication of the spiritual history of man. It is by this very nature, as in Augustine , two-dimensional. Or , to put it in different words, the horiz~n of this kind of history, or better , of t his kind of historian , is dot historical. In this respect this kind of history is akin to the pragmatic and genealogical kinds . Here , again, it is worth noting : the primary liberal disciplines listed by Dante i n the Convivio and linked to the ten heavens of the world (the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun , Mars, Jupiter , S aturn , and the sphere of the fixed stars , the primum mobile and the Empyrean Heaven) a r e Grammar , Logic , Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy , Physics and Metaphysics, Ethics, Theology. History is not one of them. When Machiavelli and Hobbes dethrone classical philosophy and revert to pragmatic history as the best teacher man can have in planning and conducting hi s life, they still cling to a two-dimensional h istory to build the i r own political philosophy . But now the scene changes : Vico's New Science marks a new beg inning. Like Machiavelli and Hobbes he defies all preceding philosophy . He bases his work on the fundamental (Leibnizian) distinction: the true and the certain . Wh a t is true is corruuon and therefore abstract . Wha t is certain is the par ticular, the individual, the concr ete. "Certum and commu:ne a r e opposed to e ach other." The philos ophers pursue what is common. They lack certainty . Only history (which includes philology) deals with the certain. The most certain for us is that which we ourselves have made, the facta, the facts . "The world of civil society has certainly been made by man; its principles are therefore to be found within the modifications of our own human mind. Whoever reflects on this cannot but marvel that the philosophers should have bent all their energies to the study of the world of nature, which, since God made it, He alone knows; and that they should have neglected the study of the world of nations or civil world, which, since man had made it, men could hope to know." Vi co sets out to fulfill this hope . This is the scope of his New Science. It is historical by definition. The historian looking at �- 6 - man-made worlds can understand their innermost core . He will t hus attain a more certain truth than the philosophers ever coul d : he will discover "the common nature of nations " or the "ideal eterna l history" of nations e stablished by divine providence . The New Science will thus be "a rational civil theology of divine provide n ce. " "S i n ce divine prov idence ha s omnipotence as minister, it dev elops its orders by means as easy as the natural customs of rnPn." This also me a ns that this science i s a " his tory of human ideas" &l ot a philosophical reflec t ion on ideas). There are recurrent cycles in the history of nation s that always comprise three stages : the divine , the heroic, the human . The p roper field of the h i storian is the c ustoms of men, their institutions , their laws, their writings, their p o et ry. In understanding them he under stands truth that is certain -- truthful certainty -- preci sely what the philosophers are unable to accomplish. At first it seems as if history in Vico's understanding pres erved its two-dimens ionality, since the objects o f his findings are the "universal and external orders establi shed by providence". But the se or,ders do not exist outside of time . Divine providence is not the provident ial plan of salv ation anymore. Vice's h i story is bent on finding the laws governing the human world i n contradistinction to the laws governing the wo rld of nature . Historical rea lity with i ts recurre n t stretches is one- dimensiona l. On the other hand, the histor ian c; l one is now the true philosopher . The methods of inte rpreta ti on and of philology he has to use constitute a~ organon comprising a xioms, def init ions and specifi c rules of infe rence . In other words : Vi co 's work competes with the work of Natural History, with t he work of Mathematical Phy s i cs . We have here a rather amazing historical fact before us . Le t u s remember . Towards the end of the 16th century a re-interpretation and recons ideration of the traditional, "class i cal", mathematical sciences led to the est2.blishment of Al gebra, a hitherto obscure ar.d "vulgar" d i sc i pline neglected by al l recognized ins titution s of learning, as the eighth Liberal Art Its progress coincides with the development of a new s ymbolic di sci~ line, understood as Un iversal Mathematics , a n e w and powerful instrume nt of human knowledge which is meant to rep l ace the traditional Aristotelian Organon . The science of nature becomes mathematical physics, begins to domin ate al l human understanding and gradually transforms the conditions of human life upon thi s earth. The only force opposing t his deve l opmen t i s Hi s tory with its claim to universality, f i rst attributed to i t by Vico and mai ntained with increased vigor to this moment. I t is significa nt, I think, t h at Vico's idea of an "ideal eternal h i story" i s a derivative of the idea of a Universal Mathematics, a s hadow, as it were, that the latter casts . As Unive rs a l Mathematics is to all speci f ic mathemati cal disciplines so is t h e "ideal eternal history" to all speci fi c histories of nation s. But this parallelism between Universal Mathematics and Universal History is to be understood in the light of the distinction between that which is " abstractly true " and t h at which is " concrete ly certain". Th e new s cie nce of Mathematical Physics leaves the natural experience of nature far behind: all that is concrete vanishes behind a scre en of mathematical symbols . Any teleology loses its meaning . The new science of History tries �- 7 - to restore the dignity of the concrete, fills the gap between the abstract symbolic understanding of nature and the immediate human experience of the world around us. It cannot dispense with the notions of means and ends . It is the distinction between the true and the certain which underlies the familiar and superficial distinction between Science and the Humanities. The latter are conceived as insepearable from History, can only be approached in historical perspective , come actually to life only in the medium of History. Since Vice, the idea of an eternal pattern of history , a vestige of the original Christian understanding, although occasionally forcefully advanced , has been generally abandoned. The emphasis is on the deve l opment of what has been called the historical sense . Three consequences follow . First , the fascination with the 'b therness" of the past : the discovery or reconstruction of cultures and civilizations "different" from ours , each with a different " sense of values " ascertainable in customs, institutions , works of art , architecture , literature, philosophy , religion. This very notion of an autonomous " c ulture " underlying the various manifestations of human activity can arise only within an historical horizon . Truth itself becomes a function of " cul ture" the existence of which appears a certain fact; "re lativity of values" becomes inevitably the concomitant of the historical perspective. Secondly, the sense of participating in the relentless historical flow makes observable trends the guide of our actions . The acceptance of events and doctrines that are supposed to follow the "historical trend" is one of the most potent causes for the predicament in which European nations have found themselves in recent decades. The impact of Marxism which goes unde r the name of historical materialism and the reaction to it derive their strength from the historical sense projected into the future . The Gallup Poll is one of the most r ecent and ridic ulous e xamples of this preoccupation with trends . Thirdly, a man understands himself completely as an historical being . "Histori city " becomes his very nature , but not in the sense that it reflects some timeless pattern. His Self disintegrates into a series of socially, and that means historically, conditioned reflexes. Historicity does not means Tradition. To see our selves as historical beings means to break the invisible traditional ties in which we live . At best, tradition then becomes a romantic notion, at worst, an academic phantom. If we consider the disciplines taught in our schools, it is easy to see that all natural sciences are patterened on the model of mathematical physics . The idea 0£ a universal ma'.:he1natics as the new organon of all science, however , dies away. On the other hand , all the disciplines within the realm of the humanities have become historical to the v ery core . The study of literature, philosophy , religion, music, and the fine arts , for e xample , is almost exclusively the study of the �- 8 - hi.s tory of li.terature, the history of philosophy, the history of religi.ons., the hisotry of music, the history of art. Field s o f study of a more practical applicability as, for example , languages, political science and economics , retain a certain autonomy . The theoretical dignity they may have , howeve r, is safeguarded only by his torical considerations or, for that matter, by methods borrowed from mathematical physics. I t seems, then , that Mathematical Physics and History divide betwee n the mse lves, in a fairl y exhaustive way , the r u le over the e ntire domain of huma n knowle dge. Does this permit us to consider them as two necessa ry ways and forms of our unders t anding? If this be so , Mathematical Physics and History would come clos e to being the two Liberal Arts of the modern age. A.ny liberal art s curriculum ough t then to conce ntrat e one these two great bodies of learning in ke eping with the tre nd of e vents and in p repar ing s tudents to follow i t f ur ther . At thi s point , we can pause and ref lect on the results we have reached . As to MAthemat ical Physics, the task b e fore us is clearly not the tracing of its hi~torical development. We hav e rather to understand the methods and the nature of t he concepts that have made this development possible. We have to understand t he specific use made of mathe matical symbols, the relat ion of mathematical deduction to veri f ying e xperiments , the relations between observations , hypotheses , theory and truth. That is indeed wha t we are try ing to do in our Mathematics Tutoria l s and in the Laboratory. And i f we do not do that full y and in the most satisfactory manner, we have to improve our ways. The danger we ·a r e running in this case is the very same that has threatened t he integrity of scientific understandi ng since the 17th century and which has barely begun to be warde d off in r ecent developments : the d anger to confuse the s ymbolic means of our understanding wi th reality itself. If we turn to History, we have f irst to r emember the ques tion which gave rise to the p rec eding historical account. The que stion was: is the historical way of looking at t hings a necessary form of our understanding? The answer - - in the per spective of History -- is in the negative: the universal historical app roach is itse lf a product of , and presumably nothing but a phase in, an historical development , which cannot claim any absolute validity, no matter how "natural" and familiar it seems to us at the pre sent moment . We have to recognize, moreover, the possibility of a dangerous confusion similar to t he one I have mentioned with regard to Mathematical Physics . The results of historical investigations based on specifi c historical concepts and methods of interpretation ought not to be confused with the real picture of a real past. Not to see t hat, means to surround us with a pseudo-historical horizon of almost mythical quality so as to make us talk glibly of "Greek culture ", "medieval times ", "Renaissance", the "Seventeenth Cen- �- 9 - tury", the "Age of Enlightenment", etc. Such pseudo-mythical notions are usually i.n the minds of people who recommend that we take into account the proper "historical background" whenever we read and discuss a Book. The assumption behind this recommendation is a rather naive one, to wit, that in the effort we make to understand a Book or a series of Books we could fall back on an objective and certain datum, the general culture in which the ideas expressed or propounded in those books are rooted and from which they derive their strength and intelligibility. We ought to see instead that the commonly accepted picture of an historical period is largely due to an interpretation of the content of books and other documents which presupposes in the first place the ability to deal with gramatical patterns, to discern rhetorical devices, to grasp ideas in all their implications. In point of fact, the main task of any historian is of necessity the interpretation of whatever data he may collect. The art of interpretation and all the other arts which minister to it depend on the understanding of the function of signs, of the complecity of symbolic expressions, and of the cogency of logical relations. To understand a text is not a simple matter . To arouse and to cultivate this understanding is one of the primary tasks of our Language Tutorials. More than anything else, more, certainly, than the historical sense fed so often on sheer ignorance, an improvement of our interpretative skills could help foster genuine historical research and writing. We may ultimately get to see that the problem of History is itself not an historical problem. It follows, then , that in pursuing these goals we should ignore history's claim to universality, ignore History itself, if you please, in order to devote our full attention to the development of all the arts of understanding and all imaginative devices man can call his own. It takes courage to pursue a rather narrow and steep path hardly visible from the highways of contemporary learning. But let us remember the inscription on the old seal of the College: No path is impassable to courage. The reward may be high. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. 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Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 9 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource History and the Liberal Arts Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered June 5, 1953, by Jacob Klein as part of the Formal Lecture Series. The typescript was printed by the St. John's College Press and sold in the college's book store around 1965. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klein, Jacob, 1899-1978 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1953-06-05 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Greenfield Library holds the literary rights to Jacob Klein's work. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Education--Philosophy--History History--Study and teaching Education, Humanistic Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context lec Klein 1965 Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/50f23710ab61759c567a7fb8477afe9a.pdf f61d04b7862210970082476f1c0e3910 PDF Text Text ARISTOI'LE (An Int~oduction)* by Jacob Klein I Many, many years ago, I attended a series of lectures on Aristotle 1 s philosophy. The lecturer began his exposition as follows: "As regards Aristotle himself, as regards the circumstances and the course of his life, suffice it to say: life in philosophizing, and died"• most appropriate: Aristotle was born, spent his This beginning seemed to me !~ for Aristotle means to us, indeed, nothing but what we know of him, or fancy we know of him, as of a man engaged in that extrav@gant enterprise which, since Pythagoras (aecording to the tradition), has borne the name of "Philosophy". There is a difficulty, though. Whenever we try to understand what Aristotle is saying, we st11GD.ble upon something that we simply cannot ignore, and that is that his words bring up the words of another man who was his teacher and bore the name of Plato. There is no alternative: we have to face that peculiar circumstance in Aristotle's life. It is pretty certain that, at the age of 17 or 18, Aristotle joined the community founded by Plato outs~de the walls of Athens and called (from i t s geographical location) the Academy. He stayed there until Flato died, that is, for about 20 years (367 • 347). following 13 years he taught ~or In the a while in Asia Minor and was invited to tutor a young Macedonian prince who later became lmown as Alexander the Great. In 334 he returned to Athens and established, again outside the walls of the city, a spot of leisure, that is of study, called the LycetlDl. Not being a citizen of Athens, he could not own this place. He mer ely t aught there. About a year before he died, it pleased the *Enlarged version of a Formal Lecture delivered April 20, 1962 �- 2 - city of Athens to accuse him of impiety, that is, of undermining the city's life. Aristotle decided to leave Attica rather than stand trial. He is supposed to have said on that occasion that he did not want the Athenians to commit a crime against Philosophy for the second time. !!El£ Born in Stagira (Thrace) 384 (with approximate dates) Academy 367 - 347 '--· -----;----' 20 Lyceum Death 334 - 323 322 Abroad 347 - 334 '----,,.---·' 13 ·- -- y - - - ' 11 Now, if we look at what is known as The Works of Aristotle, we cannot help being amazed by both their bulk and their diversity. These works have come down to us in nearly the same condition in which they were edited by Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century B. c. There are all kinds of stories concerning the way they came to be edited. shall omit them. I We do know, at any rate, that this edition did not contain a series of other works attributed to Aristotle and not available to-day, except for the book entitled "The Athenian Constitution" the text of which was found in 1880. Above all, that edition did not contain - and was not supposed to contain - a series of genuine works Of l:ristotle, Dialogues, Epistles, and also compositions in verse, already published and well known in antiquity. fragments of them. We possess only a few As to the body of Aristotelian works available to us, it consists, beyond any doubt, of some of the material directly related to the lecturing and studying which went on at the Lyceum and presumably also at other places where Aristotle taught. Parts of that material are lectures or treatises composed with great care; but other parts are more or less loosely conjoined treatments of topical themes, �notes, perhaps mer~ compositions. There are, on the one hand, different and sometimes abstracts from, or comments on, more original irreconcilable versions of one and the same theme, and, on the other hand, identical passages re-occurring in different contexts. You have a sheet detailing the body of Aristotelian Teaching as it has come down to us since its publication by Andronicus of Rhodes. (Some of the listed works are of doubtful authenticity ••• ; some are incomplete ••• ) It seems not unimportant to note that all these writings, the listed ones as well as the lost ones, can hardly have been produced in the 11 years of the Lyceum period, during which short period, incidentally, Alexander succeeded in conquering a world. The writings con- cerning the classification, the physiology and anatomy of animals alone must have required many, many years of study and observation on the part of quite a few people. It is even doubtful whether the tremendous effort to which the extant Aristotelian writings as well as the titles of the lost ones testify can be thought of as confined within the limits of the 24 year period between 347 and 323. It seems more reasonable to conceive of that effort as having begun in the Academy period, long before Plato's death. We have indeed, some evidence to that effect. It is undeniable, furthermore, that Aristotle and those who assisted him in his work utilized studies made before Plnto's days. But it is still true that everything we read in that collcctio n of Aristotelian writings bears an unmistakable stamp: terms in which it is written. the language and the peculiar lfuB.tever the degree of incoherence or coherence in the body of Aristotelian writings, their language has always the same characteristic mould. And, what is more, the shadow of Plato is always perceivable in them. �As you undoubtedly know, classical scholarship, in the last 150 years, has concentrated on the task of finding the correct chronological sequence of the Platonic dialogues. brought to a more or less successful end. This task has indeed been Let us not forget, however: it is one thing to establish the chronological order of the dialogues and quite another to understand what they are about, what they repre• sent, what they say and do not say, and why they do so. To interpret the chronology of the dialogues as mirroring the development of Plato's own thinking - even under the assumption that such a development did actually occur - is a sign of considerable naivete or of no less considerable rashness. More recently, the attempt has been made to construetthc development of Aristotle's thinking and to distinguish a so-called "Platonic period" in Aristotle's life from a post-Platonic and finally an anti-Platonic phase. Granted that !1ristotle's thinking must have had a history, granted that what we call his philosophy did not spring out of him as Pallas il.thena did out of Zeus' forehead, the evidence presented by his work, fragments and all, is far from sufficient for establishing and delineating with any degree of accuracy such stages of his thought. Two things, however, are overwhelmingly clear: 1) the basic postulates of I ristotle's thinking are to be found in what we conceive to be Platonic - and Socratic - philosophizing; 2) there is an unshakable unwillingness on Aristotle's part to follow Plato's lead in certain crucial respects. It is safe to say, I think, that fristotle's relation to Plato is a supreme example of the true pupil-teacher relationship: the pupil's unswerving loyalty to his teacher manifests itself in the pupil's commitment to Truth, even if that commitment makes the pupil reject the teacher's teaching. Let us hear Aristotle �- 5 - himself on that subject. About to begin an investigation into what is meant when people talk about "The Good", Aristotle remarks that such an investigation is ''distasteful" to him because it involves "men dear to him" ( qdA.o t. avbp E g who introduced the doctrine of "ideas" (i;?x €Lbfl ), that is - to use the Latin term - the doctrine of "species", or - to use the equivalent English term - the doctrine of "looks". on to say: These men are Plato and his followers. Aristotle goes "But - for those pursuing philosophy, at least - it would seem that it is probably better and, to safeguard the truth, even necessary to go against the grain; for, beth one's friends~ the truth,, being dear to one, it is right and proper to give greater honour to truth". "friends" (cp O.o 1. The companions in the .Academy called themselves )• In an Elegy, a fragment of which has been pre- served, Aristotle speaks of an altar dedicated to "holy Friendship" and unmistakably refers to Plato (without naming him) as to a "man whom even to praise bad men have no right". Let us, then, keep in mind this exam.plary relation of Aristotle, the pupil, to Plato, the teacher, in trying to understand Aristotle's own way. II It would be ridiculous, you will agree, to try to encompass, in a lecture like this one, the sum total of Aristotle's philosophy. All I can do is to point to • I should rather say, to hint at • some of the fundamental features of this vast edifice. Let me first put up a somewhat simplified table of .Aristotle's main themes indicated by the following terms: �- 6 cpt10'LG 'td( L {; (nature) -t:w~ (life) cxv9pwn:o~ - 'tl!XVf} •. A.dyoG. (soul) -vou<; ( •••• ) (order) -xcfoµo<; {world) i (man) (art) ( •••• ) None of these terms is specifically "Aristotelian". They are Greek words commonly used in a somewhat confused and ambiguous way. In Aristotle they acquire - to a large degree - an uncommon and unambiguous significance. Let us look at them. Unavoidably, we have to begin with A.dyo£ • The principal and rt/ inext±guishable meaning of this word is speech. We mean by speech ( - you, and I, and everybody - ) a sequence of sounds uttered by somebody in such a way as to be understandable to others. The verb "to understand" refers primarily - if not uniquely - to speech. Hearing somebody speak, we may say: I understand what you are saying, We may, in fact, misunderstand, but even misunderstanding involves understanding. But ~ do we understand in hearing somebody speak? Not the sounds by themselves, the audible and articulated, low and high pitched noises issuing from somebody's mouth (or some machine, for that matter). We hear these noises. But hearing is not understan• dl.ng. That's why we do not understand speech in a foreign tongue. In a manner which, itself, is hardly or not at all understandable, the sounds carry with them - or embody - or represent - something else, precisely that which makes us understand, whenever we understand. This source and target of our understanding consists of units, to which single "words" correspond, as well as of combinations of those units, to which whole sequences of "words" correspond. The speaker and the hearer share - or, at least, intend to share - the understanding of those units and of those combinations of units. transposes what he ~ The speaker into sounding words and the hearer who under- �stands reverses that process in reaching back to the intended meaning. The intenc1.ed meaning is what the Greeks call "Ch VOf}"tdV, its single units are theVOf}"tcf (VOTJ"Cc.5Vbeing a verbal adjective Of VOELV ). Speech and Understanding are inseparable. Aoyor;, .neans inseparably both: speech and that which can be and is being understood,!!! speech. It is in man "nd through~ (~v8pwn:OG ) thnt>-.~o; manifests itself conspicuously, so much so that Aristotle is able to say: .man is a living being possessing speech, and that means possessing the ability to ~ders~ the spoken word ( ~cpov >-.oyov exov). But what does speech "bespeak"? The answer is: everything man is familiar with - the sky and the earth, the rivers and the sea, the living beings around him, on land, in water, in the air - the things he himself builds and produces as well ~s the tools and appurtenances that his arts and skills require to produce those things • and furthermore the lmowledge that guides his arts and skills, not only to satisfy his most elementary needs but also to establish customs and institutions in which his life flows from generation to generation, in m:i.sery or happiness, in friendship or enmity, in praise or bla111e, and to which customs and institutions he is attached beyond his most pressing wants. That's what his speech and his understanding are mostly about. I just said: n ••• are ~"· tfuat a loose way of speakingJ Speech and the understanding that goes into it and can be gotten out of it are not just "about" something. To be sure, we can choose a theme and talk about it, circumscribe it, beat about the bush. But what we say, however circuitously or confusedly or loosely, is said in words and sentences each of which conveys immediate meaning. The ~ cannot help moving in the medium of the immediately understandable. To be sure, words and sentences can be involuntarily or deliberately �-sambiguous. But they can be that only because they carry with them several distinct meanings which, separately, are clearly understood. To be sure, speech can be obscure. But it can be obscure only because the clarity of some of its parts impinges or seems to impinge upon the clarity of others. Speech, then, presents to the understanding of the listener what the speaker himself understands. but combinations of ~1l!tcf • It presents to the listener nothing In doing that, however, speech "bespeaks" all the things and all the properties of things that abound around us, all the special circumstances and situations in which we find ourselves. The question arises: do the \IOf}'t"d presented to us in speech stem from the speaker, whoever he might be, or do they stem from the things and circumstances spoken of? Does not any human speech translate the language of the things themselves? Let me turn for a moment to the way the things around us are referred to in more recent times, in the 17th century. words: "The Descartes: Harvey: ~ of Nature is written in mathematical characters". "The science contained in the great boo15 of the world". "The consulted". In Galileo's ~ of Nature lies open before us ~nd can be easily The phrase "book of Nature" is a metaphor, to be sure, but why was this metaphor chosen by so many authors? Is it not because Nature is here understood as something that can be read, read like a book, provided we know how to read it? What have we been doing ever since but reading and decoding the book of Nature? indeed imply a language which is nature's own? But does not that Francis Bacon was of the opinion that Nature is subtly secretive, full of riddles, Sphinxlike. But secrets can be revealed, riddles can be solved - in words. We persist, as you can read every day, in solving the "riddles of �- 9 - nature". In ancient times, the language of all that exists around us is taken mudh more directly (I was about to say: in a much more literal sense) as a spoken language, a language not written, yet visible, and if not visible, one to be guessed at. Human speech seems indeed to translate that visible or invisible language of things into the audible language of words. find just as the sound of human .s peech can be traced down to its ultimate components to which the letters of the alphabet correspond, things around us can be de-composed into their first rudinents, the "elements", the original letters of the language of things, as it were. Our speech, even our unguarded colloquial way of speakinc, may reveal to the attentive listener the hidden articulations of the language of things, Aristotle • no less than Plato - is always bent on fallowing- up casually spoken words. No doubt, speech can deliberately deceive us, distort and falsify the truth of thingso The fireworks of the Sophists, for example, - and there are always sophists around - make things anq relations of things assume a most unexpected, dazzling and puzzling aspect: suddenly apoear not to be what they are. things But who is doing the lying - if it be lying -, the sophists or the things themselves? A critique of speecht a critical inquisition into speaking and arguing has to be undertaken - as it was undertaken by Parmenides - by Prodicus - by Plato - by Aristotle. follows: The result of this critique can be stated as to speak does not always mean to make thinfS appear in their true light. For Aristotle, only one kind of speech, ~;,>,,&yob ~nocpa'\!­ 't (.X"b' the declaratory and revealing speecht translates or interprets the language of things. To be able to use this kind of speech requires a discipl!!.1..!:., the discipline of the >..dyoG • Everywhere in Aristotle's work one senses, to the annoyance of some and to the delight of others, �- 10 - the effectiveness of that discipline, the effectiveness of what we call the "Logic" of Aristotle. It is this emphasis on the >..dyo£, the A.dyo£ &'ltocpa v-r t xd~, which made Aristotle the great teacher through the centuries. this respect he is as much a ·pupil·· as a teacher. But in We have a significant passage in Plato's work which indicates that rather clear- ly. I mean the passare in the f~ where Plato makes Socrates meet Cebes' crucial objection concerning the deathlessness of the soul, Here, Socrates, after - silently - looking back into himself for quite a while, reaches - in speaking - far back into his own youth. He wanted very much, he reports, to find out, with regard to any single thing or occurrence, what was responsible for its coming into being, its passing away, its being the way it was. satisfactory answers. But he could not find any Nor could he learn thera from anybody else, not even from the great Anaxagoras. He had to abanc1on the way in which questions like the ones he was asking were dealt with in the various versions of the "inquiry into nature" or the "story of nature" ('JtEp\ cpl!crnwi; ten op 'a ) • He decided to embark upon a different journey, his second journey, his "next best try" ( bet5-rEpoi; TIA.oui; i'Jt\ 't~V 't~G a l-i; fob ~ rf'tflO't.V). This is the presentation he makes of his new endeavor. By looking directly at whatever presents itself in our familiar world, at things and their properties, at human affa irs ancl. actions, we run the risk of being blinded as people do who observe the sun during an eclipse if they do not l ook at its image on s ome w0tery surface. That nmy well have happened to thos e investigators of nature. To avoicl. being "blinded", Socrates thought he had to "take r efuge in spoken words" ( € (£ 'tO~ £ A.dyou i; xa-racpuydVL~~ in exchanging questions and answers with himself and wi th others, and in ~ search for the �- 11 - truth of thinr s • What Socrates implies is that the reasons for things being as they are and the truth about those thinfs are to be found in the spoken - or, for that matter; ~ilcnt - words and the \IOfJ'td they embody. That is not to say, Socrates warns, that the example of the sun, which can only be looked at through its image, is applicable here: if one compares a man who investigates things in words with one who investigates them directly, the former can hardly be said to be more concernecl with images than the latter. On the contrary, we surmise, it is the former who sees things as mere images or copies of genuine originals, ~a~ely of the VOfJ'td revealed to us in speech, in spite of the widespread opinion that "mere" words and their meanings at best mirror and usually do nothing but distort what we call "reality". "Reality" is an anglicized queer Latin term, the more adequate, if barbaric, English translation of which is "thinghood"• - It is safe to say, I think, that in one respect at least, . Aristotelian philosophy consists in the execution of that Socratic program. It is in speech, in searching for and finding adequate words, that the A.~yo{; of things, the A.dyoG of nature ( cpuO't{; audible and capable of being understood. ) becomes That's what constitutes the characteristic mould of Aristotelian language I referred to earlier. It is an unfortumite, if perhaps not surprising, historical accident that Aristotle's vocabulary acquired immeasurable weight and a fetishlike character in its Latin rendering perpetuated in almost all modern tongues. It is perhaps no exaggeration to state that something like three quarters of all existing scientific and philosophic terminology is either determined by Aristotle's latinized vocabulary or .can be traced back to it. Quite a few ti.mes in the past a revulsion against �... 12 .. that gibberish set in, We witness some of it to-day, of .Aristotelian terms endures: But the impact our corimon daily language bears witness to that.• On the other hand, Aristotle's execution of the Socratic program entails at least five interrelated modifications of some of the crucial Socratic-Platonic postulates, In trying to speak about this other aspect of Aristotelian philosophy, I shall have to consider some of the other terms in the table I put up .• Ill Socrates, in the Phaedo decided, as he said, to take refuge in spoken worc1s in order to fi~1d that m ich is responsible for any single thing or occurrence coming into being, passing away, being the way it is, The phrase character of the 0 to be responsible for•••" describes the at'tta presented to our understanding in speech, '\>Of"J'tcf Aristotle firmly holds to this view, The V'OT)'tcf are the £ rt:if) , the species, the invisible looks, on which the existence of things depends, They provide us with true answers to the question: why do things come into being, why do they pass away, why are they as they are, But the way of their having that responsibility is, according to Aristotle, not made sufficiently clear by Plato and those who follow Plato. sense has a VOfl'tdv, an that a VOfl'tdV 1 an sists. € € tbOG being? rboG 11 is 11 ? In what What docs it mean to assert The Socratic w2y of questioning per- But Aristotle's answer brings the first decisive modification of the Socratic-Platonic view. Wh'1 t Aristotle has to say about his controversy concer ning the objects of mathematical scienc es is also applicable to his controversy concerning the will not deny thnt they ~ being" ( oµ, n:cp ' L i;ou- 7 E: Lb~ : "The dispute but will be about the manner of their € L va 1., , ' ' \. a}.,,)\a nep ' 1. 't'OU- 'tp01t?O.A The l)hrase �- 13 "manner of being" will be gradually clarified, I hope, as I proceed with this lecture. The manner of being of an e {cob is that it is al together "at work" (the Greek neuter adjective is ~vepydv), that is: ~.2!· ~work £.!ght Its being can, therefore, be characterized as Jvf!pyE La. not certain whether Aristotle coined this term. It is But whether he did or not, it belongs to him as intimately as our skin belongs to our body. The being-at-work of an £ ro0£makes it responsible for the work done. -How it is done, what that responsibility entails, . is a complex matter. For the work of the £ tbob is not done by the Et~6~1:he way our hnnds, for example, do their work (although Aristotle, on one occasion, compares the functioning of the soul to that of a hand). to come back to that point after a while. I shall have What is most noteworthy about "being-at-work'' is that there has to be something else, that namely which is being worked on. This other something has to be capable of being worked on, that is to say, its character must be that of a suitable material, as wood or timber is suitable material for the work a carpenter has to perform. The chara~eristic name of that suitable mat erial is uA.ti (actually derived from the Greek word for "wood"). Its manner of beinr: consists in nothing but in its ability to play that role. Its manner of beinr is ot!vaµ Lb • Nothing, I re- peat, nothing is ~"-fl except in relation to work it is subjected to, that is, in relation to an bricks. Iron is iron. ~vtpyE La. Wood is wood. Bricks are Wood can be called a material only with regard to some operntion to be performed on it, an operation that woulcl tranl!form it, say, into a table-. 'Where do we get an inkling of the work involving£ rcob and and their respective manners of being? ~"-ti The Aristotelian answer is: in the conspicuous phenomenon of generation~ of y~VE<1L~of "coming to �-14 - be"• I mean the phenomenon, ever present before our eyes, of produc- tion and re-production, of generation and re-generation. Men generate men, cats generate cats, birds generate birds, fishes generate fishes; there are always young ones playing about; and this quite independently of any possible evolution stretched out over an exceedingly lonr period of time. Flowers and grass appear in the Sprinr, disappear in the Winter, only to reappear the next Spring; trees bud, then blossom and grow fruit, and fruit produces seeds, and seeds grow again into plants; every morning the stm. rises, every year Spring is born anew; and even moisture con0enses into clouds which in turn produce water apain. That's what the word ylve0'1.~ becoming; the thinr,s which are implies: it means both coming.!.£ fener~ted are all things The old myths tell this story over and over genesis is the very soul of any myth. story of its genesis has to be told. of their genesis has to be told. subjects of any myth. ~gain. E!!. an<l !£ rn· In fact, To understand the world the To understand the gods the story Cosmogony and Theogony are the primary To understand properly any event in human life, or the character of a people, or a city, this event and this character has always to be related, it seems, to its mythical oririns. To tell the myth of something means to tell how this something came to be. An enterprise of this kind does not make much sense unless one relates everything ultimately to beginnings which make any genesis possible. These are precisely the mythical origins. these two elements: They contain, of necessity, the Male and the Female. And however distant the sobriety of Aristotle is from the exuberance of those ancient tales, still the same aspect of the world as a chain or as cycles of reneration dominates his thought. One great and prime exar.iple of generation is the generation of livint- beings, of animals. 1i.ristotle does not assume that all �- 15 .. generation requires the separate existence of the male and the female; he !mows that i11 some cases it is very difficult to attribute the role of the male or of the female to any part 0f the generating process. But on the whole, the male and the female are distinct. This, then, is how Aristotle describes the process of' reneration in those cases in which he thinks that the male animal emits semen. ''!tlther the male .!!£!: the female emits seI:Ien £!!to~~~' they both dep0sit together what they have to contribute .!!! ~ but female, because in the female there is the material (~X.fl ) out of llhich that which is beinr- fashioned is maO.e" • 01')µ1.oupyotfµevov san, a craftsmen, a (Aristotle uses the word , which means that which is worked on by an arti~f)µt.oupydb ) "• •• Hence, of necessity, in the female that parturition takes place. it is For the carpenter is close by his wood and the potter close by his clay, and, in general, the working on the material and the last motion which acts upon it is close by the material; for instnnce, housebuilding takes place at the houses which are beiilf built. These instances may help us to under- stanc how the male makes its contribution to generation; f or not every male einits semen, ano in the case of those which do, this semen is not a part of the embryo as it develops. In the same way, nothinr passes from the carpenter into the pieces of wood which are his material, and there is no part of the art of carpentry present in the object which is being fashioned; it is the visible shape and the f 0rm (~ µ.opq>lf xa\ 't~ er bO£ )which pass from the carpenter and which come to be in the material by means of the movement that fh i::; carpenter execates. It is his soul, wherein is the form (i;b etbo£), and his knowledge which move his hands or some -0ther part of his body in a particular way (different ways for different products and always the same way for �- 16 - any one product); his hands move his tools, and his tools move the material (~X.fl ). ~ ~ }!!milar way, Nature, acting in the male of semen-emitting animals, uses this semen as a tool, as something that, by virtt1e of being !!!, .!!£!:! ( 'VEpye t~ ), has movement; just as when art, the tools are in movement because the movement which belongs to objects are being produced by any art is, in a way, in them"• The embryology implied in this passage as well as throughout J~ristotle's work is faulty. We know much more about the mechanism of fertilization than he could have possibly (We should not forget, knO't.ll• though, how incomplete this our knowledge is.) But there are elements in this description which are quite inaependent of any embryology. Let me first restate what I have just quoted in a more technical way. The material factor o;f generation is represented by what the female contributes to the embryo. It is the ~hfl • The motion which works on that material is the motion of the semen that is emitted by the male animal, and its semen corresponds to the caroenter's tools. But what, in generation, corresponds to the table that the carpenter, as we say, hns in mind, and furthermore, to the purpose that determines the looks of the table? It is Nature, qn.fo· LS, on which the motions of the male animal and of its semen ultimately depend. It is cpt!crt.c; which provokes in the living being the urge to generate:epws, desire, overpowers the living being. And that is how life ( l'.;w1'f) is perpetuated for ever. This process shows the double aspect of what we call Nature, cp\!a LS (which term is derived from the verb q>'1w meaning beget, en• gender, generate): .I cpu~qnust 'I be under.stood as £t.l:>oc; It shares in both, in ~vf!pye La~ l>'5vaµt.G • u'\ ~as U/\fl • But it is of utmost importance to Aristotle - and to us who are trying to understand Aristotle's thought - that ! v~pyE La (and, therefore, any s t~o~) �- 17 - outweighs its correla'ie bt1vaµq;(and, therefore, any nificance, in rank, in manner of being. u"-11> in sig- Aristotl.e devotes an entire book (Book 0 of the Metaphysics) ahowin·g the "priority" of !vtpye La The famous clich~ question: over l)\1vaµ t.b. what comes first, the chicken or the egg? is no puzzle to Aristotle. The chicken - I should say more precisely, the rooster - very definitely comes first. But this "coming first" has nothing to do with any sequence of time. "Coming first" means to be 11 first" in weight, in dignity, in efficacy, - in the ladder and order of being. We shall see in a moment what ultiniate consequences Aristotle derives from this priority. Aristotle's emphasis on generation carries with it the second decisive modification of the Socratic-Platonic view. The 'I £ t.bo~ is perpetually "at work", is perpetually lv£pyS'Cf , without ever undergoing any change. It is efficacious _!!! the ever changing bodies of living beings, as it is effective in the motions of celestial bodies and also - but only analogously so - in the customs and institutions of men. No need, therefore, to assign to the e; rof) a "separate" existence, no need to characterize their manner of being as one of "separation''()(wp t.CJµds ). Their purity and eternity is not affected by all the changes they are responsible fer. duplicate the world. The things around us . th i ngs has "being", has , l a, OUO' . an is There is no need to ~' • ' a. C>O<J each one of those But each thing derives its being, its ofla(a , from the ~vtpye Let of its £ {bo~ • Each thing as has being only inasmuch/it is the manifestation of the its ., E \.OOG • I am because I am "man". Brown is because it is "£!!.!"• ~vlpye; t.a of The cat that belongs to Mrs • The tiger who, this year, April first, ate a man in India, is because he is "tiJ?er".. Much more important than the ~"-11' out of which I and the cat and the tiger are built, is, �• 18 - in each case, the e{bo~ that determines the growth of our bodies, that holds the body together as a unit, that makes us act the way we do. The priority of Jvipye La over b\fvaµ LG manifests itself con- spicuously in the preponderance of what is 0 at work" over what is being worked on, in the preponderance which, in the ways of Nature, the ., e LOO{; has over the u t>~T}. And let us not forget: e tt>oc;; presented to our understanding in speech, - -r:b it is the very e {cob i:b • IV If the world need not t 1-,us be duplicated, there is indeed another duplication, an unavoidable one, which - ultimately perhaps - threatens the integrity of /lristotle' s philosophizing, - the bifurcation of the direction in which the £ {boC- "works". For it is remarkablet most ., remarkable, I should say, that the role of the £ t.ooc;; in the process of generation is repeated in the process of understanding. '1 e L bOG The same which presides over the generation, the growth and the suste: ... nanee of living beings makes us sustenance. ill~ this !!eneration, growth and We, men, - and apparently in varying degrees all living beings - are able to perceive what is around us. We have the capacity, the ability, the faculty, the power, the bdvaµ t.G, of receiving information (as we say in typical Aristotelian fashion) about so much that surrounds us. Leaving aside our cousins, the animals, we men see and hear and sraell and taste and perceive by touch and furthermore understand and lmow quite a few things. and understand are ultinately the That which makes us perceive sll>TJ • Each of us as a µerce:lr ving and understanding beinp- is said to have a soul ( 1'>\)X11 ), the function - the proper work - the af!(f:IJ of which is not only to sustain our life but also to enable us to sense and to understand beyond what �.. 19 - is necessary for our living. The ability to sense, that is the ability to be affected bodily by bodies around us, is called the power of ') (or 'tb a\.0'8fJ'tLxc1v), the ability to be affected by the ala9dvecr0aL is called the power of voetv VOT}'tcf (or A \IOUG). With respect to what we perceive and ttnderstand, with respect to the a L0'9fl"td and , these powers have a manner of being similar to the manner ., of being the material, the u"-ri , of a thing has with respect to the ., E l.bO~ , the species, the invisible looks of that thing. Let me try to describe these philosophical jargon. ~owers by avoiding all latter-day Consider • and reflect upon - the phenomena of sensing and understanding with which we are all familiar. Put aside the picture of something, as we say, uin" us that we call "mind", a sort of closed container or box. What characterizes us inasmuch as we are able to perceive and to understand is our being awake. The state of wakefulness ( lypt1yopa q; ) has its degrees, as we all lmow. We can be drowsy and half-asleep. on around us. ·we can be inattentive to what goes But as long as we are not fully asleep we are awake, and we know that we are. (The fact that we might dream that we are awake does not refute that knowledge but confirms it. How else could sleep~) 'Ibis state and we distinguish wakefulness from dream even in manner of being is a state in which we are not closed up but .2E.!:!!• Wakefulness is openness, • the very openness of a huge open door. It is !!£!. a state of activity but rather a state of preparedness, of alertness. - \IOU£ .TI!!! .. or voe l. \I state or manner of being is co.mm.only called in Greek • It is a manner of being which corresponds to the ., manner of being of any material, any U~f}, and, like the latter, it is only conceivable in relation to what transforms it into a finished product. This transformation and information is brought about by we sense and by ~we understand. .!h!!! The transformation and information �- 20 - being completed, we are~ with what we perceive, understand, know. It is not we, in our state of wakefulness, who grasp, actively, something that is prepared to be grasped. On the contrary, we, in our state of preparedness, ar e being grasped, moulded, f or ned by what is at work, by the iv~ ~a Of the " £I.Of} , sometimes, nay, mostly, through the intermediary of our s ensinr power. In our sensing we are not one with the natural thing perceived but with what works on our sensing ., £LOO~ power, with what Aristotle calls, quite consistently, the Cit 0'0f}'tdV • The relation of the E to fl a'lcr0f]'trlto the £ t~ comparable to the relation of the sounds ~ V01'1 'tcf is in speech to what we The e'Co11 afo011'td constitute, one might say, the understand in speech. very l anguage of thi np,s tha t affects our wak inp souls. The process of understanding , the process of ga ining a n insirht is, in Aristotle's eyes, ~a proce ss of begetting and generating. The o\fvaµL£Of any "natural" material, a ny ~X.1"} qn.>0'1.xtf , is here repla ced hy the s oul's capability ~f being awa~e and of reeeiV:int;. This capability include s both the capability of sensh"lg (a l0'9dvecr9a L ) and the c apability of being informed by the VOf'}'tcf • 'We are commonly not aware of this capability as such, since it cannot subsist all by itself, cannot subsist without being worked on. The closest we can come to observing it is t o l ook into the eye s of very sm"lll children. This Aristot el ian understandinr of th e proc e ss of understa nding in our souls brinps Platonic view. a third decisive dcpnrture fr om the Socratic- Since sensing- , not unlike spee ch, ma ke s us the material worked on by the £ u1.01"} 1tAOU~ , it is i mportant to r ev ert to th e , the first j our ney tha t Socrat es, in the wa ~rs Pha~do, 1tpwrro~ clai ms to in which one is ma ster ed by the h av e given up. Ther e are t wo E tbfl VOfl'td : on e is the way of the °Adyo~ , the way of speak ing and understanding, the wa y of bringing together, in our understanding , the �- 21 - vo~~d presented to us in speech, the way of the syl-logismos; there is another, in which our teachers bring us face to face with the things to be understood. This latter way is called l'Itaywy~ • The term "induction" is an exact translation Of the Greek word but has come to mean something quite different. on our being affected, thro~gh thing, by .its e {~ob • 1 The efficacy of an ~'Itaywy~ rests the observable sensible features of a 1 ttaywy" does not necessarily require many ' and varied experiences or observations. Cne case might be sufficient. But a mere glance at the titles of all the Aristotelian (and pseudo• Aristotelian) writings shows how intent Aristotle must have been on engaging in protracted observations, on listing all kinds of observable phenomena and on collecting information from all possible sources. v This activity, however, is altogether auxiliary. It serves the great and awe-inspiring goal of giving a nearly complete account of the world as a whole. This may be reckoned as the fourth radical de• parture from the Socratic-Platonic view. For Plato, it seems, did not believe it possible to reach that goal, although the philosophical enterprise he was engaged in, in its extravagance and divine immoderation, indeed demands that our efforts to reach it never cease. Aristotle undertook to satisfy that demand once arrl for nll. Only a few after him made such an attempt. The term "world" or x~aµob - in Greek as well as in English - does not mean - and never meant - simply the swn tot al of all existing things. It means r ather the peculiar way in which diverse parts are suitably arranged to form~~£ or, as we say, a "universe". An account of the wholeness of all that is implies of necessity an account of the intrinsic order ( ~cf~ Lb ) which makes the whole a whole. An �- 22 - account of this kind is what is called, though not by Aristotle, a cosmo-logy. It seems that Aristotle's philosophizing culminates in, and rests on, a cosmology. You are all acquainted with some of its features. Within the huge sphere of the world (ridiculously small in modern terms) there is a tiny sphere - the sublunar sphere - encompassing the Earth. Not that the Earth is located at the midpoint of the world sphere, as if a mathematical point could determine any location within the world lll'ithout regard to the body involved. and the bulk of the Earth that cosmos is. det~rmine It is rather the globe where the middle region of the Beyond the sublunar dor.iain a number of concentric, contigu- ous, rigid, . and translucent spheres r each up to the limit of the world, to the sphere of the so-called fixed stars. Beyond that limit there is nothing, nay, not even nothing, not even "void". The world is, strictly speaking, nowhere. The cosmic spheres are in perpetual regular motion, around diverse axes and at different rates of speed. including the Sun and the Moon. Some of them carry the planets, The combined motions of these spheres are responsible for the appearance of all the irregular motions of the celestial bodies which we observe from the Earth. This "saving of the phenomena", as the traditional phrase has it, is the task of a math& matical discipline "most akin to philosophy", namely the science of the visible , yet eternal, bodi es, the science of &a-rpo}...oy(a , the science of the fix ed and wandering stars, Aristotle follows here in the footsteps of Eudoxus and Calippus, trying to improve upon their hypotheses without preswning to have the last word as far as the number, the sequence , and the motions of all th ese spb.eres are concerned. The-ir combination and co-ordination, which r emains to be decided upon by mathemat i cal astronomers, can be r epres ented - visi bly and t angibly - �- 23 - by a man•made model. The Lyceum seems to have possessed one. Yet what, in Aristotle's cosmology, is more important than the proper encasement and number of the spheres is its intimate link with the highest discipline Aristotle propounds and to which he occasionally assigns the name of "First Philosophy" ( ip~'tfl cp t.>..oO'ocp {e,0 • This is the discipline which considers not particular and definite bodies of any kind that "are" or might be, but which considers Being 2E. ( " O'V (i;b "- 'I... Cl1t~W~ ov or ~ OV fJT ., ) 0\1 • "Indeed", says Aristotle, 11 ~ ~ is being )? - that is, ~ is being·ness ( o~O' Ca )? - that is the question of ancient times and the question now and the question always and always the puzzle one faces"• "And so", he continues, "it is in- cuI!lbent upon us, too, to consider - above all and first of all and uniquely, as it were, - ~Being, taken in that sense, is"• It might not be inapproPriate to assign to this most fundamental discipline a name coined in the 18th century, the name of onto-logy. It deals with what is ultimately responsible for t11e coming into being, the persisting, as well as the passing away of any single t1·,ing. It is within its province, therefore, to deal with what is ultimately responsible for the being and the intrinsic order of the world as a whole. That is to say, this highest discipline has to account for the "Highest", the divine, and can, accordingly, be characterized by Aristotle as the l1t1.0''t't1µ11 or qn.>-..oaoqi(a eeo>-..oyut~, the knowledge or wisdom which consists in the comprehension of divinity. Thus Aristotle's cosmological and ontological (or theological) considerations converge at the level which marks the beginning of the bifurcation I mentioned earlier. It is the level of the ,, £ t. bfl • Their manner of being, as we have seen, is characterized by ~vipyet.a , by "being-at-work". It is indeed l "~PY£ftl that, for Aristotle, answers the eternal question concerning Being !! fil!Ch. Whenever we say �- 24 - that something is or exists we imply - without being always aware of this implication .. that it owes its being or existence to • It is temptinr to substitute for that Greek word the modern tern "energy". This substitution would not necessarily falsify the state- r.tent I just made but would make it somewhat misleading, For "energy" has either a strict meaning adequately rendered only by a variety of mathematical expressions • the physical dimensions of which will always be: (unit of mass) X (unit .o f distance)2 X (unit of timer 2 .. or a vague meaning associated with somethin.P like vigor, agcrcssiveness, vitality, We observe, though, that even for us to-day, both creanings of "energy", the strict one and the vague one, are tied to the notion or picture of work done or to be done, Tradition~lly the translations of ~v~pyel.a are mostly derivatives of the Latin verb~' to wit, "act", "action", "activity", "actuality", we say: Note how curious it is that "actually, Mr. Jones does not live in Washington" or "actually, the Earth is a plunet". We may substitute for the word "actually" phrases 1 ike "in fact", "in effect", "in truth", are eqdvalent to stating: that is so or is not so, 11 indeed". Such phrases considering that which truly is, this or It is still an Aristotelian way of speaking, although the ontological assertion that being-ness means 11 being•at- work" or being "active" remains hidden behind the screen of our colloquial use of weighty words. Aristotle merges cosmo-logy into onto-logy by distinguishing two aspects of the phenomenon of VOE tv , more precisely, by reaching beyond the meaning commonly attributed to "what is called \IOU c; (~ xa>-..otfµ€VO£ voub ). " Noe:l'v ' as I tried to say earlier, is the state of wakefulness, a state of preparedness and alertness, which, in relation to what we perceive, understand, know, plays the role of the �,.. 25 - material to be worked on. In that sense - voe: 1.\1 is "passive", is the state of being mastered by something ( ••• i;b voe: Lv 'JtcfO'XE 1. v 't ( ~ C1't t. \I ) , namely b~ the impact of various e: Lb fl • this sense is somehow the mere capability of becoming what is understood (ouvcfµ.e t. m~G lO''H 't~ VOT')'t?i ~ vo'.k;) and nothing on its NouG · becomes ~ own. g_ tr"!!!!! when it is ~with what is understood, £!!..£with the VOfl'tc! have done their work. , that is to say, when the E:LOT') Only then can the vou G be said to be wakefulness "at work", to be !ve:pye: {ct 'VOUG , only then is the vou G "at its own end", is it lvtEAEXE~ VOUG• But Aristotle's thought - anticipated to a degree by Anaxagoras and by Plato - goes one crucial step further: the very being of this accomplished \IOUG is nothing but ~ vf!pye: t.a , and conversely, Being-at-work ~ \IOUG, impartible ( &µ.e:pfiG ), indivisible ( &o t.a lp E'tOG), impassive \ ( &n:a9f1c; ), unchangeable ( &va~Cwi;o' eternal ( &•f b LOG). ), undying ( &0dva-co<;), It is eternally "at work", and it itself as Being-at-work is its own eternal life (~w'1 ) and its own eternal delight ( ~~ov11). It is deity ( (~ o~pavc1,)and Nature (fj: b 9e:dG )• The entire heaven q>tfCTL<;;) hang upon ( ~p'te:'ta1. ) this kind of "Capital beginning" ( &pxrf ) • Let us try to understand the full meaning of this solemn statement which echoes Anaxagoras' famous proposition about the vou~ "ordering everything and being responsible for everything" ( b LaxoO'µ.wv 'te: xa\ mfv"twv af 't'-OG). We have seen that the et brrvo11"td are responsible for the being of everything and for all the changes that occur in the world. Now, the priority of Being-at-work over the manner of being manifested in the capability of being worked on, the priority of lvtpye: La over btfvaµ q;, on which Aristotle insists so much, demands that a �- 26 - VOfj'tdv be not only something understandable ( buvcfµEL VOf)'tdv) but also something under st~ "in fact" ( VOf}'tOV l v£pye ~Cl- ) that it may be efficacious, may indeed be an a t't fo • so The VOfJ'td can play their generatiiig role only when they are one with the vaj°G "at work", one with the productive state of wakefulness, one with the 'YOO(; not.f}'tl.Kd~as Aristotle's ancient commentators name it (relying on Aristotle's own conjoining Of't~ at'tLOV and~ 'JCOLf)'t' 1.x~v). This identity of the »OUG and the VOT)'tdv , of the 1'ooGv and the voo'1µ£ vov - as well as of the accomplished state of lmowing (~ xa't' lv!!pye 1.av ~n:1.0't'l1µ.ri)and the known object ~o ln LO''tfJ'tdv or 'tO np<lyµa) -, characterizes a state of wakefulness which is not "empty" openness but complete "fullness". only where all that ~ be has ~~ This st ate prevails realized, where there is no place for mere "possibility", "capability", "ability", bt.fvaµLG , in other words, where no material to be still worked on is in any way involved. The divine VOUG - that is to say, the sum total of all £ Lbf] as comprehended by that vou G - is totally immaterial (aveu ~Aof)G ), or - since as ~vipye La it requires some material to be worked on - it can be said to be itself material for itself (vo1f0'£WG vd11a l.G). It is thus totally "separated" from every• thing else in the world and consequently outside of time, uncontaminated ( Aµ1.yf1G ), pure . ( xaSapdG)• understanding of the "separated" Strangely enough, in this VOUG - with all the it "contains" - Aristot/lep' seems to revert to the position of his teacher. VI First Philosophy or ontology is not confined to the consideration of 'VOUG as lvipyt La• It has to take into account not �- 27 - only the manner of being labelled bt1vaµ q; but also other manners of being and furthermore the different ways in which something can be said to be responsible for somethinE! else, .As far as this latter theme is concerned, Aristotle does not deviate from the Socratic-Platonic path, There are different meanings attached to the question "why?" and, correspondingly, there are different ways of answering that question. as it is? We might answer: ~ecause material, out of which it is made. ~.ll is this lectern ~ of the wood, the particular We might also say: because the particu_lar carpenter, the oaker, made it ttiis way. We might also say: because of the shape .2!: form the maker had in mind. We might finally say: because of the ~~ this thing is supposed to serve. However important and even indispensable the first three answers might be, it is not difficult to agree that the choice of the material (~ ~A.f) ) the shape or looks ( 'tO E!bo<;) of the thing, and the performance of the maker who initiated the transformation of the material into this lectern, - that all these depend on the purpose, the end for the sake of which the lectern has been made. It is that purpose which is decisively responsible for the lectern be~ as it is. its end ( 'tO 't'ftA.o<;), is its true "beginning" { Its purpose, &pxt1 ). - All those questions and answers are perhaps not possible with respect to every single thing or occurrence, but it is one of the most important tenets of Aristotelian - and Socratic-Platonic - philosophizing that, universally, the purpose - the goal - the end - the 't{A.o<; - provides the only satisfactory answer to the question "why". J~nd this holds especially for the world as a whole. There is a characteristic aspect of anything we call a purpose or a goal or an end, namely that it is an object of £.esire. The ~~A.o~ - in the making of a thing - in the contrivance of some device - in the �- 28 - establishment of an institution - in the action of a man - is responsible for all the changes it brings about, and yet it itself remains w1changeably, "immovably", what it is. efficacy the way an instrument does. It does not manifest its It attracts - but does not get involved in the concatenation of changes which it originates. Such is the efficacy of an e: IcoG , wherever Nature rules, - the generating ,. efficacy that the e: I. COG owes to its manner of being, which is Being.. at-work. An E {COG is "at work" ~! something striven ~' as an object . ,, l" of des1re, of ope:., LG • And that is also true for the di vine as the "container" of all the e: "l.bfl of the world. The whirling spheres of the world, including the last one, the one of the fixed stars, strive to become what the best of all, the vou G , beyond all time is: this desire of theirs holds them for ever in their never ending circular motions. Thus, for Aristotle, the eternity of the world in time is an inescapable consequence of the timeless ontological character of ~v~pye: 1.a , which the e:Lofl and the VOUG possess. As to the problem of manners of being other than that of &v~pye:t.a a .!if.!h departure from the Platonic view marks Aristotle's thinking. ! For Plato, it seems, being-ness is an e: 00£ of the highest rank, an e:fboG embracing the entir e family of e:Lof) "within" it: it is a "genus". Everything that is, inasmuch as it is, falls "under" it, as it were. 1fuenever we face "being" we face Being. ~ and th~~~ kind of For Aristotle, however, it is necessary to distinguish between "Being" in the strict and primary s ense of or degre es of t v!tpy•HCI and other manners Being related to the fornier "proportionally", xa"t' • It is precisely the difference in the kind~ !?.f.. ~latio!!_ to the primary aspect of beine;, that of t •dpylt ·,a , which justifies our &.va}..oylav speaking of ''manners of being"• As Aristotle says~ .,. . " Being is �- 29 - - spoken;'lb various senses, but in every case with so.me reference to -- . one capital beginning" ( ... "~ dv }..~yei;at. 7tOAX.axwb µit'v, &X.X.' ~Pxt1v . ~7tClV ~ µ1.av /\..). This holds not only for the manner of being which characterizes bt1vaµ Lb , but also for the various attributes of things, such as their motion, their color and warmth, their number and size, their health, benificence, and well-being. The 't'd~ t.~ , the hierarchy of the spheres with their specific ~v~pyet.al. is conceived as fallowing an "analogical" pattern, too. VII Where, then, is the place of ~ in this order of things? It is not too difficult to assess Aristotle's answer to this question. Man is said, on the one hand, to rank highest among the perfect, that is, viviparous, animals. produced everything for his sake. Nature is said to have J11ilong all the animals man is the only one with an erect nosture, "for his nature and his being are di vine". And yet, on the other hand, he is not the mo st important, not the best being in trye world, as becomes perfectly clear when we consider the celestial bodies which compose the cosmos. This somewhat ambiguous position of man is rooted in the insufficiency of man's wakefulness, in the "incompleteness" and "passivity" of his You~• Man is open to everything about him. Whenever this openness is filled with the ,, EI.bf) of the world he shares in the god-like mannerof being, in the lvtp~'l!I.of the divine voub • But this sharing is an intermittent one: ever so often man is overcome by fatigue, his wakefulness yields to sleep. to lie down. He has His divinity is but a passing shadow - as his very life is. Still, he has to make the best of it. Since he is not a solitary �- 30 - being but has to live with others of his kind, he establishes familiee rears children, acquires arts, learns and teaches, forms tribes, founds states, sets up institutions, rituals, customs and laws. he has to have ~pdv~aL<;, In doing that, has to exercise sovnd judgment in the con- duct of his affairs. Aristotle provides the justification and the guiding rules for all these specific human activities in his teaching and writing on matters of the Household, on Ethics and Politics, on Rhetoric and Poetry. diction of the Adyo~ All these subject-matters fall within the juris- , which is no attribute of divinity. Only to a few is given the happiness of a philosophical life, the immoderate, though intermittent, sharing in the tuneless ~vlpyeLa of the VOU~ • Let me, by way of conclusion, report toe preposterous, yet deeply significant, story told in ancient times about Aristotle's sleeping habits. When he went to bed, so the story goes, he used to hold in his hand a sphere of bronze - I presume the sphere representing the whole world -, while on the floor, close to the bed, beneath his extended hand, lay a pan. As soon as Aristotle would fall asleep, the sphere would slip off his hand, fall on that pan, and the ensuing noise would wake him up. and over again. This procedure was apparently repeated over Aristotle could have hardly survived such an ordeal for any length of time. claim to immortality. But no story could more aptly relate his �The Body of Aristotelian Teaching as it ' has come down to us since its publication by Andronicus of Rhodes in the 1st century B.c. Categories On Interpretation Prior Analytics, 2 books Posterior Analytics, 2 books Topics, 8 books Sophistic Refutations l The "Organon" .. ....... Physics, 8 books On the Heavens, 4 books On Coming to be and Passing away, 2 books On Phenomena high above, 4 books On the World On the Soul, 3 books On Sensation and Sensibles On Memory and Recollection On Sleep and Waking On Dreams On Prophecy in Sleep On Length and Shortness of Life On Youth and Age On Life and Death On Respiration On Breath Inquiries concerning Animals, 9 books Parts of Animals, 4 books Movement of Animals Gait of Animals Generation of Animals, 5 books ••••••••• On Colors On the Audible Physiognomies On Plants, 2 books ..... -· ... On Marvelous Things Heard Mechanics Problems, 38 books On Indivisible Lines Location and Names of Winds •••••••••• On Xenophanes, Zeno, Gorgias Metaphysics, 14 books .......... Nicomachean Ethics, 10 books Great Ethics, 2 books Eudemian Ethics, 7 books On Virtues and Vices Politics, 8 books The Crdering of Households, 2 books The Art of Rhetoric, 3 books Rhetoric to Alexander Peotics � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. 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Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 30 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Aristotle (An Introduction) Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered April 20, 1962, by Jacob Klein as part of the Formal Lecture Series. The typescript is an enlarged version of the lecture that was delivered. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klein, Jacob, 1899-1978 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1962-04-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Greenfield Library holds the literary rights to Jacob Klein's work. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Aristotle Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context lec Klein 1962-04-20 Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/55ac56b3728278d0c3413bba25927d9e.pdf 5bfccf97b6bd59faef975dd36abdb5c6 PDF Text Text fiBOUT PLAT0 1 S PHILEBL~§. A lecture given by Jacob Kl ein a t St. John's College May 20, 197·1 To speak about a Platonic dialogue, about a Platonic dialogue, means t o do violence to it. A sense of guil t will, be t herefore~ a continuous source of pain within me while I am speaking. But I cannot resist ths temptation to shed some light, some moonlight , as it were, on the P~ileb~. I hope you will forgive ma-- I cannot-- for sounding extremely pedantic, for speaking much longer than I should, end for making it sometimee very diff icult for you to follow. Let me state fi ve basi c points on which my talking about the Philebus will rest. First: a Platonic dial ogue is not a treatise or the text of a lectur e; it is not comparable in this respect t o a work of Aristotle or, for t hat matter , to any of Plotinus' Enneads as edited by Porphyry. A Platonic dialogue is usually a drama, a mime 9 i n which what happens cannot be separated from what is said and argued about. ,§.econdly : however s erious the purpose and the content of a Platon ic dial ogue , its seriousness is permeated by playfulnsss; indeed, as ~1e can read in t he sixth letter attributed to Plato , serious- ness and play a.re The comica l aspect of a Platonic d i a iog ua .§l;ste :r~· can never be completely disregarded. l.bl!:.9.1Y; no Platonic dialogue can be said to r epresent be called and ha s been called _:the "Platonic doctrine." (Soph. 254C ) ~1hat might The dlalcgue may well hint, though never 11 wi t h perfect clarity, " at gsnui t:21 a::d ulti mate thoughts of Pla to, the thinker. The S ae~, for example~ does that most certainly. · But an unimpeachable source provides us with more direc t inform~tion ever put down in wr itinga about Plato 1 s thinking t hat he himself Thi s source is Aristotle, who spent t wenty years at that place of leisure, the Academy, and heard what Plato hi mself sai d. I assume that we have to pay a ttention to Aristotle's r eports , never forgattin.9. that Aristotle has his E.!:!.!l way of describing other peoplesv thoughts, a peculiar t erminol ogy r o~ted in his �-2~Q. thinking and not ln the thinking of those other people s.bout luhom he reports. Fourthl_y: i n the las t t tt10 c enturies scholars; not all 1 but moat of them, have tried to understand the Platonic dialogues as belonging to different stages of a "development" in Plato's own thinking. Now, it is of course possible that Pl ato, in his l ong life, changed his views on many and perhaps even on moat important poi nts. follow a Platonic dialogue means to take it as it ~' But to as one whole~ i n which the i nterlocut ors play a definite and unique role and in which uihat is s~ and what is happening does not depend on anythlng that is said and is happening in any other dialogue. Before we could understand any "development" in Plato's thinking, it is i ncumbent on us to understand each dialogue in its £!:.1ill. terms. This understanding is not helped by assignirn} a dialogue to a certain period in Plato's Yet, in the case of the Philsbuet it will not be unimportant life. to t ake no t ice of the time this dialogue was written--no t in order to track some "deve lopmental " deviation i n Plato's thinkingj but merely t o establish whether certain statements in the dialogue may refer to somebodyvs conspicuous behavior within the Academy in Plato's later days. is And, happily enough, there i s general agreement that the a~ Phileb~e dialogue, although some of the reasons for this da ting might be questionable. [i.fthly: every word in a Platonic dialogue counts, and for some- body in the dialogue to remain silent may count even more. talking .~9.2l-!1 That's why a dialogue must necessarily r emain insuff icient . And now let us approach the Philebu~. The conversation takes place in Athens; we do not learn exactly where; it may be at a gymnastic school or at a wrestling school. 1.ofJ.9. What we read is a Eart of a conversation which begins s ome time in the afternoon. three i nterlocutors ; Socrates~ ~§t:i The~e are Protarchus, Philebus; many young men , half a dozen or a dozen per ha ps, are listening. Socrates is, well~ Sacrates--a man deuoteci ta inquiries and discussions and a friend �About Pl:~d;b' s .!:b.!1~9.L.f~ and lover of youth. Call:Las. Protarchua is the son of m well known Athenian, Philebue is nnt f<no1iln at all. He is one of t.ha fe1,t1 person~· ages in the Pl ato nic di alogues 3 like Calliclea, Diotima, Timaeus, invented by Plato; if they do not remain nameless~ like the Stranger from Elea and the Stranger from Athens, their names are appropriately coined. The name of Philebua indicates that he is a "lover of youth"--as Socrates (168) is. Philebus seems to be young, but slightly older than Protarchus and all the l is tening young men around them. The title of the dialogue as it has been handed down to us is Philebus. This title is never mentioned in the writings of Plato's contemporaries. Aristotle refers to what is times, mentioning Plato once. ~ in the dialogue at least eight There seems to be no reason , however, to doubt that the title qPhilebus" is genuine. Moreover, there is one good reason which speaks forcefully for its authenticity. dialogue contains did). .£.i.36~ The lines (I did not count them, but somebody Of these 2,369 lines only 23 are spoken by Philebus (those I counted). He raises his voice altogether only 14 t imese circumstances, who else but ~~ for the title cf the dialogue? Under these could have chosen the name of Philebus There will be more to say about this matter later on. The main question raised in the dialogue is: ~? What is the best human And this question has to cope primarily with the all-pervasive feeling of mocking us. ~~ common to all living beings--haunting, filling~ All of us--without exception--want to be pleased in thousands and thousands different ways: we Beek to lie down or to ait comfortably; we like hearing things that flatter us; we en joy good companyt witty words~ good drink and food; we delight in traveling 1 in going to the theater or to the movies, in looking at beautiful things; we love caresses, precious gifts, wild emotions; we loose ourselves wi th rapture in exerting ecstasies, and so on~ and so on. power~ in sexual s atisfaction 3 in A list of pleasures like the one I have just given is not to be found in the dialogue, but an infinite number of possible pleasures is implied in the arguments we are facing. �-4-- It is Philebus who looks at Pleasure as the highest good, who sees in Pleasure not only the best of human possessions, but the goal after which all liv:i.ng beings strive. ( if I Pleasure (17001''1) is the goddess he And quite a few of us, I think, follow him. worships. Secretes does not. Ha contends that there is something better and more desirabfe than pleasure, to wit, thoughtfulness in deciding how to act (t~ ~eovttv), the apprehending of what is intelligible only (~o vo~~v ) , !be power of memory ("to )At:f"Y~~IJ"') and that which is akin to these, right opiniQD_ (i~l« 1'e0~ ) and l!'ue calculations (JJ...,e;;"Ls Jioit..o-µo~ ); but Socrates carefully adds that these powers are better and more desirable than pleasure for those beings who are able to share in the.s e powers; only to beings who have this ability will these powers be profitable , now and in the future. This juxtaposition of both contentions, of that of Philebus and of that of Socrates, is made by Socrates very shortly after we begin reading. ( 11 A) "See, It is introduced by Socrates with the following words: then~ Protarchust what the assertion is which you are .!l£!£. to accept from Philebus, and what our assertion is, against which you are to argue, if you do not agree with it. of each of them?" logue. Shall we give a summary These words are the very first words of the dia- But what strikes us immediately is that they cannot be under- stood as indica ting the beginning of a conversation; they just continus what was said before; if they were the beginning of a conversation, the vocativa Tie~"&t(eXfl would be preceded by Z (Z lfe~f".txfjE, and not simply lleJr:Q{e~E); and the words "then" (cf~) and "now" (yl)yt) would not be used. Listen again: which you are~ true beginning. "See, ~t Protarchus, what the assertion is to accept from Philebus ••• " The dialogue has no Nor does it have a true ending. sentence we read spoken by Protarchus: This is the last "There is still a little left, Socrates; you will certainly not give up before we do, and I shall remind you of what remains. " We do not yet understand why the dialogue has no beginning and no ending. But we see (and this is important), �About Plato's .. Ebi:.!EJ~ ~ when we begin reading, that Protarchus hes to take over the thesis upheld by Philebus. More about th~t later. Enjoyment and thoughtfulness are the two banners that Protarchus and (111>) Socrates are respectively waving. The life of pleasure and the life of thoughtfulness face each other. But it becomes clear immediately that Socrates is considering some other life superior to both of them. He will keep reverting to this third life. It will finally be described in the last pages of the dialogue. What follows the juxtaposition of the two views, that of Philebus and Protarchus on the one hand and that of Socrates on the other, is Socrates' insistence that pleasure has many different aspects: (12C) "For, when you just simply hear her named, she is one thing, but surely she takes on all sorts of shapes which are, in a way, .!:In~ Socrates gives two simple, though significant, examples; each other." the pleasures of a licentious man are very different from those of a self-restrained man, who enjoys his very self-restraint; the pleasures of a fool are very different from those of a thoughtful man, who enjoys his very thoughtfulness. No, says Protarchus, the sources of pleasure may be different, may have an opposite character, but "how can pleasure help (120/E) being of ail things most like pleasure, that is, like itself." Yes, says Socrates, color and figure are what they are, but colors and figures can be very, very different and even, in the case of colors, most opposed to each other, like black and white. see how this could make him change his mind. third time~ Protarchus does not Socrates tries for the this time incisively, anticipating what will be said later in the dialogue. are pleasant. No argument, he says, disputes that pleasant things But Protarchus' contention, which upholds Philebus' conviction, implies that all pleasant things are g_ood. That's what is wrong. Pleasant things are for the most part bad and only some are good. But youj Protarchus, says Socrates, call all of them good, although you might be forced by the argument to agree that they are otherwise different. Protarchus tacitly admits that pleasures may be very different from each other, and even opposed to each other, but �sticks to his main poi nt t hat pleasure s , inas much as they are ~j are ahiays good . At this point Socrates goes back to his own contention, namely that 1b.?J:19htfulnsss (<f>eov~€tS) and ~! apprehen~ion of the i~elligi~~ (voos) are good. He adds to these--for the first time--knowledoe -- (i ~t ~~1pi) end predicts that many kinds of knowledge will come to the f ore, some among t hem unlike each other. Should it turn out that some are even opposed to each other, could he, Socrates , t hen cling to the poi nt that all knowledge is alike and--not unlike Pro t archus-11 save himself" in an absurdity? Protarchus is pleased that both, his assertion and that of Socrates, receive the same treatment and is now willing to grant that there are many different pl easures just as there are many diff erent knowledges (we have to note ths.t he does not mention oeposite pleasur es and knowledges). Socrates i s satisfied with Protarchus ' concession about the manynsss within knowledge and within pleasure and spsaks as follows: (148) no concealment~ "With thent Protarchus, of the differentiation within my good and within yours, but facing it squarely, let us be bold and see if per chance, on examination, it will tell us whether we should s ay t ha t the good is pleasure or t houghtfulness or some ot her ihird thing. 11 It is the second time that Socrates reverts to the poss i bilit y that something third may be th e bes t cf human poss ess ions. He pro- ceeds by strengthening this statement by an assertion whi ch has a wide, wide range. This is one·of the transitions in which the dialogue abounds (Parenthetical remark: in the 2nd century A.O. Galen wrote a treatise enti tled ''On the transitions i n the Philebus, " which is unfortunately not extant ). f ac:ing. let me s ay a f ew words a bout the transi t:ton we are now �-1- Up to this point the talk was about things most familiar to all of us, about pleasure and about thoughtfulness and about knowledge, this last word taken in its colloquial and vague sense. about our lives in this our world. The talk was concerned What Socrates is undertaking now is to lift the conversation to a level of all-embracing universality, disregarding pleasure and knowledge altogether . He will come back to them after a short while and then launch out to an even higher level. Why does he do that? The answer is: to find the ultimate sources of what is so close to us and usually unquestioned by us. The dialogue seeks to link the most common to the most uncommon and fundamental. To find the link will require a great deal of vigor on Socrates' part. The manyness within pleasure and within knowledge leads Socrates to re( 14C) mind Protarchus of the "astounding" assertions that "many are one" that "one is many." and There is nothing par ticularly surprising and diffi- cult about these assertions if they refer to visible and tangible things, which come into being and perish. A man, for example, is also many, because he has many members and parts. intelligibles, the £ l'ott on~, but he is But when we consider of things, the "invisible looks," which can be encountered only in speech (f>I Ao~ ti ) , and each one of which is one and unique, the "ona and many" problem becomes extremely perplexing (Socrates me ntions four of the intelligibles: the One young Beauty~ man~ the _Qne Go.2.£). the ~Man, the One Ox, That's where the trouble sets in. Any says Socrates, challenging those present, any young man, once he has tasted the flavor of that perplexity and thinks he has found a treasure of wisdom, does net spare anyone, neither himself, nor his parents, nor any human being, who can hear him, and joyfully sets every possible argument in motion, confounding everybody. (16A) Protarchus feels hit. "Do you not see 9 Socrates," he says, "how many we are and that we are all young men? Are you not afraid that we shall join with Philebus and at- tack you, if you revile us?" But Socrates' challenge works. Protarchus wants Socrates to find a better road than was used up to now and to lead them on. Socrates retorts that there is a better road , which he alwa~1s loved, �which is easy to point out, but very difficult to follow. Whatever human art has discovered had been brought to light through it. Socrates' description of this batter road marks a new transition in the dialogue. Socrates calls this same Prometheus r~ad tog~ther a "gift of gods to men," which we owe to with some gleaming fire (let me remind you: Prometheus stole the fire he ga\1e to men)~ The ancients, who were better than we and lived nearer the gods, says Socrates with deadpan seriousnessi have handed down to us the tradition that all the things which are ever said to exist are sprung from.Q.o.[ and MailY and have, I "' P ) inherent in their nature, Limit (lft;fd..J) and Infinitude (oUTE'-ft..<Jl • JI We shall come back to this point in a little while. What Socrates emphasizes now is that we must , in every case, look for .si!le e 'f Jos (he uses the word t J~... hare) and next for two,, if there be t1JJO, and if not, for 1hree or some other .J]JJ!nber; and we must treat each of these <:J~J"., ir'l the same way, that is~ subdivide each of them~ until 11 we can see that the original one is not just one and many and infinite, ( ·1 60) but also 12.9~ farewe ll ta the it is." Then we may bid farewell to infinity, bid Lf€et of infinity . Protarchus wants Socrates to clarify what he has said. No wonder! Socrates provides this clarification by pointing to the letters of the alphabet. The sound which we emit through our mou'\::.h can be called one, yet it is infinite in diversity. A god or a godlike man, as an Egyptian story tells, observed, however 9 that there are distinct vowel sounds, semi-vowel sounds and consonants- -in Greek 7 vowels, OY $OY\ta..,'l;.f 3 semi=vowelsA(~je,~)~ and 14 consonants~ more exactly 10y if we include I \ the rough breathing sound h and exclude the 5 double consonants. This means that be tween the oneness and the infinitude of s ound there are definite numbers of sounds. One has to know all of them to possess the arl of reading and writing. Socrates !!llllPhasi~ the !J.1£!!ber~ of sounds and letters. But this example of the al phabet and the example cf the numbers of musical intervals, which Socrates also gives j are �AboL1t P.lat o 1 s f,11,i];_eig!L§_ meant to let Protarchus and Philsbus and us understand that t here are numbers in the realm of the (560-E) 't'[.., . Lab::ir in the dialogue Socrates will clearly distinguish between numbers of unequal units , that is, numbers of sensible things, and pure mathematical numbers of units, that is, of units which do not differ at all from each other. But (sse esp. we learn from Aristotle that Plato also spoke of eidetic number s , of ~· XIV, numbers of units which are themselves nothing but ~fd~ 3, 1090·e. find them means tc embark upon that better, but difficult road. • To try to 32 ff.) Protarchus and Philsbus do not under stand what is going on. especially does not see theme of lLlhat the ~' Philebus which Socrates has i n jected into the discussion, has to do with the alternative of pleasure and t houghtfulness, which was in question. Socra tes reminds him that t hey were wondering how each of them , pleasure as well as thought( 18E) ful ness, was one and many, and whether "each of them possessed a number before becoming infinite, " that is to say, whether there were ~I t of Gt~~ pleasure as well as of thoughtfulness, which then are dispersed among beings that continually come into being and perish and that live their li ves in pleasure and thought. Protarchus is perturbed. He understands what Socrates i s after. He cannot find an answer to the question. He wants Philebus to answer it. And he formulates the question as follows; "I think Socrates is asking (198) us whether there are or are not and of what sort they (198) does not utter a wo1-d. true, son of Cal l ies." a ~ e, f; ri.., of pleasure t how many there are and the same of thoughtfulness." Philebus But Socrates remarks: "What. you e.ay is most He underscores the importance cf this fact by addressing Protarchus ceremonially as son of Callias. Protarchus is intent on bringing the discussion about pleasure and thoughtfulness to a satisfactory end. Socrates promis~ was reached. This We learn from what he says that that he would stay on and not go home before this end ptomis~ must have been given, we have to assume , during the discussion which preceded what we read in the di alogue, and we should not forget that. Protarchus demands that Socrates s top per- plexing him and the other young men and decide either to divide him- �self pleasure and knowledg e i nto t.heir .;1'ii1 E£ t o let th,st go, if there bs some other way to solve the matte r s at iss ue among them. Socrates is willing to do the latter, end this marks a new t ransition in the dialogt1e. Socrates claims playfully that some god has just reminded him of some talk about pleasure and thoughtfulness, which he heard when he was dreami ng or perhaps when hs was awake. What he heard saying was that neither pl easure nor thoug htfulnes s was t he good, but some t hird thing, differe nt from both and be t ter than both. that Socr a tes himself had in t imated t his the ~ time. We remember , cf cour se , twi c~ . If this could be clearl y shown He doe s i t new for now~ s ays Socrates, pleasure would not be the victor and it would no longer be necessary to divide pleasure into its 'l"J., . And Socrates adds that, while the discussion proceedsj this will become still What f oll ows leads to thr ee insights: cle a r~~. 1) i t is the l ot of the Good and only of the Good to be s elf-suff icient; 2) if we take the l i fe of plea- sure and the t ho ughtful life separately, so that t he li f e of pl easure is totally divested of any thought, any knowledge, any opi nion, any memory, and the thoughtful life, on the other hand, totally untouched by any pleasure, both lives--in this bare fo rm--cannot be conceived as self-sufficient, as desi ra bl e and as good; 3) only a l ife made up of a mixture of pleasure and th oughtfulne ss and sharing in both will be the kind cf life everybody would choose.- Lat me remark t ha t Socra t es and al s o Protarc hue list under the power s associated wi th thoughtf ulness t he power of a pprehending the intell ig iblas,va~s, which in common parlance may s imply mean sood sense . role for quite a wh ile. This term will now play a central Socrates concludes: it has bsen sufficiently shown that Philebus' goddess, Pleasure, cannot be considered identical (22C) with the good. Thereupon Ph ilebus raises his voice: "nor is your va~s th e good, Socra tes ; it will be open to the same ob jections. " (22C-D ) hear Socrates' :reactiom ''!ti you s Let us perhaps, Philebus ; but not s o the �·-1 ·1- ,.. !£.Y..e vovL, which is also ~l.rJ...~J th at one, I guess, is different. I do not as yet claim for the vo~s the prize of victory over the combined life, but we must look and see tJJhat is to be done about the §_§!cond prize." Socrates goes on, still speaking to Philebus: (220} put forward a claim, one that vous "Each of us might perhaps is ,E_ssponsible for this combined life, is its cause, the other that pleasure is: and thus neither of these two would be the good, but one or the other of them might be re- [Of the combined lify." Then, turning to Protarchus, Socrates claims he might keep up his fight against Philebus in garded as the .£.~~ an even stronger way and might contend "that in this mixed life it is vo~f that is more akin and more similar than pleasure to that, what- ever it may bet which makes that life both desirable and good." As to pleasure, he adds, "it is farther behind than the third place, if J!OC ( l l E.) ~ yous is at all to be trusted at present." The emphasis in this passage is clearly on the terms vcv S and "cause" (oc~ri.ov). What remains unclear is the sense in which the term "cause" is to be taken and the rank to be attributed ul timately to the voDs • And let us not for a moment forget Socrates' own vovr. Socrates suggests that it might be better to leave pleasure and not to pain her by testing her i n the most precise lllay and thus proving her in the wrong . Protarchus disagrees. Socrates asks whether Protarchus disagrees because he, Socrates, spoke of 2aini119. pleasure. second time that pain is mentioned in the dialogue. It is the It is done jokingly. Pain was mentioned for t he first time when Socrates dealt with the thoughtful life, totally untouched by pleasure. was this: (210/E) and The way he put it then "would anyone be willing to live possessing thoughtfulness vov5 and knowledge and perfect memory of all things, but having no share, great or small, in pleasure, or in ee.in, for that matter, but being utterly unaffected by eve rything of that sort?" The question, which is supposed to be negated, when put in this farm1 actually involves a difficulty: one ~ould perhaps be willing to accept a thought- ful pleasureless life, which does not involve us in any pain. The third time pain will be mentioned is going to show pain as a close companion of pleasure and as a real evil. Protarcihus says he i~ not �~·12- shocked by Socrates' phrase "paining pleasure," but rather by Socr ates' apparent attempt to stop talking about pleasure altoge ther and because (238) Socrates does not seem to understand "that not one of us will let you go yet until you have brought the argument about these matters to an end." This is the second time Socrates is warned about leaving too early. Whew, Socrates exclaims, and predicts that a .long and difficult discussion lies ahead of them. To fight the battle of the '/OUS for the second prize requires new weapons in addition to those already used. A new beginning has to be made, and this wili mean a new transition in the dialogue . Let us be on our guard in making this beginning, says Socrates, and we should ind eed pay attention to these words. Secretes suggests that everything tha t now exists in the world be distributed in a twofold, or rather in a threefold way. The results of this distribution are very different from each other. . W They are called by Soc~ates, indiscriminately I and unpreciselyt~ti~ or rev~, which I shall translate by the word "tribes," The first two have been mentioned before as a kind of Promethean gift: the ''limitless" (ro ~7it:,fo"1) and the "limit" (r~ The third is the mix ture of these two into one. literally, as we shall see in a moment: now Socrates adds: n/e°'S ). This is not to be taken let us be on our guard. And "But I cut a considerably ridiculous figure, I (230) think, when I attempt a separation into tribes and an enumeration." (230) Protarchus wonders why. needed besides." Socrates: "It seems to me, a fourth tribe is It turns out that Socrates means the cause of the commixture of those first two. And Protarchus, who is eager to supply even a fifth, namely the power of separation, is told in affable words that this fifth is not needed now, but that if it be needed later, he should excuse Socra tes for going after it. The mentioning of Protarchus' proposal and the way of handling it cast a doubt on the necessity of the �.£.~· fourth tribe, the The:r.e might be something strange and even ridiculous indeed about that. We should be on cur guard. ,,, ' Let us consider one of the first tu10 tribes, namely r:o The following English translations are all adequate: etffEleo'/. the limitless, the endless, the boundless, the unlimited, the infinite, the innumerable, And we must not forget the homonym the indefinite, the indeterminate . ( 17E) :"''foS , meaning the inexperienced one, upon which word Plato does not fail to pun. ... I As to the second tribe, co ffG(!«f, the "limit," it becomes almost immediately apparent that, although Socrates keeps using this term, he ,,also SUbstituteS for it the phrase "that Which has limit, II G~ov, that is to say, the "limited." Protarchus and the other young men as well as we are somewhat confused. gate how each of them~ 'C"O n€efl<.J Socrates-proposes to investi- the "limitless" and the "limited," are both "one and many"; for he contends that each one of them is split up and scat(24A) tered into many. again: He starts with the "limitless," warning Protarchus "Whet I ask you to consider is difficult and debatable." Hare are special cases of this tribe~ parts of its manyness: "hotter and colder," "quicker and slo111er, 11 "greater and smaller," "exceedingly o<l and slightly, 11 "excessive and lacking." In each of them there is "the more as well as the less" JCrt:c. constantly ' J,bt<>.>.ov ,.. ,, (t"o _ "ft " ~ 'J-C-'f:o~). and never stationary--in sharp contrast to what .§_~vancins is determined by a fixed number, by just "that much": s number advances, it cease¢ to exist. • the expression i-" Each of them is A , ~JI.\ o 11 i"G 1<"' \ ~ VJ if such a What captures our attention is r; r: o Y • This expression is meant to gather together the tribe of the "limitless" and to put upon it the (25A} seal of a single nature. It is used six times in the passage we are now considering and once more much later on. is omitted. ~ the particle -Cf.. This omission focuses our attention on the use of this particle in all the other cases. are all in the dual. The verbs related to this expression And Socrates summarizes pointedly: 11 by this �- 14(240) argument the hotter and its ,Qppostt_!! become together limitless. 11 The "limitles~' is a pair. The expression "the more as well as the lass, 11 as the seal of a single nature, seals a ,E~~U·..~Y..· And this duality remains completely indeterminate. The "limitless" is an indeterminate pairq But what abou,t the "limit," on the one hand, and the "limited," that "which has limit," on the other? Lat us take the "limited" first. It is, as Socrates quite clearly states, contrary to "the more as well as (25A/B) the less"; it is the egual, and egualiU, the double, and any number in firm relation to another number or a measure in firm (250/E) ~lation to ano- ther measure, that is, everything which "puts an end to the variability between the opposites and makes them proportionable and harmonious by the introduction of number." We understand that what Socrates means by this tribe of the "limited" is what we read in the 5~ Book of Euclid 1 s Elements. This book is in all probability either a perhaps somewhat condensed copy of an original f.l.rist. Met. XII, 8jl073 b 1"lff. P!oclus, in Eucl. Cornm. (Teubner) pp.67,2ff Arist. £]_st. I,9, 991a14ff. i\!ic. Ethe X,2,11'72 b 9ff. work of Eudoxus or imitates this work. Who is Eudoxus? He was born in Cnidus, on the shores of Asia Minor, came to Athens and stayed at Plato's Academy for a while. He was an astronomer, a mathematician, and a geographer; he firmly established the doctrine of ratios and proportions, including those of numerically incommensurable magnitudes; he tried to "mix" the E: (/ti. , as understood by Plato, with all the sensible things 9 and--what is most important to us--he declared plsastire to be the supreme 9,.'2.,0d• Philebus. But pleasure was not his goddess, as she is for Eudoxus, as Aristotle reports, "seamed to be a man of excep- tional temperance, and hence he was thought to uphold this view not because he was a lover of pleasure, but because it seemed to him that it was so in truth." Socrates, as we see in the dialogue, disagrees. The tribe of the "limited" then consists of ratios. The tribe of the �About Plato 's -15- (260) scattered n11mitles s, 11 of the ~,r ~f11€H eov1 ~ £Ql1film~. in .Hs inf5.ni ta manyness found its unity in the esal of "the more and its cppcsite, 1' that is, in "the more as well as the less." Th e tribe of the "limited," the manyness of determinate ratios, has not yet found its unity. (258) This unity was only postulated, was only, as Socrates says, "referred to." ;i / was indeed a direct "reference" to the "limit" itself ( titS wo And Socrates concludes: (260) There .., 11"r!i(!clf ) • "The limit did not contain a multitude nor did we feel a difficulty that it might not be £l..D2. by nature." It is at this point that we might turn to Aristotle's reports about Plato's unwritten words t o conf irm what we found in the dialogue and to win greater clarity. b 987. '2628 In the Plato: 5th chapter of the 1st book of the ~aphysi.£,~ Aristotle says of "it is peculiar ta him [.f.e. Plat_g7 to pos±t a duality instead of the single Limitless, and to make the Limitless consist of and the Small• 111 In the 3rd book of the Phys~cs ~ 1 the Great 111hsre Aristotle dis- cusses t he liJifil(!rn' "' at great length, we read in the 4th chapter again: 203a15 11 For Plato there are two Infinites, •the Great and t he Small.'" We see thus confirmed what we read in the Philebus, except that Aristotle, in his own way 1, usas the words "great 11 and "small" without their comparative (cf. 37C and) forms. He keeps using these words, in speaking about Plato , at many other places. But, what is more important, in Books XIII and XIV of the Metaehysic:s Aristotle mentions several times two he puts it, out of which, according to Pl ato, 11 11 elements, 11 as numbers" are derived. We have to understand that Aristotle has in mi nd "eidetic numbers , " assemblages of '~ 141 • <('»I C' These ttim sources are the "indeterminate dyad" I 'C/ (ff] ii'l.C1ftl'.n::o5 G1votS') and the "one" (i:q ~Y'). minate pair of the of the L imitl e s s~ P hil~ in the 11 We recognize the indeter- i ndeterminate dyad," the duality "the more as wel l as the less." But we see now that what was named the 1'limi t 11 in the Philebus can also be named "the One ." What Aristotle calls the "elements" can be called the ultimate sou:r:~ �-16- of everything, that which has the fi~ rank bot.h as be~ and ~CJ....£.,£Wers. That is what is meant by ~'~l'X>-7 ~ in common parlance as well as in most thoughtful speech. We should not assume, I think, that Plata h&.d a definitely fixed name for each of these iie:<{'M{. The terms }Pe Good, the One, the Precis~, th~..§..~~, tpe Li~it, and perhaps the Whole are all suited to one of the :Ce)(~:, depending on ' X'1/ , the cont.ext i.n which they are used. As to the names of the second tXf the "indeterminate Dyad," "the more as well as the less, 11 and the Other (which also implies a duality) seem all of them no less suitable. In the Philebus Socrates, in putting a seal on the tribe of the >/. Of..'TT(f;(t!_ov , makes its intrinsic character perfectly cleai. But the character of I' the 114f(;~S, the "limit , 11 remains obscured. as Now lat us take up the third and of the "Limit." tribe~ the "mixture" of the "Limitles s" What does "mixing" here mean? two :Z{X,6}(.~r the "Limitless~" the 11 5.ndsterminate dyad," and the "Limit," the "One," exert their power on each other. described as follows. It means that the Wha t happens then may be The "indeterminate dyad" duplicates the "One," that is to say, produces two entities , two E~J~ , duplicates each of # Nr these E 1,./''1 --we may also say "divides" each of these E tQ7 --and keeps Me~.XIII,7~ an duplicating-~we have to assume, up to a certain point. In Aristotle's reports the "indeterminate dyad" is explicitly characterized as a daub~ ling power" (dvoJTcn/s). I t is the ultimate source of definite manyness, 1082 a 15 and of "numbers," in the realm of the B, 1083b36 the earlier passage, when Socrates first introduced t he Promethean gift t:.f'57 as well as in Oll:r world. In of "infinitude" and of "limit" and urged that in every case a definite >I£ number of f:t o'1 had to be found (Bthe alphabet helping him to clarify this point), there was hardly a discernible hint that the "Limitless" with its doubl.ing power is responsible for the _mul tipl.i£lli of >tr th~ Etol:f You will remember that in this context the "limitless," the infinite, l!las ultimately dismiss ed. Not so in the world in which we live. What happens here is this: the "Limit," the "One," transforms the "indet erminate dyad 11 .into a £ill~.Fmj~ one, that is to say , Q �-1'1- About Plato's .P.hll.~ transforms the two constantly and indeterminately changing terms of ths dyad into two stationary and determinate ones and keeps doing this, illJ produce st in other wordst a mtJltituds~ of~· (3-S' DJ Socrates can call the manyness of ratios "the offspring of the limit." That's l1Jhy We understand now what confused Protarchua and us u.rhen Socrates sub- stituted "that which has limit," the "limited," for the 11 limit 11 itself. The "limited," the assemblage of ratios, is already a part of the mixture, of the third tribe. (26A} But it represents a mixtur e or rather mix- tures of a spacial kind, mathematicilpartnar ships that can give to parts of the world we live in a certain rightness 9 ~smoue the excess and indefiniteness, and pr oduce balance and right measure. Such mathematical partnerships engender, for example, health, establish the entire _genuine art of !I!Y~' bring about the temperate_.§eason~ and all the bounties of our world, beauty and strength of the body and all the beauties of the soul. (.2 ~ £) . And Socratest addressing Philebus directly and speaking about ' ~ that proper partnership (@t 8~ JC@(. '1"'1 Y~f'L) Of mathematl.cal ratios, has this to say~ "for this goddess, my beautiful Philebus, beholding the (268-C) wanton violence and universal wickedness which prevailed 9 since there was no limit of pleasures or cf excess in , order (VtJ,,t.GttS , "" ~ IC.«t t'"~5tS) them~ in which there is limito us; I say 1 on the contrary, she kept us sa.fs." (26C) established law and You say she exhausted Socrates addresses Phllebus 9 but we cannot help thinking of Eudoxus. Philebus remains completely silent. "How does this appear Socrates turns to Protarchus: to you Protarchus?" And Protarchus answers~ "It is very much how I feel, Socrates.'' Let us conclude: mixture. the common power of the two > I otef«~ determines the Sometimes the community of this power is lacking. Socrates turns now to the fourth tribe, the £!Use. You will remember that Socrates seemed somewhat reluctant to add this fourth to ths first three. And indeed, is there any need for H7 The common power of ths �About P1 at o 1 s .E.hi~1'?.l!!!. -18- "Limitless" and the "Limit" appeared as the of what it engendered in this mixture. E~use of the mixt..ure and Listen now to Socrates' words: (278/C) "Should I sound a false note if I called the fourth the £.OUse of the mixture and generation?" And listen to wha t Socrates one moment earlier says with regard to all the first three tribes: (278) "That which fabricates all these, the cause, we call the fourth, as it has been sufficiently shown to be distinct from the others." > That has not been shown at all! / How can ultimate sources, «f X""'' , be caused by something else? If that were so, the first two tribes, the "Limitless" and the "Limit," would not be what they are. The exploration of this fourth tribe, the "cause," is left e_endi11q, and Socrates makes a new transition which helps him to turn backwards. What was the purpose, he asks, of coming to the pcint they have reached? They were trying to find out whether the second prize belonged to pleasure or to thoughtfulness (<;etv1ns). They had posited, Socrates reminds Protarchus and us , that the mixed life was the victor. We can see now, he con t inues, to which tribe it belongs, namely to the third tr i be, formed by the mixture of all that is "limitless" and all that is (2. 7 J)} "bound by t he limit. 11 And now Socrates asks Philebus to which of the three tribes his life of ummixed pleasure ,belongs. this: have pleasure and Eai.rr a limit or are they among the things which admit "the mor e as well as the less"? (27E) Philebus' answer is: "Yes, among those which admi t the more; for pleasure would not be all the good, if it were not limi t less in multitude and in the (28A) The full question is replies: 'more~'" "nor would e_ain, Philebus, be all the evil. 11 Socrates d~yly This is how pain is introduced in t he discussion for the third time, and this time decisively. For Socrates adds he would grant Philebus that both, pleasure and pain, are in the tribe of the Limitless. only pleasure, .!!.Q1 pain . We note Philebus meant Socrates' addition is decisive. �-19- About Plato's Pleasure and pain are a limitless pair. E.blJl!E..l:!.~ One of the consequences of this 't finding ia that there are no ,,J~ of pleasu~e, in the strict sense o f this word. We remember that Socrates had intimated that the discussion would show in a clearer way why it would not be necessary to divide pleasure into its 6rt1. Socrates will use this term later on in dis- cussing pleasure, but it will not have to be taken in its strict sense. The next question Socrates asks Protarchus and Philebus is: tribe thoughtfulness, knowledge and (28A) (288) shall be assigned without "For I think that our risk is not a small one in finding or not finding the right answer to what is being asked now." Philabus: "You exalt your own god, Socrates, you do." Socrates: And you your goddess, my fi'.i:end. But the question calls for an answer, impiety, Socrates explains: all the sama. 11 Protarchus intervenes and urges Philebus to answer. Whereupon Philebus says: (288) vous to what my place?" This is the look back for a ".Qi!L.vou not, Protarchus, choose to reply in ~ time Philebus raises his voice. Let us moment~ At the beginning of our reading we learn that Protarchus will defend Philebus' thesis of pleasure, because Philebus himself, as Protarchus says, "has grown tired" (the Greek word is ~J.71£[eVf&<.6, a pun on the word ~ff~<fov). Philebus has an opportunity to reg~et that he spoke up again and calls upon his own goddess to witness that h~ does regret. When the "one and many" question comes up, Protarchus remarks: "It is perhaps best for the inquirer not to disturb Philebus ( 15C) in his sweet repose." And now he will be silent all the time, even [tacit re- when pleasure, his goddess, is thoroughly discussed. What is he doing ference t o all this time? Just listenicg? the prov er b: A little later PtJ l<lV(:;l"I l<oC !j~l>' 6~ lltf.µ.oovJ Protarchus has some difficulty in answering Socrates' last question, namely to what tribe knowledge and voGs should be assigned, and asks Socrates to answer this question himself . Socrates is willing. He (28C) declares : 11 \i.lhat you enjoin me to do is not difficult," and he repeats: "It is easy." (28C) Let us be ~n our guard. All wise men agree, and thereby really exalt themselves, says Socrates, that and earth. Socrates adds: \lovs is king of heaven "Perhaps they are right. 11 �About Plato 1 s E,hilebJ:!.S -20·- What follows is indeed an easy 9 but not too convincing "cosmological" account \!Jhich ends with the statement that the four tribes which was called (30E) again, "of all." answer." (30E) "~aUJ!.~ And Socrates adds: Protarchue: veru,.S belongs to that of of all. n Notice, please ~ "nowi; you have at last our "Yes, and a very sufficient one; and yet you answered without my noticing it." Socrates: "Ves, Pratarchuss for sometimes £!.ayins provides rest from serious pursuit. ir We understand: the "cosmological" account, which makes the voG$ the cause of all the other tribes, was a playful account. is the "divine vov; " We are not sure whether this Yovt mentioned before. And let us not forget that, within the confines of human life, the best voGs could obtain was the second prize. Socrates concludes this entire discussion of the four tribes by point,.. ing to ~ovs and to pleasure. He does not mention anything pertaining (31A) to "limit" and to the "mixture." Let us r&nernber, he says, "that vo-;;s was akin to cause and belonged roughly speaking (<rk~J~v) to this tribe and that pleasure was itself limitless and belonged to the tribe which, in and by itself, ~not and never will ha~ either beginning or middle or end." Wa must add that this holds also for pain. As we have seen, the dialogue , too, has neither a beginning nor an end, and for that matter, no middle. The graph of a Platonic dialogue usually-not always--looks like this: But the graph of the Philebus looks like this : --- �-21 ... The dialogue itself, taken as a drama, in wtdch we, the readers or listeners, are involved, seems to resemble pleasure and pain. it does that, it must be pleasurable and painful. If We will have to But we need not wait to register the most important wait and see ••• ~ result of the preceding discussion. All the pleasures and pains, small or great, which pervade our lives, reflect in their duality an ultimate source, one of the ~eXD(.,t , namely the "indeterminate dyad." It is thus that some of our most familiar and common experiences are tied to one of the highest points human reflection can reach. Socrates now abandons this high A new transition is made. been considered so far. and turns to a much lower one. l~vel Only about a third of the dialogue has I shall be able to proceed much faster from The next task is to see, says Socrates, where each of them, that is, Yo~j and pleasure, can be found and by means of what affection both (318) come into being, whenever they come into bein~. Note, please, that ,. the vovf mentioned here is said to come into being and cannot, therefore, be understood as the ~ternal ,... divine vovt . Socrates takes pleasure first, and immediately adds that it is impossible to examine pleasure sufficiently apart from pain. Socratesv contention is that pain and pleasure emerge in the combined tribe, the one, we remember, where the "limitless" and the "limit" join together and form a mathematical partnership conducive to balance and right measure. (310) When this balance is broken in us, living beings, "a disruption of nature and a generation of pain also take place at the same time." ''If, on the other hand, balance is being restored and is returning to its own nature, pleasure is generated." The process of destruction is pain, and the process of restoration is pleasure. When we are being emptied, we are becoming hungry and pained; when we are filling up again through eating, we are pleased. And the same can be said of thirst. It is shown later that it is �-22 ... !!£.i the body that hungers oI· thirsts or has any sL1ch the body cannot, therefore, be pained or pleased. belong to the .!£!:ll, and to the soul only. affectlon, that Pleasure and pain But sometimes, or rather often enough, as in the case of hunger and thirst, the p9dy is involved. Whenever this is the case, we face ontkind of pleasure and pain. Another kind of pleasure and pain does not involve the body at all. It arises within the soul itself as the sweet and cheering .b_oee of pleasant things to come and as the fearful and woeful expectati.Q!l of painful things to come. Both, the pleasant and the painful expectations originate within the soul in memory. Socrates proceeds to give a circumstantial description of this origin by passing from perception to memory, to forgetfulness, to recollection, and finally to desire. But he ands this passage by reverting to pleasure and pain volve the body. which in- He points to a man who is empty and suffers pain, but who, because of his memory, hopes to be filled again and enjoys (368) this hope. "At such a time, then, a man, or any other living being, has both pain and joy at once." If, however, an empty man is without hope of being filled, a twofold feeling of pain arises in him. stress is on the duality of pleasure and pain. The The possibility of a twofold pain and--although this is not mentioned--of a twofold pleasure emphasizes the duality even more. Let us not forget its ultim- ate sourqa. Looked at in this passage is also a life in which there is no feeling of pleasure or pain at all, but only thoughtfulness and VOVf. Such a life had been considered much earlier in the dialogue and had been rejected as totally undesirabia, lacking self-sufficiency and, there(338) fore, goodness. Now Socrates calls it "the most divine life." tarchus chimes in: Pro- "Certainly it is not likely that gods feel either joy or its opposite." And Socrates agrees: for either is unseemly for them." "No, it is very unlikely; Socrates adds that they may consider .... this point later on, if it would help the argument; they might give yous �credit for it in contending for the second prize. We shall be watching . A new transition takes placaa (39E40C) What follows can bs subdivided into three parts, and the title that can be given to all of them is "On false pleasures. " This is what happens in .E~t't 'l.,n.e.: Protarchus is unwilling to agree that pleasures and pains could be false; he accepts the possibility of false opinions, but rejects the possibility of false fears, false expectations, and false pleasures; a lengthy discussion follows which culminates in the assertion that a just, pious and good man, 11 a 11 fr i end of the gods, 11 has "true pleasures," while an "unjust and thoroughly bad man" can only haus "fals e pleasures," which imitate the "true pleasures" to the point of r i dicule; and the same can be said of pains. This, now, is what happens in £.§_rt two: we are reminded that pleasure and pain are a limitless pair tied to "the more as well as the less"; any one who feels pleasure in any way always really feels pleasure; but these pleasures may be felt as present pleasures and also as beJ ~!.l pleasures to in the future; the latter ones may be false because they may not come into being as expected, not as great and intense as expected; and when, in our feelings, we are trying to compare pleasures with pleasures, or pains with pains, or pleasures ~!th pains, we may reach entirely fals! results, because of the limitless and indeterminate character of both, pleasure and pain. The thircLear't of this passage does not concern false pleasures directly, but r ather pleasures falsely understood or falsely judged. The theme of pleasure and pain is a common topic in Plat o's own tims, widely discussed by outstanding men. One of the opinions about pleasure, re- jected by Socrates, is that freedom from pain is identified with pleasure. For some men this opinion amounts to the firm denial of the existence of pleasures altogether. For them that what Philebus (44C-D) and his friends call pleasures are merely escapes from pain. men are men 11 of harsh judgments." These Socrates does not mention any names, but it is highly probable that Antisthenea is one of these men. �Antisl:.henea is ii:'epLtted to have said: "should I ever meet Aphrodite,. I would strangle h::1:r.· w.ith my own ha nds. 11 I have condensed this passage of the dialogue to the utmost. But you understand that it challenges the conviction of Philebus radicallyo Lat us look at him again. listening? He has not said a word. We know , he had grown tired. Is ha re ally Has not his sweet repose mentioned by Protarchus a long time ago transformed itself .into sound sleep? And ~Elfil!t sound, dreamless sleep, l!Je should observe 9 excludes any feeling of pleasure and pain, brings about, in other words, a condition of the 11 most divine life, n ye t a .condition not compatible with Philebus' own aspirations. Yes, there he lies, the beautiful Philebus, with closed eyes and closed ears, while Socrates continues the inquiry, imposed upon him by Philebua, Protarchus, and the other young msn. A subtle transition is brought to pass inasmuch as Socrates takes those men "of harsh judgments" with whom he disagrees as alli es. He is going to describe more accurately what pleasure means to these men, who oppose it or deny its existence. Ws have already seen that pain and j oy can be felt at the same time. The point is now emphasized: pain and pleasure do not only constitute an indeterminate pair, but they also~ with each other. This is again shown by Socrates in a tripartite way. ~mixtures of pleasure and pain a:re those in which both pleasure and pain, involve the body, as, for example, 46A) }.tchi.D..9. and ~stchir:)£,, which Prcta~chus tends to consider a "mixed 47C) evil." ~mixtures are those in which the body and the soul con~ tribute the opposite elements~ "each adding pain or pleasure to the other's pleasure and pain," as, for sxample--we have heard that before-a man suffers from thirstt is pained by his bodily emptiness, but rejoices in his hope to be filled, a hope entertained only by his soul. The third kind of mixture is the mast important; it is the one in which the soul and only the soul is i nvolved. Socrates gives as sx- amplea of pains belonging to this third kind: anger 9 fear, longing, �About Plato's mourning, love, jealousy, envy; and he asks: (47E) them full of ineffable pleasures?" Eh!1-.2..~ "shall we not find He then refars--in....,EDe SJfillte~ only--to anger and to mournings and longings in order to show the mixture Of pain arid of pleasure in them. Pratarchus f ully agrees. Socrates' next question is: "And you remember, too, how people, (48A) at tra~dies, enjoy the spectacle and at the same time weee,.?" "Yes, certainly," says Protarchus. Whereupon Socrates asks: "And the condition of our souls at comedies--do you know that there, too, (48A) there is a mixture of pain and pleasure?" Protarchus' answer is: "I do not quite understand." Socrates confirms that it is not eas~ to understand such a condition under such cfrcumatancsa, and Protarchus, on hie part, confirms that it is not easy for him. It is not easy for us either. This is the short beginning of the discussion about the third kind of (508) mixture af pleasure and pain 9 which involves only the soul. And now, surprisingly, Socrates launches into a Jengthy explanation of what happens to spectators at comedies. It takes no less than four pages, and ends with Socrates' contention that pain is mixed with pleasure-not only for spectators in the theater, where tragedies and comedies are performed--but also "in all the tragedy and comedy of life." Today, we are prone to call any horrible or simply sad event a "tragedy" and a funny one a "comedy." But that was not done in ancient timeso The expression "tragedy and comedy of life" in the dialogue is highly unusual and even paradoxical. It is almost unique; a somewhat similar phrase referring to tragedy, ll£i to comedy, can be found only in Plato's ~· Why is this expression used in the Philebus? Let us hsar what Socrates sayse Ha takes up .§!.nvi first. Envy is a pain cf the soul, but we also see an envious man rejoicing in tha evils that befall those close to him. Thus envy is both pain and pleasure. ridiculous. Socrates than takes up the The ridiculous is in the main the consequence of a dis- �position in the human soul which contradi cts the famous inscription at D~lphi. A ridiculous man is a man who does not know himself. folly of not knowing oneself can have thr ee aspects: being~ than one Thi s 1) the conceit of is; 2) the conceit of bsing more .~utiful than one is; 3) the conceit of being more virtuous than one is, especially .!!!J.ser than one is ( JoJoC'tn:P{rx). most nurnerou~. This third kind of conceit. is the Now, wa tend to laugh at men t hus conceited. cases muet be distingui shed here. But t wo Those whc are laughed at may be strong and able to r evenge themselves, and a r e then p owe rful~ and hateful; far folly i n the powerful is hateful and bass. terrible, Or they are weak and unable to r evenge themselves, and then they are truly ridiculous. When we l augh at the follies of such men, who may be our friends, we feel pleasure. But to feel pleasure at the follies of our f riends is what envy brings about, s i nce it is envy that makes us rejoice in the evils that befall these our f riends, and envy i s painf ul . Therefore, when we laugh at what is ridiculous i n our friends, we .!l!!ii pleasure and pain. It is not quite clear how all this explains what happens at comedies, although Protarchue appears to be satisfied . Socrates adds that all that was said by him so far concerned only envy, mourning, and anger (he omits 101.1ging,, which was also mentioned by him in that one sentence he uttered before passing on to tragedies and comedies). And now , Socrates declares, he need not go fuxther and Protarchus ought t o accept the asser tion that there are plenty of mixtures of pain and of pleasure. But now something extraordinary happens that s heds more light on the t heme of comedy . You will remember tha t the young man, who surround Socrates, extracted from him the promise not to go home before bringing the discussion about pleas ure and thoughtf ulness to a satisfactory end. And you will also remember that Protarchus, later on, remi nded Socrates of this �-27... promise and assured him that not one of the young men would let him go before the end of the discussion was reached. Socrate~ (500) says now: midnight come? let me off." words? "Tell me then: Listen to what will you let me off, or will you let I think only a few words are needed to induce you to How strange! Why on earth does Socrates utter these Is this the Socrates, who is known for his never abating eager- ness to discuss things? Has he grown tired like Philebus? Or is it that envy has entered not only the ~o ~of , but also the stage, the "comedy of life" presented in the dialogue? Incredible as it might (cf. Apol"" seem, Socrates appears to be envious seeing Philebus asleep, "divinely" .£'lY. 40C-E) asleep, without pleasure and pain. Does that not mean that Socrates is .e_ained by this envy and yet also pleased by the ridiculous aspect of Philebus' sleep, which manifests the latter's "conceit of wisdom," the Jof oC"<:J<p[ot of friend Philebus? But what about ~' who read or hear the words of the dialogue and are the spectators of this "comedy of life"? Well, we are puzzled and £leased by realizing that Socrates of all people is envious at this moment, and we are also Qained by witnessing what happens to him. We might refuse to accept that this is what is going on at this moment, but this refusal would only mean that we expect to be pained and pleased, it we accepted it. Yes, the dialogue is pleasurable and painful deed >1 (tPy't), in addi- tion to dealing with pleasure and pain in speech ()I.OJ'::')• And is there any need to mention the pain and the pleasure one feels in reading, or listening to, the dialogue in all its deliberately complex and inordinate convolution? We understand now, I think, why the title of the dialogue is Philebus. Socrates proceeds, of course. He takes up now--and this is a new transition--the pure pleasures--that is, pleasures unmixed with pain. Socrates lists five kinds of such pleasures, four of them conveyed to us by our (lSflsPs, ~ involving that which cannot be sensed. The firet four kinds of pure pleasure have their source in beautiful figures, in beautiful colors, in clear sounds and in many odors. The beautiful figures are !l£i beautiful living beings or paintings, but-- �-28- (51C) "says the argument 0 --a straight line drawn with the help of a ruler, a circular line drawn with the help of a compass, plane figures drawn with the help of these same tools, and solid figures constructed with (53A-B) the help of suitable instruments. The beautiful co~ are pure colors, in which there is no trace of any other color, are those that sand forth a single pure tone . Clear §.2~ The pleasures which these figures, colors, and sounds generate are pure pleasures, unmixed with pain. As to the pleasures of smell, they are, as Socrates playfully says, "lemdivine." The last kind of pure pleasure-and this is deeply serious--is that which has its source in the known or the knowable, accessible to human beings without hunger for learn(52A) ing and without pangs of such hunger. What Socrates means is .£9.!:!,- le~s 9 the dssi:re to know, as we feel it in the pursuit of knowledge. This pleasure of contemplation is felt by exceedingly few. templatioo (8€1.Jf(rs,), which is !lE.i preceded by The transition now made leads to a passage that again has three (53C) parts, of which again the third is the most important. The first part extends in soma way the realm of pure pleasures by the statement that what characterizes such pleasures is due measure. The second part makes us understand that the pure pleasures are, because of their purity, also ~ pleasures. In the third--the longest--part Socrates refutes 11 certain ingenious paople" while accepting one of their premises. These "ingenious people" are reduced a little later to~ man, and t here is hardly any doubt that this man is Aristippus, His prsmiss 9 which Socrates accepts, is that pleasure consists in a erocess o.f._~enerati9.!}_ and has no stable bei!J.£. What is rejected by Socrates is that such a process in itself is a good, To refute this assertion Socrates proposes to consider the relation that the process of .£2!!!i...!29. into being (J~Yl,ts) has to .E.&o.a (oJoc'Or). The question is: which one of the two is for the sake of the other? Protarchus re-phrases the question as follows: do ships exist for the sake of �Abcnit Plato 1 s PhilE!,bJ;!.!! shipbuilding or is shipbuilding for the sake of ships? Protarchus knows the answer to this question, of course, but Socrates gives the answer in an all-comprising form: (54C) for the sake of some ~ for the sake of being." "every inst.ance of _generation is or other, and ~ generation Now, the being for the sake of which the process of generation takes place is "of the order of the good," while the process of generation itself is !!21 of that order. Therefore, says Socrates, we must be grateful to him who pointed out that there is only a generation, but no being of pleasure. He makes a l aughing- stock of all those who find their highest end in pleasure and know that pleasure is nothing but a process of generation. highest end is not of the order of the good. (SSA) For their Protarchus concludes: "It is a great absurdity, as it appears, Socrates, to tell us that pleasure is a good." ... There is a new transition, in which courage, self-restraint and vov$ are mentioned and which begins to move the dialogue upwards. is now to consider vovs The task and knowledge carefully and to find out what is by nature filirest in them. We expect that their truest parts will be joined with the truest parts of pleasure in the desired mixed life. Two kinds of knowledge are distinguished. One is necessary to produce things, the other serves education and nurture . the "know how" of the producing arts a division is to be made. Some of The productive knowledge, is taken up first, and here again th~se arts are acquired by practice and toil, aided by guessing, and lack precision. They do not use sufficiently the arts of counting, measuring, and weighing. This holds, Socrates says , for music, as it is commonly practiced, for medicine, agriculture, piloting, and generalship. But in the arts of building, shipbuilding, and housebuilding, for example, there is much more precision, because measuring and the use of ingenious instruments play a much greater role in them . It is at this point that Socrates divides the arts of counting and of measuring (not, however, that of weighing) into two kinds. Some counting refers to visible and tangible units, which are all unequal; but there is also counting of units �P.bou.t Plato's that do not differ at all from each other. Ph!J.E~~ This kind of counting is the basis of the true art of numbering, of true "arithmetic." The art of measuring may also refer either to visible and tangible things or to entities that cannot be sensed. To measure, and to deal with, the latter entities means to be engaged in "geometry," not for the purpose of production and trade, but for the purpose of knowing. And this holds also for the careful study of ratios and proportions. These true arts of numbering and measuring serve education and nur- We eee that there is a kind of knowledge purer than another, as one pleasure is Qurer than another. This purity of knowledge brings abou t much greater clarity and precision and much more truth. ture. But there is, beyond that pure mathematical knowledge, the power of dialectic. It deals with Being, True being, with that which always immutablY. is. Protarchus remembers at this point the claim of Gorgias that the art of persuasion, the rhetorical art, surpasses all other arts. Socrates replies that he was not thinking of the art that sur- passes all others by being the "greatest," the "best," and the "most useful" to men; he was thinking of the art or the knowledge which is most concerned about clearne~, .e..recision, and thg most true, however little and of little use it might be. Socrates asks Protarchus to look neither at the usefulness nor at the reputation of the various sciences, but to consider whether there is a power in our souls which is in love with Truth and does everything for the sake of Truth. Would this power possess thoughtfulness (~eoiHJCi'<.f) and greatest purity? vovs in the Protarchus concedes that this must be so. To be in love with Truth does not mean to possess it or to contemplate it. It means to pursue it, to try to find it, indefatigably, unre- mittingly; to pursue it means to submit to the power of discourse, a power that is able to discover in the spoken or silent words that which make speaking and thinking ultimately possible, namely the unchange- able and, thereby, ~ beings. But, ae Socrates points out, the many �·~3 1"" existing arts end the men engaged in them do not submit to the power of discourse, but are satisfied with their opinions. If a man sees fit to investigate nature, he spends his life in studying this world of ours--that is to say, tries to find out how it came into being, how By doing t hat, that man toils to discover transient productions of the present, the futur e and the past, not what unchangeably always is . And Socr ates asks: 11 How can we gain anything gable about things which have [lO s t ability whatsoever?" The argument compels us thus to see that the stable, pure, and true, can only be found i n what is eternally the same without change or mixture or , Socrates surprisingly adds, "in what i s most akin ta it." He may mean the moving , but never changing celestial bodies. it is acted upon and how it acts itself. (598) (59C) This passage which deals with t he peated reference to vcu f most. ~ and This reference is the pure s~ knowledge ends with the re- 4' ft~ v'!llLS , ttihich have to be honored ~ transition in the dialogue to the passage of t he dialogue. This last passage is about t he most fulness and pleasure are mixed. desi~able life , in which thought- Socr ates undertakes now to make t his mixture with the help of Protarchus . We expected and still expect tha t the .eure plaasu:i:·ss and the QUrest kno1JJledge wi.ll be joined in this mixture. Before the mixing begins , Socrates reminds Protarchus and us of what had been said before. Philsbus had claimed that pleasure was the true goal of every living being and that these two wor ds, "good" and "pleasant, 11 mean the same thing. calirned that 11 Socratsst on the other hand, gaod" and "pleasant" mean d.i.ffersnt t hings and that the share of thoughtfulness in the good is greater than pleasure's. They had agreed , Socrates continues, that any living being , in whom t he �About Plato's £.hilebus good is present always, altogether, and in all ways, has no further need of anything, but is perfectly self-s ufficient; but that neither a lifa of pleasure unmixed with thoughtfulness nor a thoughtful life unmixed with pleasure was a desirable life. Directly related to the task of making the mixture is the t as k of winning a clear understanding of the good in the well mixed l ife, .£!:. (61A) at least an outline of it, so as to be better able to find out J?.e. what in the well mixed life the second prize should be assigned. remember that Socrates had raised the question before. We At that time the possible recipients of the s econd prize were va~s and pleasure. Note that in this last passage of the dialogue vovs has not been mentioned so far. This is now what Socrates eays jovially and playfully just before he begins to make the mixture: "Lat us make t he mixture, Protarchus, (518/C) with a proper prayer to the gods, Dionysus or Hephaestus, or whoever ha be who presides over the mixing." Dionysus leads on revellers and presides over orgies; he stands here for pleasure. is known for his thoughtful and sober craftsmanship. tinues: (6 1C) Hephaestus Socrates con- "We are like wine pourers, and beside us are fountains-- that of pleasure may be likened to a fount of honey, and the sober, winelesa fount of thoughtfulness to one of pure, health-giving water of which we must do our best to mix as well as possible." The first question is: should Socrates and Protarchus mix sure with all thoughtfulness? be safe. ill plea- Socrates observes that this would not It would bs better to mix first that pleasure which was more truly pleasure with that knowledge which wa.a m9st true and .J2!9Ci~. Protarchus agrees. But Socrates is not satisfied. ~ let ua assume , he says, a man who is thought ful about justice itself·-that is, about the ~!/os of justice, and is guided in his reasoning about �everything that. t n .:ly_ :ts by his app:t ehenslon of the intE1lligible ~ by his VOEtV , (it ia the fil'st t.ime that passage of the dialogue). vovs is mentioned in this last If this man is fully cognizant of the mathematical circle and the all-embr acing celestial sphere, but is ignorant of our human sphere and J:iJ:!..man circles, w.ill this man have sufficient knowledge? No, says Protarchus, it would be ritii~ulous "Do you mean," Socrates asks, "that the unstable and impure art of the untrue rule and circle is to be put with the other arts into the mixture? '' Yes, says Protarchus, that is necessary, if any man is ever ta find his way home. Socrates and Protarchus go farther. They put music, which they said a while ago was full of guesswork and lacked purity, and all the deficient kinds of knowledge mingling with the pure into the mixture. for a man to be concerned only with divine knowledge. (628) Then Socrates turns to the pleasures. Here again the pure and true pleasures are not the only ones to be put into the mixture. For the first and only time in the dialogue Socrates mentions "necessary plea(62E) sures," by which he means pleasures connected with the satisfaction of vital needs~ arises: and adds thsmto the pure ones. And the further question is it not advantageous and harmless to let all pleasures be a part of the mixture, just as it was harmless and adv antageous to let ~ the arts and all knowledge be such a part? Whereupon Socrates says: "there is no use in asking us, Protarchus; we must ask the 53 ( A/B) pleasures themselves and the different kinds of thoughtfulness about one another." (638) That's what Socrates does. He asks first the pleasures: "would you choose to dwell with the whole of thoughtfulness or with none at all?" And Socrates lets them answer that for any tribe to be soli- tary and unalloyed is neither possible nor profitable; ''we think the best to live with is the knowledge of all other things and, so far as (638/C) is possible, the perfect knowledge of ourselves." it is Socrates whom we hear speaking. Let us not forget, It is highly doubtful whether the pleasures can speak--and can have any knowledge of themselves. �And now Socrates turns to thoughtfulness and Vovs.(!t is the second time that vo~s ie mentioned in this last passage of the dialogue). Socrates asks then whether they want the greatest and most intense pleasures to dwell with them in addition to the true and pure pleasures. And Socrates replies for them--that is, for thoughtfulness and that the true and pure pleasures are almost their own~ Yous , and also those which are united to health and self-restraint and all those which are handmaids of virtue; they should be added to the mixture; as to the pleasures which madden the souls of men, which are the companions of folly and of all the other vices , it would be senseless to mix them with the Yo vs . This is the third time that voCs is mentioned in the passage, while thoughtfulness (~e~v,~cs), which was also addressed by Socrates, is left out. ... vaus (64A) When Socrates has finished replying in the name of both ' and 4tt<>t17(l'£$, he says to Protarchus: this reply which the vo~s has now made for itself and memory and right opinion is thoughtful and sensible?" so." Which vo~s "Shall we not say that is this vo~j ? And Protarchus says: "Very much Ia it t he "divine voGs " that Soc- rates contrasted wit h his 6wn in his reply to Philebus a long time ago? No, it is Socrates who was speaking guided by his own It is !JE.i the vo:is vov$. that the "easy" cosmological account found to be "the cause of all" and that the sagas, in exalting themselves, declare to be "king of heaven and earth." It is not the fourth tribe of the Promethean gift, which Socrates introduced, fearing to appear ridiculous by doing that . i~ure Soc:r.ates' own vo vs is responsible for the kind of mix- he makes to produce the life which combines thoughtfulness and pleasure , is the cause of this l ife. It is neither the cause of the commixture of the "limitless" and of the "limit, 11 nor the cause of these first two tribes of the Promethean gift. What does the original introduction of the voCr as the "cause of all" and the subsequent somewhat veiled rejection of this vovS mean? I �-35- think it means a subtle mocking of Plato's great pupil Aristotle~ Aristotle's thoughts must certainly have been familiar to Plato in (Cods)< Mar·cianus) his lata years. A passage in an ancient manuscript ~ that informs us about Aristotle's life, hints at lively controversies between Plato .... and Aristotle. Plato appears to have nicknamed Ar.istotle o" vovs and to have once said, when Aristotle was not present at a meeting: "The vo~s is absent; dullness reigns in the lecture room." know that the investigation of the different meanings of (~~~~~ ) and of the divine vous works. We do ~ plays a decisive role in Aristotle's What the dialogue intimates is that vo;J,J is above all a .b.!:!- man posssssi onf and that Socrates is the embodiment of this vo~s o Socrates compl etes the mi><ture by pointing to the necessity that trutJJ. must be a part of it, and then asks what is the most precious in it and the £.~ief cau~ for this mixed l ife to be most lovable. The answer is: due measure and JE.9.£.0rtion which bring a.b out beauty and excellence. body is ignorant of this. We should more properly~ No- howe\/er , consider these three 9 beau~~ truth~ due measure , as the components of the goodWe sea , first: vo~s ness of the mixture. pleasure; secondly: is more akin to t r uth than not hing could be found mor e immoderate than plea- sure and nothing is more in harmony with due measure t han voCs and v oCs has a greater share in beauty than knowledge ; and thirdly : pleasure . And now, finally , Socrates gives a list of the bsst human possessions fiE.tl something like Measurep Due in their proper order. Measure~ Propriety, and like ever ything which must be considered of the same order. ~cQ!J.fllJ!_ comes what is well proportioned, beautiful, has been completed and i s suffi ciant 9 and all that belongs to that very family. (668) Socrates continues: insist on yov~ "As to the thit.9.- -this is my prophesy--if you I' and <Pe a ..; '1 n~ , you will not wander far from the truth . " I s vavs relegated to the third place? No, it is elevated to the �-36- proper rank, if you consider the role the t.r!fili played in the entire Foutth.'l;.v come the different kinds of knowledge, the arts, dialogue. the true opinions; and f:lfthll, the painless pure pleasures of the soul, some of which accompany and some of llihich--as we ~CL~ have ssen-- accompany £2..rce_g~ (observe that knowledge was not mentioned before among the pure pleasures, presumably because the . gurs4ll of knowledge involves the desi~ in which pain and pleasure are mixed)o to know, involves There is no sixth place, says He reminds us that neither Socrates , quoting Orpheus. ~ G(><.J$ , voCs nor plea- sure is the good itself , since both are devoid of self-sufficiency . But within the mixed life , which is the victor , vous has now been given the second prize , while pleasure--as Socrates' own voCf had predicted a long time ago--is farther behind than the third place . Note that this holds even for pure pleasure and that the satisfaction of vital needs is not mentioned at all . Pleasure is fifth . We should be. aware that, according to the tradition 9 the people called "Pytha- goreans" associated the goddess Aphrodite Lilith the number five. The list given by Socrates is strangely unprecise and inordinate . It is indeed only an The >I rJ.rf'(:-1..[?oll , outliD~ of the good in the most desirable life. the "limitless , " the "indeterminate," reigns, though not supremely , in the dialogue . I shall not koep you until midnight. a discussion ••• Good night! But there will be � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. 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Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 36 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource About Plato's Philebus Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered May 20, 1971, by Jacob Klein as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klein, Jacob, 1899-1978 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971-05-20 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Greenfield Library holds the literary rights to Jacob Klein's work. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Plato. Philebus Socrates Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context lec Klein 1971-05-20 Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/3e04866a39f2d793f9d0cb2bccf6ea24.pdf ff90d4fa870513a86015aeb3686c89ed PDF Text Text * Plato' s Ion This lecture is, as you know, about Plato's dialogue entitled !gn. My main purpose is to show how, I think, a Platonic dialogue ought to be read. The lecture will have two parts. The first will present to you what happens in the dialogues in the second part I shall try to describe the wider frame into which what happens in the dialogue fits. Socrates meets Ion in A.thens. We are inclined to think that Socrates is known to us, to some extent at least, but we might be mistaken. As to Ion, his home is Ephesus, an Ionian city on the shores of Asia Minor. He is well known as • rhapsode. He tells Socrates that ' he has just arrived from Epidaurus, where he attended - as a rhapsode the festival in honor of Asclepius, the healing god. What is a rh&psode? A rhapsode (literally1 a stitcher of verses) is a man who, at appropriate occasions, recites, or better, declaims poetry majestically and touchingly. Socrates wonders whether the Epidaurians honor the healing god with a contest of rhapsodes also, and Ion confirms this, adding that everything else that belongs to the art over which the Muses preside is involved. We suspect that Socrates wonders what relatinn the declaiming of poetry has to healing. Socrates - a.rd we learn that Ion won the first prize in that rhapsodic contest, and Socrates urges him to achieve the same result in Athens at the Panathenaean festival celebrated in honor of' Athena, the goddess not only of war, but also - among other things - of health. Ion confidently expects this to happen. Socrates begins his challenge. 5308 He says1 "I have been often, yes, jealous of you rhapsodes, Ion, because of your art", The English word / .. art", which I have just used, translates the Greek word itXV'J • I ·i mplied in Ion!.s use of the word µ,avu'lf<-1 * It was • the art over which the Muses A lecture given by Jacob Klein et St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, October 1, 1972 �-2- preside. Today, we mean by "art" something highly admired and respected, attributed to "creativity" or to "genius" or, at least, to talent, but also something that is taught to children in school. A similar ambiguity characterizes the word I ·r:~.~V? , as we shall see in a mOlllent, wt what is much more emphasized in it than in the English word "art" is laiowledge, the skill, the "laiow-how••, inv.o lved in any making, producing, and behaving that men engage in. In continuing his speech Socrates uses ./ the word 1:~ Y.V'7 for the second time, right away. sources ot his jealousy• He exposes the the r{'>;'V~ of the rhapsode, Socrates says, teaohes him how to adorn his body so that he should look as beautiful as possible, and it also imposes upon the rh&psode the necessity of passing all his time with the works of many good poets and especially with those of Homer, the best and divinest poet of all of them, so that he would know Hom.er' s thought tull well and not only his words. · For, as Socrates suggests, there couldn't be a good rhapsode, if he did not understand what the poet says1 the rhapsode should be an expounder of the poet's thought to those who listen to him1 and it is impossible to be a good expounder. if one does not know~ the poet .says. It is all this that makes Socrates jealous. Ion agrees with Socrates. This matter of expounding, says Ion, is certainly the most laborious part of his artr and he thinks:·;that he can speak about Homer better and provide more and better thoughts about H0111er than anybody else. 5JOD "Good news, Iont" exclaims Socrates. He understands Ion's words to mean that Ion will not grudge hiDl an exhibition of this power. And Ion stresses that it is indeed worth while hearing how well he has adornell Hom.er, so much so, that he deserves to be crowned with a golden crown by the lovers of Homer. In mentioning his "adorning•• of Homer, Ion uses the very word Socrates used with reference to the rhapsode's body. �-3- It turns out that Socrates is not yet ready to listen to Ion's exhibition. Instead he begins to question Ion, a.nd this questioning leads to most comical and, at the same time, most serious results. The first question is whether Ion is so marvellously skillful about Homer only or also about other poets. Homer only, and that is sufficient. Ion's reply is• about Ion agrees that there are things about which Homer and Hesiod, for example, both say the samei in such cases, Ion asserts, he would of course expound equally well both Homer's and Hesiod's words. But what happens, Socrates inquires, if the two poets do not agree, as, for example, about the "art of divination''? Who then would expound better what the two poets say, Ion or one of the ~ood seers? Ion's answer iss one of the seers. We have to note that the first and onlr example chosen by Socrates to illustrate possible disagreement among the two poets, n.amely the "art rl:<l,)7 of divination". that is, the / / called µdVilk1J, shows clearly the ,, r . ambiguity of the word r~ XI/~ • Does the seer, the_ ftri.VllS , possess •ny knowledge about his seeing, prophesying, divining? divination at his disposal? Is the "know-how" of Would he be a !!!!!!: if it were? The next point of Socrates is that Homer and all the other eoets spoke about the s111Y1e things, about war, about the mutual tntercourse of men, about the gods in their intercourse with e~oh other and with men, about the heavens and Hades, about the origin of gods and heroes. Socrates does not say whether the poets agreed or disagreed in speaking about these things. It is Ion who makes the point that the other poets did not treat these things the way Homer did. He asserts that they did it in a far worse way. We remember that Socrates, too, called Homer the .b est and divinest of all the poets. But now Socrates turns to Ion's �-4- ability to distinguish between go~ and bad ways of speaking about If the talk is abou.t numbers, who will be able to distin- something. guish between the good and the bad speakers? The answer is, Ion has to agree, a man who possesses the art of numbering, the ''arithmetical art" I ) .JI .I the TG,~t/17 «flrlf-7Tll('l, that is to say, the "know-how" of counting and or handling numbers. And if the talk is .about wholesome food, the man who will be able to distinguish between the good and the bad speakers is a doctor, that is a man who possesses the art of healing (the / ) 'ltX.TflK~ ) • i{>(Y17 In . summing up, Socrates can now state that, whenever many people talk about the same thing, one and the same man will know who speaks well and who speaks badly. We have to surmise that Socrates means that this man possesses the appropriate knowledge, the appropriate Ti'XV'? • And Socrates concludes that, since Homer and the other poets speak about the same thi~gs and Ion knows who among all of these poets speaks well and who speaks in a worse way, he must be marvellously skillful And knowledgeable about all these poets, that is, cf. we understand, must have the suitable 5388 be called the rhapsodic art. -r/xv 7 1 which in this case ought to Socrates, we rema:mber, had. spoken of this .I rexl/7 at the beginning of the conversation. Ion cannot help accepting Socrates' conclusion and is thereby led , X ,~.\to wonder why he ''simply" drops into & doze when he hears some body disHJ.,.· pun on cuss poets other than Homer and wakes up and pays close attention and off~ &1txvws has plenty to say himself onl_y when Homer is mentioned. Socrates claims 532C to know the answer. "This is not difficult to guess", he says; and he states explicitly that Ion is clearly unable to speak on Homer ~ / ' ., . / art and knowledge (-r~xv';J KcxL e1TldT'7fJ-2 ) , for if he were able to do it with art, that is knowingly, he would be able to speak about fil the other poets as well. We have indeed to suppose, Socrates says, that �-s/ the whole in question here is the art of poetry ( TTol'}Hk"'] ) , and to speak about it knowingly means to .!m2! it as a whole, that is, to know what all the poets said and meant. Socrates asks Ion whether this is so. All that Ion has to say in answer to this rather puzzling question 532C is "Yes", Socrates is not certain whether Ion understands his point, / to wit, that whatever the art, the Te'X.V) , may be, once it is given as a whole, the way to look at its parts is always the same. Socrates will expound this, therefore, at some length by giving quite a few 532D examples. But before doing that he asks Iona "are you in need of hearing from me what I mean?" And Ion replies that he isa c~rtainly ••for I enjoy listening to you sages". Whereupon Socrates remarks 1 "surely it is you rhapsodes and actors, and the men whose poems you chant, who are sager whereas I speak nothing but the plain truth, as a sim:ple layman might". And he adds that what he means is indeed a trivial commonplace, not arrived at by rules of art, rut within reach or everyone. Here are the examples. There is the whole art of painting. It is - impossible to find a man capable of deelaring which paintings of one .'• painter are good or bad and totally incapable of judging the works any other painter. ~f The sa..'!lle holds of the art of seul.:eture, of flute-playing, of harp-playing, of singing to the harp, and of the art of rhapsody. With these examples Socrates changes his point somewhat 1 the skillful and knowledgeable speaker is not only able to distinguish between the good and the bad artists but also between the good and the bad works of any one of those artists. Could there be a man, for instance, who would be able to talk with understanding about a number of rhapsodes but would be unable to say what Ion of Ephesus does .!tl1 and what he does badly? Ion is com.palled to accept Socrates' points but. this makes the �-6- experience he has of himself completely incomprehensible to himt he excels all men in speaking on Homer, everybody is in agreement about that (let us not forget1 he just won the first pr1£e 1n Epidaurus), but he cannot speak well on the other poets. How comel It is up to Socrates, Ion says, to see what that means. Socrates retorts that he a lengthy speech. ~ ~ see what it means and launches into he says and the way he says it make this SJ>'9ech the central event in the drama which the dialogue presents. Socrates first repeats what he had said before about Ion's ability to speak well on HOll!ler and Homer onlyt this ability is not due to a knowledge that Ion possesses. addition to that statement1 to any But Socrates now supplies a positive this ability of Ion stems from a "divine power11 1 and Socrates provides a vivid image work. r/x_y·7 , or this power and of its It is like the power in the "magnetic'' stone, so called, namely "magnetic," by Euripides, the poet. This power not only makes the stone attract iron rings but also infuses itself into these rings so that they can attract other rings and thus form sometimes a long chain of iron rings suspended one from another1 the power in all of th~m stems from that one 0 magnetic" stone. - The "magnetic" power helps us to under"" stand the power of the Muses which makes some men spellbound and spreads through th8Jll to other men so as to hold them all in a chain. It is thus that all good Eoets indite all their beautiful epic or lyrical poems not because they are guided by a T~\/'7 , by some knowledge, but because they are spellbound and possessed by a Muse, just as the Corybantian worshippers and the b&cehants are frantic and possessed and not in their senses. The poets tell us, they do, that (I quote) 5J4B "they bring us songs from honeyed fountains, culling them out of the �-7- gardens and dells of the Muses - like the bees, and winging the air as these do. And what they tell is true 0 • I keep quoting& "for a poet is a light and winged and sacred thing, and is unable ever to indite, to be a poet, until he is spellbound and out of his senses, and his wits are no longer in him". - Socrates sums upa poets compose and utter so many and so beautiful things about hhe deeds of men - as Ion does about Homer - 5J4C / / not by art (by T~X\/7 ) but by a 1'divine allotment 11 ( / fJt:irf JLOlfrt) 1 it is thus that eaoh poet is able to compose well only that kind of poetry to which the verse. 9.U!'!, ~ has stirred him, but is not good 1.t any other kind of Indeed, if the poets knew by rules of art how to speak well on thing, they would know how to speak on !!!• .A.t this point Socrates' speech grows in intensity and straightforwardness. I quotes "That is why the god takes away the wits or these men and uses them as his ministers, just as he does with soothsayers and godly seers, in order that we who J4C-D hear them may know that it when they are out or is~ they who utter these priceless words, tbeir wits, but that it is the god himself' who speaks and addresses us through them 0 • And to confirm this, Socrates · finally cites the case of a most mediocre poet, who had.never composed a single poem that deserved any mention at all and then produced a hymn which is 1n everyone•s mouth, a song that ts - as this man says 5340 himself - "simply.. 11 sornetbi.ng found by the Muses'•. The god apparently intended him to be a sign that beautiful poems are not human or the work of men, but divine and the work of gods, and that the poets are merely the expounders of the gods, according as each is possessed by one of 53.5A them. And Socrates asksa "or do you not think that I speak the truth, Ion?'! 5J.5A 11 By Zeus 0 , Ion exclaims, "I do". And he explains• 11 You do touch �-amy soul with your words, Socrates, and it does seem to me that the good poets expound to us what comes from the gods". Whereupon Socrates adds with Ion's approval - that the rhapsodes expound the poets' words and are thus expounders of expounders. Let us reflect on what has happened. We do remember that, just a while ago, Socrates called himself a "simple layman" who utters nothing but the plain truth. We might have Socrates' dissembling ways. ~led Yet we do assume that Socrates speaks the But is his long speech a truthful speech? How can he truth. that beautiful poems are the work of gods? claim hearing this, thinking of or the poets is a true clailll? How aan he ~ ~ that this It is certainly not something that could be characterized as plain truth. Is not his speech, which reaches ppetic heights and touches not only Ion's soul, but also .2!!!: souls, dictated by a Muse? himself? Or rather, isn't Socrates playing. the ~~~e Indeed, Let us have a closer look at Socrates' speeoh. Ion's rhapsodic art is mentioned at the beginning of the speech, once more briefly in the middle of the speech, and is then taken up again only at the final exchange of quesV.1.ons and answers between Socrates and Ion.. Socrates puts at the top of the ladd~r tne divine power, the Muse or the gods one rung below - the poet, the good poets two rungs below - the rhapsodes three rungs below - the audience, the people who listen to the rhapsode, all of them spellbound. the poets, the good poets. The bulk of the speech deals with But these poets are grouped together with the soothsayers And seers (the fA1X V16(.S), whose non-existent If: x.V 7 / / was mentioned earlier as the one Homer and Hesiod allegedly disagreed about. In composing their poems, the speech asserts, the poets are out �-9- of their senses, and so are the rhapsodes when they declaim those poems. And this is what Ion, spellbound and possessed by the Muse, that is, by .· Socrates, wholeheartedly accepts. It is hardly possible not to be amused by the double ohange which has occurred in the dialogue, by that of the Muse into the usimple-minded" Socrates and by that of Socrates into the "m.agnetio" Muse. Socrates now proceeds to check whether what he described in his speech, and was agreed to by Ion. actually occurs When Ion deolaims Homer's verses. Is Ion, Socrates asks. in his senses or is he carried out of him.self when he declaims verses which move his audiences does not his soul, possessed by a god, find herself among the very things he describe~? And Ion reports how his eyes are filled with tears when he relates • tale of woe, and how his hair throbs when he speaks of horrors. st~nds on end and his heart Ion agrees that at such moments he is out of his senses1 as Socrates puts it, Ion weees although not robbed of his precious attire ard his golden crowns and he is panic-stricken in the presence of more than twenty thousand friendly people, none of whom is stripping or injuring him. Does Ion know, Soorates then -~quires, that the rhapsodes make the spectators 1.n their audience feel the vary si;me way. He knows it very well, Ion replies. Let me quote a "Ji'or I have to pay the closest attention to thems since, if I set them crying, I shall 535E laup;h myself because of the money I take, but if !_hey laugh, l MJ"Self shall cry because of the money I lose"• We sees the spell has been brokens Ion now asserts that he is ,!l21 out of his senses when he declaims and weeps and acts as if panic-strioken1 neither the Socratean Muse nor any other Muse possesses him. The contrast between Ion's previous assertion and the words he now uses is as great as it is comical. That does not mean that Ion has ohanged.1 it means that Ion has now �-10- revealed what kind or man he as rhapsode truly is. Socrates' ques- tioning and the Muse Socrates was playing have . brought this about. The point we have reached lies at the very middle of the dialogue. Socrates can now abandon the guise of the Muse. We see him indeed repeat what he had said before in his lengthy speech, bit what he says now is much shorter and not "poetic" at &11. He describes the chain reaching from the god or the Muse down to the ~udience, but he now adds to the rings mentioned before other rings attached obliguely to the chains they represent choral dancers and masters and under-masters of the dance. It is indeed not straightforwardness but obliguity that characterizes the new speech. Socrates puns on the term "is possessed" / 5)6B ( 1<~1e'.~t;TOl'l ) and equates it, term "is held" ( ;/ D(f1fX.l ) • in view of the image of the rings, with the Most of the rhapsodes are possessed and held by Homer, as Ion 1s. And the main point is again that Ion says what he 536C says not by art or knowledge ( o~ Ti~V!J . / / o{JJ efTlrS"r'')/i';J ) but by "divine > /\. '- allotment and possessic;>n" ( OeL'{ /.lOlflf t<Cll f(JXTDKWX~ ), Ion is not moved now by Socrates' speech, On the contrary, he does not believe that Socrates could convince him that he, Ion, is possessed and mad when he praises Homer. Ref.ring him speak about Homer, Socrates would not believe that himself. But Socrates again postpones listening to Ion's exhibition, He begins questioning Ion again. Can Ion speak well .about things in Homer of which Ion happens not to have any knowledge? A.bout the art of chariot-driving, for example? It is the charioteer and nobody else who will know best whether Homer is right or not when he speaks about this art, and Ion has to agree. Ion bannot but assent again to Soor,tea• statement that the ability to know about one definite kind or work has been assigned to 537C (and Socrates inserts in a rather stran@e way1 !!!?!:! of the arts assigned "by the god")• �-11- What we know by the art of piloting we cannot know by the art or healing, what we know by the art of hea.ling we cannot know by the art of carpantry, and so on. - Socrates him.self begins quoting from the Iliad and the Od:vsse_!. He does it four times, three times inaccurately and only once accurately. Ion has to agree that it is not for the rhapsode to discern whether Homer speaks correctly or not, bit tor the doctor in the first case, for the fisherman in the second case, for the seer in the (We should not forget, third and fourth cases. seer's 11 art" is not a / T~"X..tf~ by the way, that the at all.) Socrates then invites Ion to pick out passages from Homer, the rightness or wrongness of which rhapsOde alone should be able to discern. he do? - th.at this holds of th~ Ion claims - what else could ill. passages. Socrates reminqs him of the passages they just went through and which the rhapsode was incompetent to judge. imply. Ion cannot help excluding these passages and the arts they Pressed by Socrates to tell what arts the rhapsode will be competent to judge, Ion assigns to the rhapsode the vast knowledge ot things which it is fitting for a .!!!!n to say, and of those which it is fitting for a woman to say, and again of those for a slave, and of those for a freeman, and of those for him who has to obey, and of those for him who is in command. But it turns out, as Ion has to admit, that the .pilot will know better than the rhapsode what the captain of a stormtossed vessel should say and that the doctor will know better than the rhapsode what he who takes care of a sick man ought to say. If a slave is a cowherd, it is not the rhapsode who will know better what t .o say . about cattle tending. And if a woman is a spinning-wo!!!!rh it is ~ the rhapsode who will know better what to say about the working of wool. But what about a man who is a general exhorting hi....! !!!!!!? What .man should say, Ion immediately declares, the rhapsode ~ a !!lll know. And �-12 ... when Socrates asks him whether he is knowledgeable about generalship as a general or as a rhapsode, we hear Ion state that he does not perceive any difference here. He explicitly says that the rhapsodic art and the art of generalship are .2!'!! art, not two. It follows that anyone who is a good rhapsode is also a good general, but Ion cannot admit that any- one who is a good general is also a good rhapsod.e. He probably assumes - and rightly so - that some generals are not good at exhorting their men. Since Ion considers himself the best rhapsode in Greece, be is also, in his own eyes, the best general in Greece, and Ion adds that he learned to be that from Homer. For a short while the highly amusing question is debated why the Athenians have not chosen Ion to be their general. Socrates then reproaches Ion for not telling in what his knowledge of Homer consists and tor finally escaping in the guise of a general so as to avoid displaying his wisdom. concerning Homer. If Ion is an artist, that is. a man who knows, and deceives Socrates by not telling him -what he knows, he is wicked. If Ion is not a.n artist - · bi.1t speaks f'u.lly and finely about Homer by divine allotment, possessed by Homer, and without any knowledge, he is not doing anything wrong. the choioe1 542A to be dishonest or to be divine. Here then is Ion (I quote)a "the difference is great, SocratesJ for it is far 11cbler to be called divine". And Socrates closes the dialogue by assigning this nobler title to Iona he is to be known as a divine &nd not an artful, that is knowing, praiser of Homer. You realize, I am sure, the utterly comic oharaoter of the . dialogue and the disparagement of what in this dialogue Socrates calls / the 8£lrt . j-Lt/i: fc< 1 the "divine allotment". But you also realize that the mocking of the rhapsode is meant to cast doubt, above all, on the poets, whose works the rhapsodes declaim. And this i~ a serious and �-13- difficult matter, to Which I shall devote the second part of this lecture, In Plato's Ph&edrus we hear Socrates describe the 244Af/. gr~atest blessings as derived from these four kinds of rr1&dness s the prophetic, the ca'!'" In this connection the expression thartic, the poetic, and the eretic. 0 divineallotment" .is used again. The third kind of madness, the poetic, comes about when one is possessed by the Muses. I quotet "he who with- out the madness of the Muses comes to the doors of poetry, confident ) / 245! that he will be a good poet by art (EK T€XY'7S' ), meets with no suooeH, and the poetry of the sane man vanishes into nothingness before that of the madmen". D~es that mean that the Socrates of the Phaedrua is serious about "divine allotment"? The answer to this queUton depenis . , on our understandin~ of "madness'' (mania, in Greek1 µ.,rxV l fX.) as this word is used in the Phaedrus. · It is first mentioned in. the description of the first kind of madne.s s, the prophetic one. The men· of old who invented names, we read in the text, thought that madness .was neither shameful nor disgraceful. 244C I quotes "otherwise they would not have con- nected the very worl. "mania" with the noblest of' arts, that which fore'!'" . . . tells the future, 'qr calling it the manic art ( ~Vti<1) • No, they gave this name thinking that "mania", when it comes by divine allotment, is a noble thing, rut nowadays people call it the mantie art tastelessly inserting a Socrates is dissembling& <piXIJTl/(4), ! into the word, 'mantic' instead of' 'uni.a'". the so-called mantic art is, to begin with, not I an art, not a T<fXV?-1 , and ·it is not the alleged insertion of the letter T into the word "manic" which is to be oondem.neds it is the soothsayers, the seers themselves, who - on the whole, I repeat, on the whole • are contemptible and ridiculous, as Plato often enough implies or even ·explicitly states in his dialogues. to these see"rs is an em.pty fraud. The "divine allotment" dispensed But there are exceptions, and �-14He~ Socrates is one of them. prophesy sometimes. Right here, in the Phaedrus, about to begin his recantation, his palinode about divine madness to def'end the lover, he says1 243:: "I-am, yes, a seer (a pa."vur> •. not a very good one, but - as poor writers might say - it is just sufficient f'or what I need".t,t Socrates is again dissembling, ot course& his pro- phetic power is clairvoyaneer it can be attributed to "divine allotment,~' but it is ~madness. In that same palinode of the Phaedrus, Socrates, summarizing what he said before about the erotic kind of madness, describes the lover as one who, when he sees the beautitul here, on earth, remembers the ~ beauty, feels his wings growing and would like to fly away, but cannotr like a bird he 249D-E1 ,, v ~Tt0<:'1 €Xll , "'S' ftol.V~f g~zes upward and neglects .the things below1 and thus, Socrates says, this fourth ldrd of madness is imputed to the lover. That is to· say1 lu1.K£(~EVDS looks like madness because loving means. we the state a true lover is in are usually insufficiently ·aware of what Can this .be said also of the state a good poet You remember what Socrates says in the .2.!!! definite kind of ~ 12!1• is in? the ability to know about has been assigned to each of the arts, and I mentioned that Socrates explicitly and rather strangely inserts that this assignment is made ''by the words? The answer ise god."~" Why does Socrates insert these he inserts them to hint at the wide range of meanin{l'.s in the expression "divine allotment • " This expression might be used farcically as in the ease of the rhapsode Ion, it might be . . I applied w1 th seriousness to the knowledge inherent in any T! )(V,and ,, w1 th even deeper seriousness' alhhough &mbiguously' to the work of l of love. The question we face is1 elJ.f• in what sense is it applied tg a work of poetr:y? In what sense is a good poet •1m.ad 0 ? Let me be bold, very bold, and try to answer that question by speaking about Homer's Iliad, thus running the risk of becoming a rhapsodic expourd.er, �-15- Disregarding the more or less superficial division into books and even allowing for all kinds of tampering with, and dialocations1 ot, the original song, there is no denying that the decisive events are crowded into the last third of the Iliad. significance certainly do occur• In the first half events of great the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles which leads to Achilles' withdrawing from the fights the death and the wounding of many warriorsa the Diomedean terrorJ the wounding or two gods: the encounter of Diomedes and Glaucuss the peaceful scenes in Troys the unsuccessful. embassy to Achillesr inoonelusive duels among men and wonderfully treacherous actions on the part or the gods. All these events contribute in varying degrees to the unfolding of the plot. (For there!! a plot in the Iliad.) In the main, however, the battle is swaying back and forth all the time until finally the Trojans reach the ships of the Achaeans. During all . that time Achilles sits in his tent, sulking, and only occasionally watching the fight. The pivotai event, the death of Patroclus, which changes, which reverses everything, occurs very late in the poem.. It is as if the poem took an exceedingly long breath to reach that point and afterwards rushed with breathtaking speed to its end. This is the more remarkable since the entire period of time the poem encompasses is one of 49 days and Patroolus• death occurs on the 26th day, that is, very nearly in the middle of that period. There are two events - among many others - which I have not mentioned at all. Yet it is ' these two events that seem to be the two foci from which all light dispersed througqout the poem stems, " The first takes place when Tbetis, :Uhilles• mother, goes up to Zeus to ask for his hel p on behalf of her son, reminding Zeus of the help he once received from her. She wants Zeus to turn the scales of �-16- the war, to let the Trojans have the upper hand until finally, in the hour of the Achaeans' greatest ee pe~il, Achilles, and only Achilles, might able to save them from certain defeat, lead them to victory, and thus regain lli honor, which he allegedly lost through Agamemnon's action. It I,511- is then said1 "But Zeus, the cloud-·gatherer, said nothing at all to her 512 I •nd sat in silence :for a long while ( &7V)". An awful silencel Thetis repeats her plea. At last, Zeus consents and nods, a sign of an irrevocable decision. Olympus shakes. Thetis departs, apparently satisfied that she has accomplished her mission. XIII II, Has she? The second. event occurs attar Patroclus• death, while the battle 165...229 for Patroclus' body rages before the ships between Hector and the Aiantes and while Thetis is on her way to get new arms for her son from Hephaestus. Hera sends Iris to Achilles to urge him to intervene in the struggle for Patroclus' body. Since Achilles has no arms at this juncture, he is asked by Iris to do nothing but to show himself to the Trojans, to frighten them by his mere appearance. Achilles, "dear 203 to Zeus", obeys and does more than what Hera through Iris asked him to do. Pallas Athene, who is nearby, does her share: she casts the tas- seled aegis around his shoulders and she sets a crown in hhe guise of a golden cloud about his head, and from it issues a blazing flame. Thus he appears - alone, separated from the other Achaeans - in the sight of the foe, a flaming torch. But not only does he appear, he shouts, three times, a terrible shout, clearly heard - and":from afar Pallas 217-18 Athene uttered her voice". Trojans. Unspeakable confusion and terror seizes the Patroclus• body is saved. What kind of shout is this. Is it one of triumph? Or threat? Is it an ordinary war cry, raised toa very high pitch? It is certainly not �-17(V,859,86J) like the bellowing of the wounded Ares. The verb used to describe ) , that shout has a range of meanings. One of them is "crying out of ttJ(Xi.> (XVIII,228) grief~' Iris? Why does Achilles shout now, though not urged to do so by Certainly, to frighten the Trojans, to make tham desist from Patroclus' body. But can this shouting fail to express the un- speakable pain that fills his heart, the pain which had just brought his mother to him from the depth of the sea? rible sight to beholdt Here indeed is a ter- a man raised to his highest glory by Pallas Athene, wearing the aegis, crowned by names, truly god-like - and this same man crushed by grief, miserable in his awareness of having himself brought the immensity of this grief upon himself. DIII,222 apotheosis of Achilles is the seal of his doom. The And it is his voice, his brazen voice, his terrible shouting, which brings terror to the foe, that expresses his misery and his doom. Pallas Athene's voice seems but a weak echo of that of Achilles or is even completely drowned out by the latter's intensity. But are not these two events, the long silence of Zeus and the shouting of Achilles, related? Does not Achilles' shout sonorously echo Zeus' silence? not guess now why Zeus retilained silent for & Can we long while? Surely, he had to take account. of the susceptibilities of his wife, as any husband would - a~ in his marital relations Zeus is no exception.-.. but is it only Hera whom he was silently thinking about? Must he not have been concerned about the whimsical nature of Achilles' plight and Thetis' plea? And, on the other hand, how could he have refused to satisfy Thetis in whose debt he was? Is it not right then and ther~ that Zeus decided, in wisdom and sadness, irrevocably too, to accede �-18to Thetis' demand, to give honor and ~lory to Achilles, but to do that in a manner which neither Thetis nor Achilles expected? Patroclus should be ~ He decided that and - what is more- that his beloved son, Sa!l?edon, should be slain by Patroclus to balance the loss Achilles will suffer by the loss he, Zeus, himself will suffer. There will be a moment when Zeus will hesitate about Sarpedon's death, but Hera will persuade him to let Sarpedon perish. While the tide of the battle is t~ce, VIII,4761 Y:-1,64-7 being reversed, Patroclus' approaching death is announced by Zeus XI ,604, the steps which lead to it are carefully pointed out. Achilles will 790-804 XVIII, 79-82 get what he wants, but at the price of the greatest loss--the loss of his beloved friend, of his other self. In the hour of his triumph he will be the most miserable of men. The coincidence of triumph and misery characterizes a situation as tragic, in the strict sense of this much abused word. XVIII,328 Achilles grasps Zeus' intent. "Not all the thoughts of men does Zeus fttlfill" 1 as Homer had said before, commenting on Achilles' prayer xvr,250 He says him.selfs befo~e the slaying of Patroclus1 "One thing the father granted him, the other he denied.~ 11, Zeus denied him the safe return of Patroclus while granting him glory. Achilles' suffering at the moment of his triumph is Achilles' own. matbhad by anything on Olympus. It cannot be It is as much the prerogative mortal as it is the attribute of a hero. of a This is one of the reasons-- perhaps ih! reason---why we are deeply moved while reading, or listening to, the Iliad. And this means that we are, at the same time, pleased and pained beyond words. We were asting in what sense is the good poet .,mad,t as Plato makes Socrates claim. in the Phaedrus. Was Homer "mad" when he indi;{tad the Iliad? Does not the highly articulated sequence of events in the Iliad depend on the poet's familiarity with human frailty and human �-10- strength and on his masterly skill in presenting them, which skill is but an expression of the knowledge or the rules of art, of the poetic I T6X,V'7 , he possesses? But should not. on the other hand, the uniqueness of what is presented to us be understood as or ~ontaneous:;z .:e.,roduce~ som.ethin~ ~ by the poet, beyond anything he might. otherI tQ.se know, and, therefore, as the result indeed of a peculiar "madness"? It is difficult to deny, I think, that both, sane sobriety and mad exuberance, mark the work of the good poet. This duality, merging into oneness, is hard. to grasp. It makes Socrates speak of "divine allotment" in a serious and yet again ambiguous way. And what I said appli.es, of course, not only to the Iliad, but to all kinds of poetic works. We 22 understand that without the knowledge inherent in the poetic rt.~v1 • without serious thought, the poetic "madness" becomes ridiculous, be the madman a rhapsode like Ion or a man who claims, who not knowing what poetry requires. !_~nt,! to.be a poet, Hence the never ceasing flow of so-called poetry and the pretentious, "rhapsodic" way of speaking· about "art", · prevailing at almost all times and especially today. It might be useful to remind ourselves at this point of the way Dante, the poet, spoke about poetry. In his Latin treatise D! vul_gari eloguentia (in English• pn vernaculat,.,11.oguen.$?!) Dante asserts that true poetry must rest on these three pillars• alertness of mind (strenuitas ingenii), steadfastness in the practice of the art (assiduitas artis) and fam1.11arity with the sciences (hs.bitus soientiarum) • Only poetry thus endowed and equipped can serve as nourishment to the human soul. And I quote t "Let therefore those who, innocent of art and know- ledge, and trusting to genius alone, rush forwp.~ upon the highest sub- jects, which must be sung in the highest style, be confounded in their folly and let them refrain from such presumption". �-20- There is another aspect of poetry, all-important to Plato, I have not touched on so far. The deeply serious background of the !2!1 can- not be sufficiently gauged, if we do not consider the role epic and tragic poetry plays in the education and nurture of the young. Homer's and Hesiod's verses, well-known aQi quoted again and again, must have had a . deep impact on the~ of the young, not only in Plato's time, Plato's concern is the nature of this impact and its relation to our understanding of what is truly noble and unmistakably true. That's why Plato lets Socrates censure the poets wittingly and harshly, e~pecially in the second, third, and tenth book of the Republic. What is appropriate to the gods in their intercourse with each other and with men, what should be ~aised and blame<;l in the actions of men, how of speeches ought to be done I the narration of events and the reporting all this beoomes part and pa1..cel of the criticism of poetic lore.-No less important to Plato is the "mixture" of pleasure experience in coping ~th this "mixture" implies. am pa.in which we tragic poetry. I invite you to consider what Plato• s .fh.:iJ:2bu.s might. be of some help. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. 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Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 20 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Plato's Ion Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered October 1, 1972, by Jacob Klein as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klein, Jacob, 1899-1978 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972-10-01 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Greenfield Library holds the literary rights to Jacob Klein's work. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Plato. Ion Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context lec Klein 1972-10-01 Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/d1d5066e472bcf4ffa738d7bf42f9e6e.pdf 2b8d88f6bffe58c931ccb9b2a581c399 PDF Text Text February 23, 1973 Jacob JC.lain SPEEOl 1 US S'l'RBRG'l'R AND iTS 11BAKNESSES �-1- To undertake to •peak about speech means to anbark upon an end.leas Yet there are strict limits that I have~ observe and to·be task. aware of: limits of time, of redundancy, of attentiveness on your part. I shall have to focus your attention on what people moatly concerned about speech have said. 'rhe•e were t:he people whom we c&ll.: f'l,:,..tf.••• the "lovers of wiSdom" amonq the Greeks. But.I shall also have to-appeal to an ·underatandinq of what usually happens to speech, to an understancUng which those people do not se• to have had. I shall be as brief as possible, and I hope you wil.l not mind my careful.-- nay-, my pedantic use of English and Greek words. !S!!. of what (Parenthetical rmarka I am goinq to aay I have mid -------- before in lectures and in print, but·not all of it.) Let me beqin by quoting from Plato 1 B di&l.ogue entitled'Phaado. Thia dialogue pretends to de.acribe what happened durinq the very lut day of Socrates. Attentive reading show• that the content of the dialogue· is mythical, but that the mythical frame.allows ua to :became· aware of what Plato understood to be Socratu 1 unique and evuvhelming At a crucial point of the dialogue (95 E ff.) Socrates~ ~t. after ailently looking back into himself for quite a· while; reaches - in apeakillCJ far back into his own youth. He wanted very much, he reports, to find out, with z:egard to any sinqle thing or occurrence, what was responsible for its coming into being, its passing away; its being the way it waa1 . . - .. · but he could not find any satiafactory anawra. Nor could he learn anything from anybody else, not even· from the great Anaxagoras. ·.He bad to abandon the.way in which questions like: these were dealt with in the various ~ersions of the "inquiry into nature• (71fC c , c~r•tt•). ,ur•"'s Be decided to aabark upon a different journey, a "second journey", which means, he decided to take to the oars, since the wind bad failed. Thia is the praaentation he makes of hi• new endeavor. �-2By looking directly at whatever presents itself in our familiar world, at things ~d their properties, at hl;JDl&n affairs and actions, we run the risk ofbeinq, blinded, aa people do when they observe the sun durinq an eclipse, if they do not.look at its image on some watery surface. '!'hat may well have .happened to those investigators of nature. 'l'o avoid being blinded, Socrates thought he had to "have recourse to spoken words" (Els co::,.s ~.;>"us 1t•o•11r1t'.,)· and "see in them the truth of whatever is" (99 E). In the dialogue entitled Philebus, Plato again makes Socrates refer to men engaged in the study of nature (59 A-C): these men want to under- stand how this world of ours came into being,. how it is acted upon and how it acts itself, that is to say, they are trying to di~cover transient productions of the present, the future and the always is. <o% "o:i /L111.>.t,,~61tl i.5vt1CJ-L'S - 57 B), in exchanqinq questions and answers wit.h oneself and with. others. power what unchangeably To discover the immutable it is necessary to rely on the power of discourse the past,~ The power of discourse is inherent·in human speech, this ma:cvel, let me say, this greatest marvel perhaps under the sun. " The Greek noun >.~rus and the Greek verbAfx~1." have a vast range of meanings. They may refer to reckoning, accountinq, measuring, relating, qatherinq, picking.up (let us not forget the English words "col.!!£!" and "•e.!!EE.", derived from >.EyEtv). But, above all, they refer to !IJ?!akinq, discoursinq, arquinq, discussinq, reasoning. That's how we have to understand Artstotle's statement <Politics 1,2, 1253 a 10): , , )oro"··• . .uoYov ,, {J II «v twTof l~H - ~ rw"' f':''-'"' , "man alone amonq livinq beings possesses speech", and that implies: to understand the spoken word, to man alone possesses the ability und~rstand articulated speech. �-3- We mean by speech - eveeybody meaila by it - a sequence of sounds uttered· by somebody in such a way-as to be understandable to others. The verb "to understand" refers primarily, thouqh not uniquely, to speech.· saying". Hea~inq somebody speak, ·we may says "I understand.what you are We may, in fact, miaunderstand, but even misunderstanding involves understanding. speak? But ~do we understand in hearing somebody Not the sounds in themselves, the audible low and hiqh pitched noises issuing from somebody's mouth (or some machine, for that matter). We ·.!!!!.!'., these noises, but hearinq is not understandinq. · That is why we do not understand speech in a foreign tongue. In a manner 'Which, itself, is hardly or not at all widerstandable, the sounds carry 1itith them - or embodf. or represent - somethinq.else, makes us understand, ~enever we understand. p~ecisely that which This source and target of our understanding consists of units to which single wards correspond as well as of combinations of units to which sequences of words correspond. The speaker and the hearer share - or, at least, intend to •hare the understandinq of those units and of ·those combinations of units. The speaker transposes what he means into·souridinq words variably intoned, and the hearer.who understands reverses that process in reachinq back to the intended meaning. The intended meaning is what the Greeks ~ , being a. verbal· adjective of call.ad ro' yo17roy(vd.,rov "to receive the intelligible"). there are two kinds: Amonq " vo~'"' which means the intelligible units, the . ,,,. 1i10.,~•, Eiome are intelligible by themselves, some help us to receive those first ones, help us to understand what is.being said. Speech and understanding are inseparable • .AC:j-of means inseparably both speech and that which can be and is being understood .!!!_ speech. It is �-4- in !!!!!! and, to repeat, only throuqh !!!!. that conspicuously. >.:ros manife~ts itself Neither birds nor porpoises nor seals haye Ao'tl"', though. they are able to "communicate" with each other and even with human beings. We all remanber, I think, a phrase that Homer. uses so often when describing b\Dan speech, the phrase "wi~qed words" ·Whence this imaqe? t f•~« 11'rfp0~tl~ ) • In most cases the phrase occurs when a personaqe, a qod or a man, addresses another single personage, a qod or a man. Occasionally it is also used when someone speaks to a group or a of people. words". er~ Minstrels in Homer are never said to utter or sing "winqed Now, words are not called "winged" to indicate their aoaring or .lofty quality. The .imilge seems rather to imply that words, Aft.er escaping "the fence of the teeth", as Homer puts·it, are guided swiftly, and therefore surely, to.their destination, the ears and the soul and the·unc!erstandinCj of the addressee. crowd of men than a-single man. It is more difficult to reach a Exertions of a special kind are then required. What is speech "about"? About everythinq man is familiar with - the sky and the earth, the rivers and the sea, the living beings around him, on land, in water, in the air, the things he himself builds and produces, as well as the tools and appurtenances that his arts·and skills _require to produce those thinqs, and furthennore, the knowle~ge that quides his arts and skills, not only to satisfy his ~st elementary needs, but also to establish customs and institutions in from generation to generation, in happiness or ~hich mis~ry, his life flows in friendship or f!nlllity, in praise or blame, and to which customs and institutions he is attached· beyond his most pressing wants. and his und:eratanding are mostly about. That is what his speech �-sWhat we say, however circuitously or confusedly or loosely, is said in words and sentences, each of which conveys immediate meaning. 'Ap 1,,5 The cannot help moving in the medium of the immediately understandable. But words and sentences can also be involuntarily or deliberately ambiguous. We can play on words. Plato's dialogues, for example, are replete with puns •. However, ambiguities and puns are only possible, because words and sentences carry with them several distinct meanings . . which, separately, are clearly understood. obscure. To be sure, speech can be But it can be obscure only because the clarity of BOllle of its parts impinges, or seems to impinge, on the clarity of others. Speech, then, presents .to the understanding of the listener what the speaker him•elf understands. It presents to the listener nothing , but combinations ofvo 1 r«, of intelligibles. In doing that, however, speech speaks about, all the things and all the properties of things that around us, all the abound we find ourselves. ~pecial circumstances and situations in which The question arises: do thevo,r..;, the intelligibles, presented to us in speech, have their foundation in themselves, or do they stem from the things and circumstances spoken about? human $peech . tra~slate Does not the language, the r>i;;tr1111t, of- the things th•selves? . . Let me turn for a moment to the way things and events around us have been and are being referred·to. In Galileo's words: of Nature is written in mathematical characters". 0 The science contained in the great~ ,.The book Descartes said: of the world ••• ". Harvey said: "The book of Nature 1.iea open before us and can be easily consulted". The ph~ase "book of Natureu is a metaphor used lonq before the seven- teenth century, but why was this particular metaphor ever chosen? �-6- rs it n6t because Nat11%'.e is understood a$ something that can be read like a book, provided w. know how to read it? imply a language that is Nature's own? But ~foes not that indeed Francis Bacon was of the opinion. that Nature is subtly secretive, full of riddles, Sphinx-like. secrets can be revealed, riddles can be solved in words. don't we, in solving· the "riddles of nature". of all that exists around us ~s But We persist, In ancient times the order taken much more-directly as a language, a lanquage not heard and not written, yet visible, and i f not visible, one to be guessed at. Human speech seems indeed to translate that vi_sible ()r invisibie language of. things into the audible language of words~ And just as the sounds of human speech can be trac~ down to their ultimate canponents to which the letters of the alphabet correspond, things_ around us can be decomposed into their first rudiments - the "elements" - the original letters of the language of things, as.it were. Our speech, even our unguarded colloquial way of speaking, may reveal to the attentive listener the hidden articulations of the language of things. Aristotle, no less than Plato, was constantly ·following up casually spoken words. It seems that Heraclitus, the "obscure", used the word "logos" in reference to the language of things. from the fragments in question~ First: Let me quote "Of the Logos, which is as I describe it, men always pr0ve to be uncomprehending, both before they have heard it and when once they have heard it. For although all things bappen acco·rding to this Logos, men are like .people of .!!2. experience, even when they experience such sayings and def;ds as I explain, when rdistinguish each thing according to its nature and declare how it iSJ but all the other men fail to notice what they do after they �-7- wake up, just as they iorqet what they do when asleep". Then this: "therefore it is necessary to follow.what is common; but althouqh the Loqos is common, the many live as thouqh they had Then this: their~ thouqhts". "Listeninq not to me, but to the Loqos, it is 'tfise to aqree that all things are one". And finally, to supplement the last fragment: "Out of all things ;.. one, and out of one - all thinqs 11 • The Pres0cratic Philosophers, 1957, pp. 187-188 1 191.) (Kirk and Raven, The Loqos makes us understand, if we follow Heraclitus, what the things themselves are saying, brightly and darkly, in tune and out of tune. Speaking and understandinq what ie being said involves thinking, involves what the Greeks called lu1voco... Let us hear what Plato has to say about thB relation of speakinq to thinking. In t)le dialoque entitled The Sophist, in which Plato makes the Stranqer from Elea. converse with the young mathematician Theaetetus, the Stranger remarks (263 E): 11 • • • thought(lu~vo~OL') and speech (.A6p>l) are the same, only that the former - that is,1,:vo,o. ~. which is. a silent inner conversation of the soul with itself, has been given the special name of thought". Thinking, -as Plato understands it, is not tied to what the moderns mean by the "stream of consciousness". It can be imagined as a·discontinuous, not always regular, stepping forward, and stepping aside, and stepping backward and forw~d again, what. speech, too, usually does. to note1 that for Plato, and for Plato and speech is ~a complete one~ ~·· It is necessary this identity of thou9ht facing the highest, all-comprehending intelliqi,.bles, thought is not able to transpose itself into suitable l«:>rds. In the seventh letter attributed to Plato we read the phrase �... a- '· "the weakness ·of spoken words" (ro A T't.JY ii >.ol..," :J, i 343 A 1) , and .the itl(ifJfVES - dialoc;iUe entitled The Sophist.itself. shows this wealtness rather clearly, aa we shall see in a IDOll\ent. ·-Moreover, -.peech and thinking can both deceive ua; diaccinnect.our steps, an!.'l·thus distor-t and falsify the truth of things. -·The firework of the sophists, for example, - and there are always sophists around - ·make things and relat.ions of thinqs assume a most-unexpected, dazzlinq,-and.puzzl,.ing aspect: not t6 'be what they are. things suddenly appear But who isdoinq the iying, if it be lying, the sophists.or the thinqs themselves? A critique of speech and of thinking, a critical inquisition into speaking, thinking and arquing has to be undertaken - as it was undertaken by men. as diverse as Parmenides, Prodicus, Plato, Aria·totle. The res'l;llt of· this critique can...be stated as follows: to speak doe_s not always mean to make thi~qs (' ~ appear in. their true light. ) Por Aristotle only one kin(J of speech, o >.v1a$ 011r~•«t1r c , . t(Of , the declar- atoi-Y and revealinq speech; and the thinking which belongs to it, translate and present the lanquageof thi:nqs •. To be able to use this kind of speech requires a discipline, the discipline of the >.~ 1 aj. _ Everywhere in Aristotle's work, one senses-, .to 1;:he annoyance of SOll\e and to the delight of others1 the effectiveness of that discipline, the effectiveness of what!!: ·call ·{and the author hilaself does Aristotl-e. (Cf. on Interp-reta1;:ion s, ~call) the "logic" of 17 a 81 4, .17. a 21 ~, 17 a 251 Posterior· Analytics ··I 2, 7 2. a 11.) Given th• ever-present possibility of declaratory and revealing speech, Aristotle need not, and does· not, set limits to the power of tlte logos. For Plato, however, as spoken words cannot transcend. I have mentioned, there are limits that This becomes quite clear in the dialogue �_,_ •ntitllld SEliZlil• !n it 8ocrat•• til'•t invents fantaatically funny "ety- 110lo9ie•" ot word•, etJ11Qlo9ie1 of proper •• ot taaiU.p d••Lgn•tion• vtven to th•n Qontriv11 ratllar ~layfully n••• of hero•• and god• ••well th• W•Y• men behave and think. (422 I ff.) to de1cribe the letters and ' •Yllf.b.i•1 o:f anv wocd •• providing an "illitation•, a IA"f"'11A-"" (423 Af•••• Thi• a 11 11 Socrates , , B1 430 437 -'J of th• very beinw (o..in•) of what i9 1uppoaed to be "imitated". ta:f,.t,.t~on 11 i• •1•o 1aid by ·Socratea - said more accurately - to be 4i1cla•au:•", • 11 rw•lation 11 , a F4J.""}"• (425 A,B, 433 B,D, 435 A,B) of the rtnally the ••••rtion i• made that even "revealing" thil\I in qu••t:t.on. wofd' •Y nll be int•rPl'•tlld •• not foatering our underata.6Un9. - One has ----- to agree, ·••Y• Socrat••• that thing• which are can be learned and aougr.t for 11 111ucih better th:r:ou~h th•••elv•• thiU\ throUIJh names" (439 B). anly po11:lbl• ii what trulz !!. 11 not 8ubjact to change, aa Heraclitus alaill1, but i1 .!.p}!t!l;?il' what it ii.. th• Reraclitean1 ~ And that is Whether thia is 110 or whether what uny other• aay i• true, iB a q1,1eation difficult to 4eci4•, but "no aa.n ot •en•• can help himaelf and his own 110ul on ·nu•• 11 f440 C) • •PP~ relying The power of th• apoken word is thus a limited one, acaordi119 tQ Plato, Which tu.l •• they by •ke• hi1 dialoguaa as troublellOIDe and as wonder- to be. Let •• try to •how yau thia by referring to.. a,nd quoting frcm, the d14l.ogu.e entitl.ed 'lb! Sofh.i•t~ Thi• dialogue is the central piece of a trilogy, naely the trilogy of the dialogue• entitled Theaei:etua, The Sophist, and 'l'h! Bt!f:t••u. The converaationa and events whi.ch are presented in these ra.t.111•1 ax-e 1uppoa.S to talte place at the very ti.Jlle the suit against Socrates ha• it• beglnninq - aa you can read at the ve:ry end of the first piece of the triloCJY. We find in the aecond and the third di.aloque, namely in The Sophist �-10- (d1.dte;~?•S) and in The State8111An, an abundance of so-called "divisions" which, in The Sophist, are supposed to be the means to establish what a "sophist" .!.!.• Opposed to the "divisions" are the "collections" (~vv#l..r1.Jt•d>, and let me quote what, in the dialoque entitled Phaedrus, Socrates has to say a.bout these "divisions" and "collections" to that lovable younq man, Phaedrus: "Now I myself, Phaedrus, am a lover of these divisions and collections as aids to speech and I thought~ and if think any other man is able to see things that can naturally be collected into one and divided into many, him I follow after and walk in his fon~steps as if he were a qod (this is a playful and ambiguous r¢'f~~pce to. a I line in the fifth book of the Odxssey}. And whether the name I give to those who can do this is right or wrong, god knows, but them hitherto dialecticians" (Phaedrus 266 B-C). I have called Now, the first five "divisions" in the dialogue entitled The soph1st cio not reach their goal, except in one very peculiar case. I said, ~a "sophist" is. from Elea performs these The goal is to est ablish, as In this dialogue a nameless Stranger dialectic~! exercises wit:h the help of young Theaetetus, whose looks resemble those of Socrates (Theaetetus 143 E). Of Theaetetus we also know , from the dialogue that bears his name as well as from other sources, that he was a powerful mathematician, especially interested in incolllllensurable magnitudes and multitudes. Books X and XIII of Euclid's Elements are based, in part at least, on his work. In the dialogue entitled The Sophist young Theaetetus is shown to distinguish and to count well, so well, indeed, that he he1ps us to understand what the Eleatic Stranger, alone, by himself, could not make us understand. Let us see. �-11- There are·five "diviaiona11 in the beginning.of the dialogue, meant to catch the 11 sophiat 11 • After they have been made they are counted up by the Stranger and Thaaetetus inthefollowing way: "Stranger: First, if I was found not mi•taken, he (that is, the ·11 sophiat 11] illll to be a paid hunter after the younq and wealthy. 'l'heaetetus: Strangers. Secondly a aort of merchant in articles of the soul. Theaetetua: Vary much so. Stranqar: Yes. knowl~ for And thirdly, did he not turn up as retailer (IC-W,.Aot) of these same articles of knowledge? Yes, and fourthly we found he was a aeller of his own Theaetetus: ' production!'J , (tft1SQ'Ml,1),. . ·Strangers I have to interrupt this quoting You r•ember well" (231 D). to check whether Theaetetus .!!!?.!!. remember well •. By qoing back, we see that the ·stranqer had previously summarized (224 D-E) the third diviaion in these.111110rds: . "And that part of acquisitive art which proceed• bt exchange and by ea.le in , ~ , ways (l/1""'•rtt111a) aa mere retail trade (lt11...A11tn) or as the. sale of one's own production fllk••11l11e:v), ·so lonq as it belongs to. the fam.ily of merchandisinq in knowledqe, that part you will apparently always call sophistry". Theaetetus had then answered: "Necesaarily so, for I have to follow the argument, the , A•r•I". Theaetetua reimembers well: he remembers that retail trade and ~the sale of one'• own 2roduction ., , had been mentioned, but he forgot, !!_e_f!?_ri.ot, the word ¥••r•t"•{in ~.ways), and this makes him add to the third description a new one, which he calls the fourth. !2!;hr· his rememberinq !!!!!, his forqettinq have remarkable consequences. In the counting up of the "divisions" the fourth becomes the fifth, and the fifth, which is the one that reaches its qoal, namely the correct de•cription of the work perforaed �-12- by a quasi-aophiat, naaely by Socrates himself, - this fifth "division" becallea the ailtth. six is the first "perfect" Let ua not fox-qets nwlber, and only a •perfect" number is fit to be applied to Socrates' work. But, moreover, the foqetfulness of Theaetetus compels us to " pay special attention to th• word which he forqot, to the word.o,,..fart:(lt..1>-, ) or more exactly to the wordlpcfw (both) and to its cognates. We become aware that this word ;is used-over and over aqain in the dialoque. Here is just one example. remarks at one point Speakinq of the "sophist", the Stranger (226 A): "Do you see the truth of the statement that this beast ia many-sided and, as the saying is, not to be cauqht with one hand? Theaetetusz Then we must catch him with.botii • The aiqnificance of this word "both" becomes fully apparefrt: when the Stranger and Theaetetus focus their attention and "Rest" (~'r.;flJ). I shall quote You say that Change and Rest are Theaetetus: "Change" again (250 A-C): entir~ly , (Kuh15<S) "Stranqer: opposed to each other? How could I say anything else? say that both and each of than equally Stranqer: on !!!..• Stranger: And yet you Theaetetus: Yes, I do. And in admittinq that they are, are you saying that both and each of them are chanq"ing? ·Theaetetus: No, nol Stranger: Then, perhaps, by sayinq that both a.re, you mean they are bQth at rest? 'fheaet•tus: How could I? Stranger: Then you put before you Being (r~ ~) aa a third1 as aomethinq beside these, inasmuch as you think Rest and Change are embraced by it1 and since you· comprehend and observe that these comnme with Being, are you saying that they both ·Tbeaetetwu ~? We truly happen to divine that Being is something third, when we say that Change and Rest~· Stranqer: Then Beinq is not �~13- .~·Chge Theaetetus1 and ·~.together, so i.t ••••· but llOIUlthi.ng else, ·&fferent frcm thm. Accordinq to its own nature, th.en, Strangers Being is neither at rest !!2!. changinq. G"~t-cfc:vl "• value. Theaetetua a M-hm Un Greek a The laat atat•ent of, the Stranger cannot be taken at face And.Theaetetu• imalediately afteEWards recognizes that it is totally ilftposaibl• for Being to he neither at rest nor changinq. The root of the difficulty, of the perplexity in which we, who listen to this conversation, ·find ourselvea is that, in the case of Being, Change and Reat, our human speech, tha l.l1os, i• failinq. It im failing , v when it triea to speak about auch greatest "looks" fi'~l''rw. ~il'7--254C2-3), that , 18, such all•CQll.Prehending vo•7t«. . Being and Rast ((rcG'tf) appear to be three # fro ov >, , Change ("'""'''s > Ef/'1, three "invisible looks", e , «, while in truth Change an,d Rest are "each one" ('l<"tlfo'I e:v> and "both :I! I rl two". (it#•or:t1tl/. 01.1u). "' Both together they constitute Being (ro" DV). Thia means that, accoriing to Plato, Beinq must· be understood as the eidetic Two. The eidetic Two ia not a mathanatical number of tm in- divisible and undistinguishable monads, among infinitely many INCh mathematical. twos. Nor is it two visible, divisible and unequal things, two houses or two d09a or two apples, for example. The eidetic Two is a unique dyad of two .unique E~'J?, of two "invisible look•", namely of Change and Rest. And ju•t •• they both together, and only ~ together, are the ,1'[of, the "look", the "invisible look" Being, llO the Stranger from Elea and Theaetetua can only both toqether deal with the question of Being. to Theaetetus (239 C): That's why the Stranqer says at one point "let us bid farewell. to you and to me". He means that neither he alone nor Theaetetus alone can acCCJmpliah the taak, �-14- but that they can do it only both t:ogether. .. , ' But this they can do "not ;, with complete clarity" (~"I tfllltf':J q"«+?"'''f - 254 C 6), because they are speakinq about it. · It is thus t:Mt a weakness of speech is revealed· in the dialogue entitled ·The sophist. · ·sut this dialogue alao shows why there ~ be falsehood uttered in speech, Why speech can state what is There iS r however I to likelihood. a wide ~ true. Bp8Cti'ulll Of the !!!!_-~1 ranqing from falsehood Thia is the background of the dialogue entitled Timaeus, IUJd I would like to qiote a passage from this dialoque to make you experience the playful and saddeninq ambiguity of this passaqe. It deals with the human mouth.· It claims that it. was .fashipned "for ends both necetiaary and most good"; ·"as an entrance with a view to what is· necessary and as an outlet with a view to what is most good". quoting (75 i>-B) r I keep For all that enters in and supplies food to the 11 body is,neceaaa.ryrwhile the stream.of speech·which flows out and ministers to thoughtf ulnesa is of all atreams the most beautiful and moat good". Can we forget how much &Vil, how much falsehood, how much tri"fling, ·how much nonsense a<lso flow& out? must be added.I No, we cannot.· But this in all those cases I just mentioned speech does not minister to thoughtfulness, to , . <;eov'1'°'S. Let me now turn to a character of speech to which the ancients .ppu:ently did pay only, llC~ attention. A ·moat r.arkable sim;i.larity .obtains between words, apoken words of' live speech, and money, - money, that is1 available in coins and bills. · Both are precious, both circulate freely, coins and bills from hand to hancl, words frcim mouth to mouth. The imprints on cains and bills are .qraduall.y erased, effaced, r.uhbed �-15- off, just as the meanings of words aean to become fuzzy, blurred and empty with the pa.1taa9e of time. as there is in money. There is even counterfeiting in lan9'U8.9'e Human speech can and does deteriorate to an extent which renders it obnoxio~s, makes it unable to reach anyone, deprives it totally of wings. It was Edmund Husserl who·, in modern ·times, pointed to this inevitable deterioration of hulllari speech~ According to him the signifying power of a word has, by its· very nature, the tendency to lose its revealing character. The more we become accustomed to wrds, the less we perceive their original and precise significance: f~cial a· kind of super- and vague· understanding is the necessary result of the increasing familiarity wi-th spoken -.and written - words;. ni.ficance is· still Yet that original sig- there, in every word, somehow at the bottom of our speakinq and our ~forqotten", u~erstancling, meaning conveyed by our speech might be. mt still however vague the The original "evidence" has .faded away, but has· not disappeared completely. It need not be "awakened" even, it underlies our mutual understanding in a "sedimented" form. "Sedimentation is always somehow forgetfulness" (Die Frage nach dem Ursprung der Geometrie ala intentional-historisches Problem, first published by Eugen Fink in "Revue internationale de philosophie", I, 2, 1939, p.212). And this kind of forgetfulness accqmpanies, of necessity. according to Husserl, the deve1·op:nent and growth of any science. (The text about the "origin of geometry". ·appears also - in a· slightly changed form - as the 3rd Appendix to Walter Biemel's edition of the Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology HUsserliana, Vol. VI, 1962 - and as the 6th Appendix to David Carr's �-16- Northwe•t~n tranalation of the •erisia" - Univeraity·Preas, 1970. The sentence "sedimentation is always somehow forqetfulness 11 is omitted in Bi...l's and Carr's versiQns. I. assume, however, that this sentence is based. on Husserl's own vo.rds, uttered in conversations with Fink.) .To be sure, the evidence .can be "reactivated0 oriq~nal , and indeed is.reactivated at definite· tim... ·Thia interlacement.of the original significance and of its "sedimentation" constitutes, we read in HUsserl's late.work, th• true charactei- of •history" (Ibid., p. 220). From that poJ,nt of view there is onJ.y· 2!!!_1egitimate fopa of history: tha history of hwlan thought. from Philosophy. History, inthia understanding, cannot be separated Husserl's own philosophy, aa it deyelo~ in its latest phase (1935-1937), is ·a· most raarkable att•pt to restore the integrity of knowledge, of lt;,,trr11''1' threatened· by the all-pervading tendency of "sedimentation". ·It has remained an attaapt. But it may help us,. in any,event, to understand the character of·speech, the character of ~e spoken word. .It may help us to cautious in our speaking and listening. When we hear --or read ... words ·intended to convey opinions about tlµngs, about ~ they are and !!2!, they are, it is amazing to observe their almost. total dependence .on the Latin rendering of crucial Greek, and·especia1ly Aristotelean, terms used in searching or reve&ling speech or,_ as.we say, in •philosophical" discourse. The adoption of this Latin rendering by modern western lanquages usually involve• a radical chanl]e and certainly a "sedimentation" of the very meaning of the tenis in question. We hear a qr~t deal about pollution today - the pollution of air, water, and land, which burdens our lives. . about the pollu~ion But.we hear rarely of our language, which burdens our understanding. �-17- OQr daily. language, not to mention the •elevated" ianguage of inquiry and exposition, ia pemeated and pol;l.uted by diatorted.teriu in paeudoLatin or even paeudo~reek onea all the tilllea quiae. Don't we use words like-the following "actual", "dynamic", •potentialities"·, •matter", "aubatance", "theory", "inform•tion", "energy", "category", "l09ical", "formal", "abstract"? w~t we ilow strange and how discouraging-I mean by thaaa words? I we know could. extend this list quite a bit, but I should like to add only theae six terms1 "conc•pt~", Do "idea1•,· 11 aaaence", "reality", "individual", and_ - horribile dictu -. "mind•.- This tendency of. "-.dimentation" of human apeech finds, it i9 true, its counterpart in the tendency to reactivate its oriq;Lnal aignificance. Beyond that, i~ may happen that huinan speech reachaa level• previoualy not experienced at alls they may increaae its viqor, lift its signifying power to new heighta, elevate it truly. Responsible for thia are moatly - and rarely enough, to be sure - written words. New words or new combinations of worda can be "coined", as we so aptly and. significantly say. At deciaive points in his dialoques Plato resorts to this kind of coininga in the dialogue entitled The Republic, for example, but. mollt. not.ably in the dialogue entitled The Statesman. (We are aware, of course, that Plato's dialogues-, althouqh presenting lively sp0ken words, are the result of uniquely careful inditing and writing.) Story-writer• engage - aometim.ea - in this kind of inventive writing, as Joyce and Faulkner did. The moat illlportant cases. of newly articulated written speech, however, are found in declaratory work•·which intend to convey knowledge, derived froa questioning that is profound and deeply Hrioua. Such 'WOrka are those o~ Aristotle, of He<Jel who raises Ariatotle to new levels, and of Heidegger who opposes Aristotle radically. �-1a'1'heir peculiar way of apeakinq aheda new light on thinga, on their zoota, their relations, their very being •. We :have to notes none of t.he8e author• have written work• that are eaaily translatable, - and thia cannot he otherwise. Let me be fair to people of the Latin tongue· and, by way of conclusion quote Virgil, the poet. In a letter: to a friend Virgil says that he giv• birth to verses in the manner of bears and according to their custom (parere •• veraua modo a·tque ritu ursino) , that is to say, that be pz'Oduces his verses the way the mother bear handles her newly born cubaa shape. . .aiduoualy and peraiatently llhe licks th• into their proper Such aniduoua work, perfozaed on the written word and undertaken to·uaure the right articulation of a compoaad whole, can anci does reatore and preserve the integrity of human speech. It is thus that the written word repays i ta eterna·l debt to the spoken word. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Description An account of the resource Items in this collection are part of a series of lectures given every year at St. John's College. During the Fall and Spring semesters, lectures are given on Friday nights. Items include audio and video recordings and typescripts.<br /><br />For more information, and a schedule of upcoming lectures, please visit the <strong><a href="http://www.sjc.edu/programs-and-events/annapolis/formal-lecture-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">St. John's College website</a></strong>.  <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Formal Lecture Series" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?collection=5&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate&amp;sort_dir=d">Items in the St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection.<br /><br />A growing number of lecture recordings are also available on the St. John's College (Annapolis) Lectures podcast. Visit <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/st-johns-college-annapolis-lectures/id1695157772">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6GDsIRqC8SWZ28AY72BsYM?si=f2ecfa9e247a456f" title="Spotify">Spotify</a> to listen and subscribe. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Formal Lecture Series—Annapolis Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context formallectureseriesannapolis Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data paper Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 18 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Speech: Its Strength and Its Weaknesses Description An account of the resource Typescript of a lecture delivered on February 23, 1973, by Jacob Klein as part of the Formal Lecture Series. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Klein, Jacob, 1899-1978 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-02-23 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource The Greenfield Library holds the literary rights to Jacob Klein's work. Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Subject The topic of the resource Oral interpretation Language and languages Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context lec Klein 1973-02-23 Relation A related resource <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7847" title="Audio recording">Audio recording</a> Friday night lecture Tutors https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/351f0e340ba3dcd776aa4c292949d048.mp3 5ea5f0ff9e985c15c81163096561ff00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. John's College Lecture Recordings—Santa Fe Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Meem Library Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data m4a Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 01:05:58 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Philosophy as an Aid to Invention and Creativity Description An account of the resource Audio recording of a lecture given by Dave Shafer on March 27, 2024 as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series. The Dean's Office has provided this description of the event: "The philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) was the founder of phenomenology, a field that led eventually to Sartre’s existentialism, among other offshoots. Phenomenology is a systematic way of investigating certain aspects of human experience. Psychologist Clark Moustakas (1902-1987) refined some of these techniques and developed transcendental phenomenology, mainly for therapeutic use. The goal is to have everything perceived freshly, as if for the first time. That means approaching an experience while devoid of prejudices, and any prior assumptions. As Husserl put it – “to go back to the things themselves” without ourselves, our personalities, and our history getting in the way of us having direct unmediated experiences. A quite unintended use of this idea turns out to be a very powerful way to approach problem solving in any field and to be more inventive and creative. We will show some examples of this in my own field of hi-tech optical system designs, which has led me to have over 200 patents so far, but mostly some every-day non-technical use will be demonstrated. The key is always to identify and question assumptions you have made." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Shafer, Dave Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2024-03-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Meem Library has been given permission to make this item available online. Type The nature or genre of the resource sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource mp3 Subject The topic of the resource Phenomenology Invention Creativity Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SF_ShaferD_Philosophy_as_an_Aid_to_Invention_and_Creativity_2024-03-27 https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/82479d77493d92d664483eb72c13151e.pdf bb111a5bf80a58dd6ea120ff69a446e9 PDF Text Text S!JOHN'S College ANNAPOLIS • SANTA FE Charter and Polity of the Colle ge ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND ~ SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO Amended and Restated October 2011 Founded as King William' s School, 1696 Chartered as St. John's College, 1784 �Since this Polity can be amended between printings, the current official Polity is kept in the offices of the Presidents of St. John's College. HISTORY St. John's College was founded in I 696 as King William's School in accordance with a Petitionary Act for free-schools of the General Assembly of the Colony of Maryland. Following the Revolutionary War, the General Assembly of the new State of Maryland granted a Charter to St. John's College pursuant to and as a part of Chapter 37 of the Laws of Maryland of 1784. This Charter was subsequently amended by the General Assembly through Resolution No. 41 of 1832. The Visitors and Governors of St. John's College in 1950 revised the Charter to eliminate extraneous and obsolete matter and to make certain other amendments consistent with present requirements and conditions. It was the opinion of the Attorney General of Maryland that the original Charter of the College was subject to the general Corporation Laws of Maryland and might accordingly be amended by the Visitors and Governors, pursuant to these laws, without legislative action by the General Assembly. Subsequent amendments were made in 1961, in 1963, in 1965, in 1970, and in 1975. CHARTER OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE WHEREAS, institutions for the liberal education of youth in the principles of virtue, knowledge and useful literature are of the highest benefit to society, in order to train up and perpetuate a succession of able and honest men for discharging the various offices and duties of life, both civil and religious, with usefulness and reputation, and such institutions of learning have accordingly been promoted and encouraged by the wisest and best regulated States; And whereas, it appears to this General Assembly that many public spirited individuals, from an earnest desire to promote the founding a college or seminary of learning on the Western Shore of this State have subscribed and procured subscriptions to a considerable amount, and there is reason to believe that very large additions will be obtained to the same throughout the different counties of the said Shore, if they were made capable in law to receive and apply the same towards founding and carrying on a college or general seminary of learning with such salutary plan and with such legislative assistance and direction as the General Assembly might think fit, and this General Assembly, highly approving those generous exertions of individuals, are desirous to embrace the present favorable occasion of peace and prosperity for making lasting provision for the encouragement and advancement of all useful knowledge and literature through every part of this State; BE IT ENACTED: When the decision was reached to establish a second St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, amendments were made to the Charter to authorize branches or extensions of the College. The Charter was then filed with the Corporations Commission of the State of New Mexico as a foreign corporation. The College was thus empowered to grant degrees in New Mexico under the provisions of its Maryland Charter. A Polity for the College was first suggested at a faculty meeting in 1943 by the Dean. A faculty committee was elected and drafted a Polity, which was then promulgated by the President. In April 1949 the Faculty elected a committee to revise the Polity. The resulting document was approved by the Faculty on April 9, 1950, and was adopted by the Board of Visitors and Governors on July 8, 1950. Subsequent quinquennial reviews were made by elected faculty committees, and desired amendments were recommended by the Faculty to the Board of Visitors and Governors. The Polity was thus amended at regular meetings of the Board held on May 14, 1955; May 21, 1960; May 15, 1965; June 6, 1970; April 19, 1975; January 16, 1982; April 19, 1986; and October 19, 1991. Other amendments were adopted by the Board at regular meetings on February 22 and December 9, 1961; February 23 and September 28, 1963; October 3, 1970; February 18, 1972;0ctober25, 1975;January24, 1976;November6, 1982;July21, 1984;April 20, 1985; October 25, 1986; April 11, 1987; October 19, 1991; July 18, 1992; April 17, 1993; April 22, 1995; April 19, 1996; April 24, 1999, and November 6, 1999; January 27, 2001, April 26, 2003; April 24, 2004; January 27, 2006; April 22, 2006; April 25, 2009; April 24, 2010, and October 29, 2011. II. That a college or general seminary of learning by the name of "St. John's College" be established on the said Western Shore upon the following fundamental and inviolable principles; namely, first, the said college shall be founded and maintained forever upon a most liberal plan for the benefit of youth of every religious denomination, who shall be freely admitted to equal privileges and advantages of education and to all the literary honors of the college, according to their merit without requiring or enforcing any religious or civil test, or urging their attendance upon any particular religious worship or service other than what they have been educated in or have the consent and approbation of their parents or guardians to attend; nor shall any preference be given in the choice of a Principal, Vice-Principal or other Professor, Master or Tutor in said college on account of his particular religious profession, having regard solely to his moral character and literary abilities and other necessary qualifications to fill the place for which he shall be chosen. IV. That the governing body or board of said College shall consist of not more than sixty nor less than thirteen Visitors and Governors, to be chosen and to hold office in such manner as the said Visitors and Governors may determine and prescribe by their fundamental ordinances; provided, however, that the Governors of the States of Maryland and New Mexico shall act ex officio as two of the total number of Visitors and Governors of said college during their respective terms in said offices; and that the said Visitors and Governors and their successors duly chosen shall be and are hereby declared to be one community, corporation and body politic to have continuance forever by the name of and by the same name they shall have perpetual succession. �ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE VII. That if the City of Annapolis should be fixed upon as a proper place for establishing the said intended college, this General Assembly give and grant, and upon that condition do hereby give and grant to the Visitors and Governors of the said College by the name of "The Visitors and Governors of Saint John's College in the State of Maryland," and their successors all that four acres within the City of Annapolis purchased for the use by the public and conveyed on the 2nd day of October, 1744, by Stephen Bordley, Esq., to Thos. Bladen, Esq., then Governor, to have and to hold the said four acres of land with the appurtenances to the said Visitors and Governors and their successors for the only use, benefit and behoof of the said college and seminary of universal learning forever. VIII. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors by the same name shall be able and capable in law to purchase, have and enjoy to them and their successors in fee, or for any other less estate or estates, any lands, tenements, rents, annuities, pensions or other hereditaments by the gift, grant, bargain, sale, alienation, enfeoffment, release, confirmation, or devise of any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate capable to make the same, and such lands, tenements, rents, annuities, pensions or other hereditaments or any less estates, rights or interests of or in the same at their pleasure to grant, alien, sell and transfer in such manner and form as they shall think meet and convenient for the furtherance of the said college; And also that they may take and receive any sum or sums of money, and any kind, manner or portion of goods and chattels that shall be given, sold or bequeathed to them by any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate capable to make a gift, sale or bequest thereof and employ the same towards erecting, setting up and maintaining the said college in such manner as they shall judge most necessary and convenient for the instruction, improvement and education of youth in the vernacular and learned languages, and generally in any kind of literature, arts and sciences, which they shall think proper to be taught for training up good, useful and accomplished men fo r the service of their country, in church and state. IX. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors by the name aforesaid shall be able in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleadable in any court or courts, before any judge, judges, or justices within this State and elsewhere in all and all manner of suits, complaints, pleas, causes, matters and demands of whatsoever kind, nature or form they be and all and every other matter and thing therein to do in as full and effectual a manner as any other person or persons, bodies politic or corporate within this State or any of the United States of America in like cases may or can do. X. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors shall have full power and authority to have, make and use one common and public seal and likewise one privy seal with such devices and inscriptions as they shall think proper, and to ascertain, fix and regulate the uses of both seals, by their own laws and the same seals or either of them to change, break, alter and renew at their pleasure. XI. That the said Visitors and Governors and their successors from time to time and at all times hereafter, forever, shall have full power and authority to constitute and appoint in such manner as they shall think best and most convenient, a principal, a vice-principal of the said college and professors with proper tutors and assistants for instructing the students and scholars of the said seminary in all the liberal arts and sciences, and in the ancient and modem tongues and languages; and the said principal, vice-principal and professors so constituted and appointed from time to time shall be known and distinguished forever as one learned body or faculty by the name of "The Principal, Vice-Principal and Professors of St. John's College"; and by that name shall be capable of exercising such powers and authorities as the Visitors and Governors of the said college and their successors shall by their ordinances think necessary to delegate to them for the instruction, discipline and government of the said seminary and of all the students, scholars, ministers and servants belonging to the same. XIV. That a majority of the said Visitors and Governors for the time being and duly assembled at any meeting upon due notice given to the whole body of Visitors and Governors shall have full power and authority to make fundamental ordinances for the government of the said college and the instruction of youth as aforesaid, and by these ordinances to appoint such a number of their own body not less than seven, as they may think proper for transacting all general and necessary business of the said seminary and making temporary rules for the government of the same; and also by the said fundamental ordinances to delegate to the principal, vice-principal and professors such powers and authorities as they may think best for the standing government of the said seminary and of the execution of the ordinances and rules of the same; provided always that they be not repugnant to the form of government of any law of this State. XV. And for animating and encouraging the students of said college to a laudable diligence, industry and progress in useful literature and science, be it enacted that the said Visitors and Governors and their successors shall by a written mandate under their privy seal and the hand of someone of the Visitors and Governors to be chosen annually as their President, according to the ordinance to be made for that purpose, have full power and authority to direct the principal, viceprincipal and professors to hold public commencements either on stated annual days, or occasionally as the future ordinances of the said seminary may direct and at such commencements to admit any of the students in the said college or any other persons meriting the same (whose names shall be severally inserted in the same mandate) to any degree or degrees in any of the faculties, arts and sciences and liberal professions to which persons are usually admitted in other colleges or universities in America or Europe; And it is hereby enacted that the principal , or in the case of his death or absence, the vice-principal , and in case of the death or absence of both, the senior professor who may be present, shall make out and sign with his name diplomas or certificates of the admission to such degree or degrees, which shall be sealed with the public or greater seal of the said corporation or college and delivered to the graduates as honorable and perpetual testimonials of such admission; which diplomas, if thought necessary for doing greater honor to such graduates, shall also be signed with the names of the different professors or as many of them as can conveniently sign the same; provided always that no student or students within the said college shall ever be admitted to any such degree or degrees, or have their name inserted in any mandate for a degree, until such student or students have been first duly examined, and thought worthy of the same. XVI. That the ordinances which shall be from time to time made by the Visitors and Governors of the said college and their successors with an account of their other proceedings and of the management of the estate and moneys committed to their trust, shall when required be laid �before the General Assembly for their inspection and examination, but in case at any time hereafter through oversight, or otherwise through misapprehension and mistaken constructions of the powers, liberties and franchises in this Charter or Act of Incorporation granted, or intended to be granted, any ordinance should be made by the said corporation of Visitors and Governors or any matters done and transacted by the corporation contrary to the tenor hereof, it is enacted that although such ordinances, acts and doings shall in themselves be null and void, yet they shall not, however, in any courts of law, or by the General Assembly, be deemed, taken, interpreted or adjudged into an avoidance or forfeiture of this Charter and Act of Incorporation, but the same shall be and remain unhurt, inviolate and entire unto the said corporation of Visitors and Governors in perpetual succession; and all their acts conformable to the powers, true intent and meaning hereof shall be and remain in full force and validity, the nullity and avoidance of such illegal acts to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. XVII. That this Charter and Act of Incorporation and every part thereof shall be good and available in all things in the law according to the true intent and meaning thereof, and shall be construed, reputed and adjudged in all cases most favorably on the behalf and for the best benefit and be hoof of the said Visitors and Governors and their successors, so as most effectually to answer the valuable end of this Act of Incorporation towards the general advancement and promotion of useful knowledge, science and virtue. Polity of St. John's College Preamble Education is the making of men and women out of children by bringing them into the world of inherited customs, intellectual traditions, and spiritual ties. Institutions of learning are set up for this purpose. Beyond this they should also seek to develop the moral and intellectual powers of their students to enable them to fulfill best their freely chosen tasks and thus to take their own responsible part in shaping the future. St. John's College is a community of learning committed to holding these ends constantly in sight and to seeking the best means of attaining them. St. John's College strives to illuminate the common heritage of humanity in a persisting study of the great documents in which that heritage can be found. It is concerned with the unity of knowledge, an understanding of the great issues, and the moral foundations on which men and women may conduct their lives. To provide proper conditions for the pursuit of these ends, we, the Board of Visitors and Governors, after consultation with the Faculty, do ordain and establish this Polity for St. John's College. Article I XVIII. That the College may establish and operate one or more branches in one or more states of the United States. THE COLLEGE (1) St. John's College is by its Charter a legal entity, carrying on its functions from its campuses in Annapolis, Maryland, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Under the Charter of the College, all power, authority, and responsibility pertaining to the College are vested in the Visitors and Governors. (2) The College consists of the following: The Board of Visitors and Governors, the Faculty, the Graduate and Undergraduate Students, the Alumni and the Staff, and other members who may be named from time to time by the Board of Visitors and Governors. (3) Under the Charter, "the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, forever, shall have full power and authority to constitute and appoint, in such manner as they shall think best and most convenient, a principal and viceprincipal of the said College, and professors, with proper tutors and assistants, for instructing the students and scholars of the said seminary in all the liberal arts and sciences, and in the ancient and modern tongues and languages; and the said principal, vice-principal, and professors, so constituted and appointed from time to time shall be known and distinguished forever as one learned body or faculty, by the name of 'The Principal, Vice-Principal, and Professors of St. John's College;' and by that name shall be capable of exercising such powers and authorities as the Visitors and Governors of the said college and their successors shall by their ordinances think necessary to delegate to them for the instruction, discipline, and government of the said seminary and of all the students, scholars, ministers and servants belonging to the same." �(a) The "principal" shall be the Presidents. When 'President' is used in this Polity it shall mean: (i) with respect to membership on the Board of Visitors and Governors, in the Faculty, on committees of the Board, and sitting ex officio with the Instruction Committee, and for presentation of, and response to, the Statement of Educational Policy and Program (Article V (l)(c)), the President of the Annapolis campus and the President of the Santa Fe campus; (ii) with respect to membership on committees or sitting ex officio with committees, and actions or procedures relating to one campus, the President of that campus; who have been designated as honorary members of the Alumni Association of St. John's College shall be called Alumni. All who have ever been Alumni shall continue to be. (k) The Staff shall consist of all persons appointed by the President who are not members of the Faculty of St. John's College or the Faculty of the Graduate Institute. (I) There shall be no discrimination at St. John's College in appointments, conditions of employment, admissions, educational policy, financial aid programs, athletics, or other activities, on the basis of race, religion, age, sex, national origin, color, disability and/or handicap, sexual orientation, or other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state or local law. (iii) with respect to actions under Article [I (12)(b) or actions or procedures involving the entire College under Article X (l)(a)(i) and Article X (l)(a)(iii), either President. Article II VISITORS AND GOVERNORS (b) The "vice-principal" shall be the Dean who is serving as the Chair of the Instruction Committee. (c) There shall be a Dean of St. John's College in Annapolis and a Dean of St. John's College in Santa Fe. (d) The "professors, tutors and assistants" shall bear the title Tutor or Tutor Emeritus. Tutors who have completed their tenure appointments shall be Tutors Emeriti. (e) There shall be Vice-Presidents for College Advancement and Treasurers. (f) There shall be Associate members of the Faculty, hereinafter called Associates, as provided in Article VIII. (g) The "one learned body or faculty," composed of the President, the Deans, the other Tutors, the Tutors Emeriti, the Vice-Presidents for College Advancement, the Treasurers, and the Associates, shall bear the title the Faculty of St. John's College. (h) All who have formally matriculated, are at the present enrolled, and are in good standing shall be called Students of St. John's College. (i) The Directors and the Tutors of the Graduate Institute shall be called the Faculty of the Graduate Institute. (j) All who have been awarded a degree by the College shall be called Alumni. In addition, all who have completed at least one semester of undergraduate study or at least one segment of Graduate Institute study, but who are not currently enrolled, shall be called Alumni either a) in the case of undergraduate students, when the class with which they matriculated has graduated, orb) in the case of Graduate Institute students, at the end of three full sessions of the Graduate Institute after the one in which they last enrolled. All (l) Qualifications for Membership. Persons shall be eligible for membership on the Board of Visitors and Governors who are concerned for the maintenance, progress, and vitality of St. John ' s College' s educational program and who are willing and able to discharge the responsibilities of trusteeship with devotion and energy. (2) Members. The Board of Visitors and Governors shall consist of not more than thirty four members, comprising the Presidents, the Deans, the Governors of Maryland and New Mexico, and the President of the St. John' s College Alumni Association, ex officio, twentyseven members, of whom not more than twenty-four shall be elected by the entire Board, and of whom not more than three shall be elected by the Alumni of the College, all in the manner and for the terms hereinafter provided. In recognition of meritorious service to the College, Visitors Emeriti may be elected to the Board who may attend all meetings of the Board, with voice in deliberation, but without vote. Retired members of the Board who have served six (6) terms on the Board as members in good standing may be designated as Honorary Board Members upon election by the Board. Honorary Board Members will receive minutes of the Plenary Sessions of the Board, may, as a guest, attend the Plenary Sessions of all regular meetings of the Board, and may be asked to assist on Board Committees. (3) Elections by the Board. At each annual meeting, the Board shall elect a class of members for a term of three years, to succeed those members whose term expires at the conclusion of said meeting. Those members elected shall begin their term upon the conclusion of the meeting of their election. The procedure for nomination and election shall be as follows: There shall be a Trustee and Governance Committee of the Board appointed by the Chair. The Chair and the Presidents shall sit with the committee, ex officio, when nominations to Board membership are being considered. The Trustee and Governance Committee shall recommend to each member of the Board in writing, not later than thirty days prior to the annual meeting at which the election is to be held, at least one candidate for each of the places to be filled by such election, including each position as an officer of the Board. Additional nominations may be made in writing, addressed to the Chair, signed by at least �five members of the Board, prior to the date above provided for the report of the Trustee and Governance Committee, and any such additional nominations shall be reported to the Board by the Committee at the time of its report. Voting on nominations at annual meetings may be by ballot, each member present to vote on said nominations. In case the balloting results in a tie for one or more positions, the Board shall determine the procedure to resolve the tie. No nominee for member or officer of the Board shall be deemed elected who has not received the affirmative votes of at least a majority of the members present at the meeting. Jf there should be fewer than eight members in any class prior to the end of the term for such class, any vacancy may be filled pursuant to the procedure provided above for regular elections, except that the election may take place at any regular meeting. A member elected to fill any such vacancy shall hold office for the remainder of the term of the class in which such vacancy occurred. (4) Elections by the Alumni . The voice of alumni being of particular value to the Board, each year one of the college' s alumni shall be elected to membership for a term of three years, in such manner that there shall be three members of the Board elected by the alumni, consisting of three classes of one member each. Outgoing members so elected shall continue to serve until their successors' term of office begins. Such elections shall be conducted in accordance with the By-laws of the Alumni Association of St. John ' s College. A representative of the Alumni Association Board shall consult w ith the Chair of the Trustee and Governance Committee of the Board of Visitors and Governors concerning the Association's nominees and shall advise the Trustee and Governance Committee of its nominees in advance of the Board of Visitors and Governors' mid-year meeting so that the organizations ' respective nominations can reasonably be coordinated. In the event that for any reason there should be fewer than one member so elected in any class prior to the end of the term of that class, the vacancy may be filled by the Alumni Association of St. John ' s College. Newly elected alumni shall begin their terms immediately following the annual meeting of the Board. (5) Faculty Representation at Board Meetings. Three members of the Faculty shall be elected by the Faculty on each campus to attend all regular sessions of the Board on the campus to which they belong, with voice in deliberation, but without vote. (6) Student Representation at Board Meetings. Two students shall be elected by the Students on each campus to attend all regular sessions of the Board on the campus to which they belong, with voice in deliberation, but without vote. (7) Graduate Institute Director Representation at Board Meetings. Each Director of the Graduate Institute may attend all regular sessions of the Board on such Director' s campus, with voice in deliberation, but without vote. (8) Graduate Institute Student Representation at Board Meetings. A student of the Graduate Institute shall be elected by the Students of the Graduate Institute on each campus to attend all regular sessions of the Board on such student's campus, with voice in deliberation, but without vote. (9) Staff Representation at Board Meetings. The Staff on each campus shall be invited to send two representatives to all regular sessions of the Board at that campus, with voice in deliberation, but without vote. (10) Reelection. A member of the Board elected by the Board or by the Alumni may be elected for not more than two consecutive terms, but may, after a second consecutive term, be reelected to membership at the annual meeting in the year following the expiration of the member's second term . Notwithstanding the foregoing, in extraordinary circumstances, the Trustee and Governance Committee may recommend the reelection of the Chair of the Board fo r up to two additional consecutive terms. (11 ) Meetings of the Board. (a) The Board shall hold at least three regular meetings annually, at least one of which shall be held on each campus. The last meeting of the academic year shall be called the annual meeting. The time and place of regular meetings shall be determined by the Chair, in consultation with the President, and notice of regular meetings shall be given not less than fifteen days prior to such meetings. (b) Special meetings of the Board may be called by the President, the Chair, the Executive Committee, or any nine members of the Board, not less than seven days after the dispatch of written, faxed, or e-mail notice of the time, place, and purposes of the meeting. Such notice may be dispensed with if waived in writing by all members of the Board either before or after the meeting. (c) Any business may be conducted at a regular meeting without specific notice of such business (except that which is required by law or as provided herein as to elections and amendments), but no business shall be conducted at any special meeting unless notice of such business has been given, or has been waived as above provided. (d) One third of the members of the Board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. (e) The Board in regular session is open to elected and ex officio members, to Visitors Emeriti, to Honorary Board Members as guests, to Associates and others invited by the President, and to official representatives of the Faculty, Students, Graduate Institute, and Staff. Attendance at Executive sessions shall be limited to voting members and Visitors Emeriti. Public sessions shall be open without restriction. The Chair of the Board, in consultation with the Presidents, shall determine whether any meeting or portion of a meeting shall be in regular, executive, or public session. �(12) Officers of the Board. At each annual meeting the Board shall elect a Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary, to hold office until the next annual meeting or until their successors are elected. Vacancies in any such offices may be filled at any regular meeting, or any special meeting called for that purpose. Such officers shall perform the customary duties of such offices, and such other duties as the Board may from time to time direct. auditors, unattended by employees of the College. The Committee shall recommend to the Board the appointment or reappointment of independent auditors to conduct the audit for the next fiscal year. The Committee shall report to the Board annually on its review of the audit, shall bring to the attention of the Board any matters related thereto requiring Board action, and shall have such other responsibilities as the Chair of the Board shall determine. The Treasurers shall serve as non-voting Staff to the committee. (13) Committees of the Board. (a) Executive Committee. The Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Presidents, Deans, Chairs of the Finance, Advancement, Visiting, and Trustee and Governance Committees, and two other members chosen annually by the Board at the annual meeting shall comprise the Executive Committee of the Board. In intervals between meetings of the Board, the Executive Committee may act for the Board, except in those matters expressly delegated to some other committee, person, or persons. Eight members of the Executive Committee present at a meeting shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The Executive Committee shall determine the compensation of the Vice Presidents and Treasurers. The Executive Committee shall recommend to the Board the compensation of the Presidents and shall also recommend annually to the Board the Chair of the Management Committee. (b) Presidential Search Committee. There shall be a Presidential Search Committee to recommend the appointment of a President as provided in Article IV(2). (c) Trustee and Governance Committee. There shall be a Trustee and Governance Committee which shall be responsible for the nomination, orientation, and assessment of members of the Board as provided in Article ll(3), and shall have such other responsibilities as the Chair of the Board shall charge. (g) Polity Review Committee. There shall be a Polity Review Committee appointed by the Chair every fifth year. The Chair of the Board shall appoint one of the members to be Chair of the Committee. The Committee shall receive the report of the Faculty Committee and after appropriate study shall make recommendations to the Board for consideration at the annual meeting when the final review of the Polity is consummated. The respective Chairs of the Board and Faculty Review Committees shall make such arrangements as they deem appropriate for joint consultation prior to and after the adoption of the report by the Faculty. (h) Advancement Committee. There shall be an Advancement Committee which shall be responsible for the oversight of the College's fundraising, communications, and alumni relations functions, and shall have such other responsibilities as the Chair of the Board shall determine. The Vice Presidents for College Advancement shall be members of the Committee, ex officio. (i) Other Committees. The Chair may appoint such other standing or special committees of the Board as the Chair deems desirable or which the Board may request. (j) Former members of the Board and Visitors Emeriti may be appointed by and at the discretion of the Chair to serve on committees. (d) Visiting Committee. There shall be a Visiting Committee, which shall meet at least once annually with the Instruction Committee on one of the campuses. The Visiting Committee shall discuss the Statement of Educational Policy and Program of the Chair of the Instruction Committee and become acquainted with the aims of the College and how they are being realized, and shall have such other responsibilities as the Chair of the Board shall charge. The Deans shall be members of the Committee, ex officio. (e) Finance Committee. There shall be a Finance Committee which shall be responsible for recommending to the Board the annual budgets, policies for the expenditures from endowments, major capital expenditures, and policies for the investment of College assets. It shall be responsible for the oversight of the College's financial matters, physical plant and compensation policies for faculty and staff, and shall have such other responsibilities as the Chair of the Board shall charge. The Presidents, Treasurers, and Chair of the Board shall sit on the Committee, ex officio. (f) Audit Committee. There shall be an Audit Committee, including a Chair, appointed by the Chair of the Board. The Committee shall be responsible for the review in detail of the annual report of the independent auditors and the discussion of audit findings with the (k) Except for the Presidential Search Committee and the Polity Review Committee, committee appointments shall be made annually. Members of the Committees serve until their successors have been appointed. (I) Any member of the Board may, without invitation, attend any Board committee meeting, except those of the Presidential Search, Trustee and Governance, and Executive Committees, but without vote. (m)Whenever a Capital Campaign is in progress, its Chair shall be an ex-officio voting member of the Finance and Executive Committees. (14) Execution of Contracts, Transfer of Securities, Etc. All contracts of $50,000 or more, notes, deeds, leases, mortgages, releases, bonds for security or indemnity, negotiable instruments, stock certificates, transfers, and powers, and like papers and documents on behalf of the College or the Endowment Funds shall be executed by two persons, of whom one shall be the President, the Chair, or a Vice-Chair, and of whom the other shall be the Secretary of the Board or the Treasurer of the campus concerned. �(3) The President shall concurrently be a Tutor, but the provisions of Article VI need not apply. ( 15) Signing of checks, drafts, etc. All checks, drafts, acceptances, and similar orders for the payment of money on behalf of the College may be signed by the same persons authorized to execute contracts, etc., pursuant to Section (14) hereof, but may also be signed by such persons, and in such manner, as the Board may from time to time direct by appropriate resolution. (16) The College shall indemnify, to the full extent permitted by law, any current or former member of the Board or officer of the College or any person who, while a member of the Board or an officer of the College, may have served at the College's request as a director, officer, partner or trustee of another entity, against any judgments, penalties, fines, settlements and reasonable expenses actually and necessarily incurred by him or her in connection with the defense of any action, suit or proceeding to which he or she is made a party by reason of being or having been such member of the Board or officer of the College. Article III THE FACULTY The Visitors and Governors by these ordinances hereby delegate to the Faculty of St. John's College the President, the Deans, the other Tutors, the Tutors Emeriti, the Vice-Presidents for College Advancement, the Treasurers, and the Associates "powers and authorities" for the "instruction, discipline, and government" of the College. Article IV THE FACULTY: THE PRESIDENT (1) There shall be a President for the Annapolis campus and a President for the Santa Fe campus, each appointed as provided in Article IV (2). There is delegated to each President by the Visitors and Governors executive responsibility and authority for the instruction, discipline, and government of the President's campus, and the President, in turn, may delegate such authority. In the interest of the orderly conduct of business and of maintaining and promoting the unity of the College, the Presidents shall regularly consult and communicate with each other and, as appropriate, with other College officials, on matters of common concern. (2) The President shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of a Committee composed of five members of the Board of Visitors and Governors appointed by the Chair of the Board, at least one of whom is an alumnus the ' Deans, and one Tutor having tenure from each campus elected by the Faculty on that campus. This Committee shall be known as the Presidential Search Committee. It shall consult with the continuing President in a regular and timely fashion. Prior to making its final recommendation, it shall, on both campuses, consult with all other appropriate persons and shall arrange for the final candidates to meet with the Faculty and the Instruction Committee. (4) The President and persons to whom the President delegates authority shall consult with the Deans, other appropriate persons, and appropriate Faculty committees in matters of policy, initiation of programs, and setting of priorities affecting the general welfare of the College. (5) There shall be a Financial Committee on each campus consisting of the President as Chair, the Dean and Treasurer of the campus, and other members the President may appoint. It will review proposed budgets prior to their being presented to the Finance Committee of the Board. It will also meet prior to Board meetings to review performance in the fiscal year to date and emerging budgetary strengths and weaknesses. (6) The President shall appoint, or delegate the power to appoint, other committees as may be necessary for the carrying out of the President's duties for which no provision is made under Article IX. (7) If in the judgment of the Board of Visitors and Governors, the College is facing a financial exigency at either or both of its campuses which could call for a reduction in the number of Faculty positions, both Presidents shall immediately advise the Faculty of the nature and extent of the financial difficulty and consult with them concerning the best way to address the situation. The Faculty may then make a formal recommendation to the Presidents on ways to meet the problem, or, if the Faculty fails so to act, the Deans and the Instruction Committee shall propose a plan to the Presidents. The Presidents shall jointly then determine a plan which specifies a preferred course of action to be taken. All necessary steps must be taken in timely fashion as prescribed by the Board. Nothing herein provided shall limit the power of the Board to act otherwise in the event of need to reduce or eliminate Faculty positions. Article V THE FACULTY: THE CHAIR OF THE INSTRUCTION COMMITTEE AND THE DEANS (1) The Chair of the Instruction Committee. (a) There is delegated to the Chair of the Instruction Committee responsibility and authority for the organization of the program of instruction in the liberal arts that is followed by the Tutors and the Students. (b) The Deans shall serve alternately, for a term of one year, as Chair of the Instruction Committee. (c) Each year the Chair of the Instruction Committee shall, after consultation with the Instruction Committee on the Chair's campus, and after discussion with the Instruction Committee of the College, submit a Statement of Educational Policy and Program to the Faculty as a whole for discussion. The Presidents shall present the Statement, together �with an account of the Faculty discussion of it, and their responses to it, as a report to the Board of Visitors and Governors for its consideration. (d) Should the Chair of the Instruction Committee•or the Chair of the Board of Visitors and Governors deem it appropriate, the Chair of the Instruction Committee shall report to the Board on instructional matters, and shall respond to such questions as the Board, through its Chair, may ask. (2) The Deans. (a) There is delegated to the Deans on their respective campuses responsibility and authority for the supervision of the program of instruction and for the general welfare of the students and for whatever government of the students be necessary for the greatest possible attainment of aims of the program. Each Dean shall be the Chair of the Instruction Committee on such Dean's campus. In carrying out the Dean's duties, each Dean shall consult regularly with the President and with the Instruction Committee and the other appropriate Faculty committees on that campus. (b) The Deans shall be appointed for terms of five years from among the Tutors by the Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the President after consultation with a special committee of seven, four from the campus for which the Dean is being chosen and three from the other campus, selected from among themselves by the Tutors having tenure. (c) A Dean shall be appointed from among the tutors who have themselves been appointed in accord with Article VI(3). If non-tenured, the appointee shall acquire tenure upon becoming Dean, in which case the provisions of Article VI(3)(a) regarding reappointment schedules shall not apply. (d) To assist them in carrying out their duties, the Deans shall recommend one or more Tutors to be appointed by the President with the title of Assistant Dean. (e) During the absence of the President from either campus, the Dean on that campus shall if necessary exercise the President's prerogative of final decision. (f) During the absence of either Dean from the campus a Tutor with tenure named by the Dean shall act for the Dean. (g) The Dean on each campus shall appoint such committees as may be necessary for the carrying out of the Dean's duties for which no other provision is made. Article VI TlIE FACULTY: TlIE TUTORS (1) The primary responsibilities of the Tutors are to teach and to make themselves as competent as possible in all parts of the St. John's Program. (2) The Tutors shall have authority to recommend to the Visitors and Governors candidates for degrees of their respective campuses. (3) Appointment and Reappointment of Tutors. Tutors shall be appointed by the Visitors and Governors upon recommendation of the President in accordance with the recommendation of the Dean and the Instruction Committee on that campus where the Tutors so appointed shall teach. (a) The schedule of regular appointment of Tutors on each campus shall be either (i)(A) or (i)(B) below, to be decided by the President in accordance with the recommendation of the Dean and the Instruction Committee on that campus where the Tutors so appointed shall teach: (i)(A) New Tutors shall be appointed for one year unless they are appointed at mid-year, in which case the initial appointment shall be for a year and a half. First reappointments shall be for one year. Second and third reappointments shall be for two and three years respectively. (i)(B) New Tutors shall be appointed for two years unless they are appointed at midyear, in which case the initial appointment shall be for a year and a half. First and second reappointments shall be for two and three years respectively. (ii) A Tutor who has completed a three-year appointment must either be given a tenure appointment or not be reappointed as Tutor. A Tutor may, however, be given a tenure appointment as early as the conclusion of the first year of a three-year appointment. Procedures leading to a recommendation for an early tenure appointment shall be initiated by the Dean and Instruction Committee, but not without the consent of the appointee, and shall not prejudice subsequent consideration for a tenure appointment. Tenure appointments shall not continue beyond retirement. Tutors Emeriti shall retain their privileges and responsibilities in voting at Faculty meetings. (iii) Before making recommendations to the President on tenure appointments the Dean on each campus shall consult with the Instruction Committee on that campus, after seeking the advice of the Tutors on that campus. (iv) A Tutor, to be recommended for a tenure appointment, must have served full-time at the campus where the recommendation is to be made for the two years immediately preceding the year in which that recommendation is made, the provisions of (ii) above �notwithstanding. In ordinary cases, these two years of service will be the second year of a two-year appointment and the first year of a three-year appointment. These requirements may be waived by the President on the recommendation of the Dean and instruction Committee on that campus. (b) A non-tenure appointment as Tutor establishes the possibility, but not the presumption, of its renewal and the granting of a tenure appointment. Procedures for considering nontenure appointments differ from those for considering tenure appointments. Satisfaction of appointment criteria admits of degree. With each successive reappointment, the criteria are applied more rigorously. For a tenure appointment the application is especially strict. (c) For the purpose of temporary transfer between campuses, special appointments of one or two years may be granted to a Tutor in addition to his or her regular appointments. The Tutor may ask that such an appointment be counted as a regular appointment for the purpose of (a) above. In the case of a permanent transfer a Tutor may ask that years of service at the other campus be counted toward tenure according to the provisions of (a) above. Nevertheless, the provisions of (3)(a)(iv) prevail. (d) Special one-year appointments and reappointments may be given to Tutors who intend to teach on a part-time basis only. Such a Tutor may subsequently apply for and receive a regular appointment. Special part-time appointments may then be counted on a fractional basis toward eligibility for tenure, subject to the provisions of (3)(a)(iv). In establishing eligibility for sabbatical leave, special part-time appointments shall be computed proportionate! y. (e) Visiting Tutors may be appointed for a term or a year. (4) Notification. (a) A Tutor under consideration for a non-tenure appointment to begin in a certain calendar year shall be notified by the President no later than December 15th of the preceding calendar year whether reappointment will be recommended to the Board of Visitors and Governors. A Tutor who is reappointed shall be notified by the President by March 1st of the calendar year in which the new appointment is to begin. (b) A Tutor under consideration for a tenure appointment to begin in a certain calendar year shall be notified by the President no later than May 31st of the preceding calendar year whether the appointment will be recommended to the Board of Visitors and Governors. A Tutor who is appointed shall be notified by the President by July 31st of that same preceding year. (5) A Tutor may apply to the instruction Committee of the College not later than January 15th for a transfer of campus for the next academic year. Transfers shall require approval of both Deans after consultation with their Instruction Committees. (6) (a) A Tutor's appointment may be terminated by the Board of Visitors and Governors for one of the following reasons only: (i) failure or inability to perform teaching duties in a satisfactory manner, or (ii) moral turpitude. The President shall make such a recommendation to the Board of Visitors and Governors only with the concurrence of the Dean and the Instruction Committee of the campus concerned. Before making such a recommendation, the President shall advise the Tutor affected, and the Tutor shall have the right to be heard by the Instruction Committee or, at the Tutor' s option, by another committee to be designated by the President for this purpose. (b) Either Dean, with the approval of the Instruction Committee on the campus concerned, may recommend to the President that in the interest of instruction a Tutor be temporarily relieved of duties in whole or in part at any time. When such action is taken, the Tutor's salary shall be continued for the remainder of the current academic year. (7) The sabbatical leave program is designed to provide Tutors with an opportunity for study, rest, and renewal of spirit, in anticipation of future teaching. It is the objective of the program to grant all applications for sabbatical leave meeting the conditions for eligibility set out in (a) of this section. It is understood that Tutors on such leave will not undertake full-time remunerative employment elsewhere and will return to the College. (a) Eligibility for sabbatical leave shall be upon the following conditions: (i) A Tutor who has received a tenure appointment may apply for a full year of sabbatical leave at full salary, to be taken upon completion of the equivalent of seven full years of service to the College since the original appointment, or the equivalent of six full years of service since any previous sabbatical leave. (ii) Such a Tutor may apply for an earlier sabbatical leave of a full year at partial salary, or a partial year at full salary. The fractional salary or fractional year shall be determined by the number of years of teaching completed in relation to the prescribed total for either an initial or a subsequent sabbatical leave, as the case may be. ln no case shall a Tutor be paid more than the Tutor's regular salary. (iii) Upon completion of sabbatical leave, a Tutor is expected to return to the College for at least two more years. (b) If, in the judgment of the President, financial or academic needs at a campus should require that fewer sabbatical leaves be granted there in a given year than there are qualified applicants, and if the number that can be granted there should be smaller than one-sixth of the number of Tutors at that campus having tenure and not on full-time leave under the provisions of section (8) below, the President shall so notify the Board of �Visitors and Governors and seek its approval for delaying a sabbatical leave for one or more of the applicants. (c) If in a year there are more qualified applicants for sabbatical leave at any one campus than there are leaves to be granted at that campus, then those members shall have precedence who meet the following conditions in the order set forth: (i) Those who have served for the greater number of years since their first appointment as Tutor or since their last sabbatical leave, whichever is more recent; (ii) Those whose service has been continuous throughout those years; (iii) Those whose last sabbatical leave was postponed because of the financial or academic needs of the College; (iv) Those who have seniority of appointment. When there is a conflict of precedence, the Dean and the Instruction Committee on the campus concerned shall be consulted. (d) A Tutor eligible for sabbatical leave shall make application to the President before November 1st for leave to begin the following July 1st, and shall be informed of the action upon the application not later than January 1st. (8) The President, with the concurrence of the Dean after consultation with the Instruction Committee on the campus concerned, may grant leaves of absence to Tutors for a period of one year or less. At that time it shall be determined whether the leave shall be counted as service to the College with respect to eligibility for sabbatical leave and, if so, how. The decision with respect to a request for leave of absence shall be made in the light of the requirements both of the applicant Tutor and of the whole College. (a) Leave of absence may be renewed upon request but not more than twice in succession except in extraordinary circumstances. (b) A request for a leave of absence shall be submitted to the President as early as possible in the academic year before the year in which the leave is to be taken, but not later than January 15th of that year. Requests for leaves of absence may be withdrawn at any time prior to April 1st of the year in which the request is submitted. Requests for leaves of absence for the second semester must be submitted no later than October 15th. (c) Tutors on sabbatical leave or leave of absence remain members of the Faculty with the right of full participation in Faculty meetings and all other College exercises. Article VII THE FACULTY: THE VICE-PRESIDENTS FOR COLLEGE ADVANCEMENT AND THE TREASURERS (I) The Vice-Presidents for College Advancement shall be responsible to the President for the supervision and development of all programs in fund-raising, public relations, and alumni relations on their respective campuses. (2) The Vice-President for College Advancement on each campus shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the President made after consultation with the Dean on that campus and a committee constituted by resolution of the Faculty on that campus. (3) The Treasurers shall have charge, on their respective campuses, under the supervision of the President, of all funds and property, and shall have authority to carry out fiscal and property transactions, and to receive and disburse funds , subject to the provisions of this Polity and other directions and arrangements pursuant thereto. (4) The Treasurer on each campus shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the President made after consultation with the Dean on that campus and a committee constituted by resolution of the Faculty on that campus. (5) The Vice-Presidents for College Advancement and Treasurers may be appointed Tutors under the provisions of Article Vl(3)(d). Article VIII THE FACULTY: THE ASSOCIATES (I) Associate members of the Faculty on each campus shall be appointed by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the President in consultation with the Dean of that campus. On each campus, the President shall have ultimate executive authority over the Associates. (2) Associates may be appointed Tutors under the provisions of Article Vl(3)(d). (3) The Associates on either campus may establish for themselves an Associates' Council for the purpose of considering College matters of concern to them and communicating with other members of the College. (4) The Associates' Councils may establish such committees as they deem appropriate. �Article IX (5) There shall be the following Associates, as deemed necessary by the President on each campus, with the powers and responsibilities provided. (a) The Registrars. The Registrars shall be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses. They shall prepare and supervise the registration of students and shall be responsible for the academic records and schedules of students. THE FACULTY: FACULTY COMMITTEES (1) College-wide Committees (a) The Instruction Committee (b) The Librarians. The Librarians shall be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for the operation of the library. Appointments of professional members of the Library Staff shall be made upon the recommendation of the Librarian to the Dean on each campus. (i) The Instruction Committee shares with its Chairs responsibility for the program of instruction of the College. It shall consist of twelve Tutors in addition to the Deans. The Presidents shall sit with the Committee ex officio. Six of the Tutors shall be elected from each campus of the College. The Instruction Committee shall meet annually. On each campus the members of the Instruction Committee and the Dean as Chair constitute the Instruction Committee of the College on that campus. The President sits ex officio with the lnstruction Committee on each campus. (c) The Director of Student Activities and the Director of Athletics. The Director of Student Activities and the Director of Athletics, as the case may be, shall be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for devising and directing programs of recreational activities. (ii) Each of the members of the Instruction Committee shall serve for a term of three years, and the terms shall be arranged in such a way that each year the terms of two members at each campus shall expire. Terms begin and end the day following commencement exercises. Annually, and separately at each campus, the President with the Dean on his campus, after consulting with the Instruction Committee and seeking the advice of the other Tutors on that campus, shall at the last regular Faculty meeting on that campus nominate four Tutors of whom two shall be elected by the Tutors to membership on the Instruction Committee. The Faculty shall be informed of the names of the nominees prior to the meeting at which the election occurs. At the expiration of the three-year term a member of the Instruction Committee shall for one year be ineligible for reelection. (d) The Directors of Admissions. The Directors of Admissions shall be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for the annual enrollment of qualified freshmen. (e) The Directors of Alumni Activities. The Directors of Alumni Activities shall be responsible to the Vice-Presidents for College Advancement. Their primary duty is to enable the College and the Alumni Association to be of service to alumni. (f) The Directors of Financial Aid. The Directors of Financial Aid shall be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for the administration of financial aid programs. (g) The Directors of Career Services. The Directors of Career Services shall be responsible to the Deans on their respective campuses for helping and counseling students with respect to graduate and professional schools and careers. (iii) If for any reason a member of the Instruction Committee is unable to serve for a part of his or her term, another Tutor shall be chosen to serve for that part of the term. For this purpose the President and the Dean, in consultation with the Instruction Committee on the campus where the vacancy occurs, shall nominate two Tutors of whom the Tutors shall elect one in a regular Faculty meeting. (h) The Director of College Information Technology Services. The Director of College Information Technology Services shall be responsible to both Presidents for the development and management of information services college-wide. (iv) If the Instruction Committee resigns with the Deans on a matter of confidence and the resignations are accepted, the President, in consultation with the new Deans and after seeking the advice of the other Tutors, shall nominate nine Tutors for the six vacancies on each campus in such a manner that two out of each three nominees shall be elected by the Tutors for each of the three classes to fill the unexpired terms. (i) The Directors of Laboratories. The Directors of Laboratories shall be responsible to the Dean, in consultation with the Laboratory archons, for training and directing the student laboratory assistants, designing experiments for the laboratory program, and purchasing and maintaining laboratory equipment. (b) The Tutors' Compensation Committee (i) There shall be a Tutors' Compensation Committee of six Tutors, three to be elected by the Tutors on each campus, and the chair shall annually alternate �between campuses. The Committee shall advise the President concerning Tutors' compensation and related matters; it shall make annual reviews of the College's statement of Tutors' salaries and other compensation of Tutors and report to the Tutors and the President recommendations consequent upon the review. (ii) Members of the Committee shall be elected annually on each campus for terms of three years in such a manner that the term of one member on each campus terminates each year. The Tutors' Compensation Committee on each campus shall provide the Tutors on that campus with two nominations for each vacancy on the Committee on that campus. Additional nominations may be made at the Faculty meeting when election shall be made. (2) Campus-specific Committees (a) The Campus Planning Committees. The Faculty on each campus shall elect five of its members as a Campus Planning Committee. Two members shall be elected to the Committee annually except in every third year, when one member shall be chosen. The President, the Dean, one of the Assistant Deans, and the Treasurer on each campus shall sit ex officio with the Committee on that campus. It shall be the duty of the respective committees to advise the President on the construction of new buildings, the renovation of old buildings, landscaping of grounds, and all matters relating to the maintenance and development of the campus. (b) The Library Committees. The President on each campus, in consultation with the Librarian and the Dean, shall appoint three Tutors on each campus to serve as a Library Committee. The President, the Dean, and the Librarian shall themselves be ex officio members of the Committee, and the Librarian shall serve as Chair. It shall be the duty of the Library Committees to assist the Librarians in making the Libraries serve the ends of the College and its program; it shall be their duty to advise the Librarians in regard to Library policy and acquisitions. (c) The Information Technology Committees. The Dean on each campus shall appoint three Tutors to serve as an Information Technology Committee, one of whom shall serve as Chair. Each Tutor shall serve a three-year term. The Dean, the Director of College Information Technology Services, and the Librarian shall be ex officio members. lt shall be the duty of the Information Technology Committees to advise the Director of College Information Technology Services in regard to the needs of the College and its Program. (d) The Prize Committees. Every three years the President shall appoint Tutors on each campus to supervise the awarding of prizes on the respective campuses. The Committees shall have full authority to decide what prizes shall be awarded and to name the recipients of the prizes. (e) The Fellowship Committees. On each campus there shall be a Fellowship Committee appointed by the President. It shall be the duty of this Committee to inform students of fellowships for which they may be eligible, to assist them in applying for fellowships, and to act on behalf of the College in any matter relating to application for fellowships. (f) Other Committees. The Faculty on each campus shall have authority to elect, or to request the President to appoint, additional committees that may from time to time become necessary. Article X THE FACULTY: FACULTY PROCEDURE (1) Procedure for Instructional Proposals. (a) (i) Any proposal concerning matters of instruction that may affect the College as a whole shall originate with the Dean and the Instruction Committee on either campus. A decision as to whether a proposal is college-wide or campus-specific shall be made by the Deans and Instruction Committee of the College. They shall make this decision after notifying the Faculty on both campuses and inviting their comment. Written statements of college-wide instructional proposals shall be distributed to the Faculty at least two weeks before the Faculty meeting at which they are to be presented; the proposal shall be presented to the whole Faculty by the Chair of the Instruction Committee, either in person or through the other Dean. If, after full discussion of any proposal so presented, there be no objection on the part of any Tutor, the measure stands approved and becomes effective as of the date specified therefore. If, after full discussion, a Tutor objects to the proposal and holds to the objection, the proposal shall be submitted to vote of the Tutors at special Faculty meetings called by the Presidents within a month. Any objections that have been made and held to and submitted in writing shall be transmitted immediately in writing to the whole faculty. Any objections that have been made and held to but not submitted in writing shall be reported immediately in writing to the whole Faculty. If, after discussion, any objection has been made and held to, the Presidents, in calling special Faculty meetings, shall report the statement of the Chair of the Instruction and the Dean on the other campus as to whether it be a matter of confidence; and in submitting the proposal to vote, the Chair of the Instruction Committee and the Dean on the other campus shall, at the special Faculty meetings, repeat their statement as to whether it be a matter of confidence. The vote may then be taken and tallied by the Presidents in such a fashion that the Tutors shall have recorded their decision acting as a whole. If the proposal be one that the Chair of the Instruction Committee and the other Dean have declared a matter of confidence and if it be defeated by majority vote, the Deans and the Instruction Committee shall immediately resign. If it be passed by majority vote, it shall become effective as of the date specified therefore. For the �confidence procedure a quorum shall consist of three-fourths of all resident Tutors on each campus. (d) A quorum shall consist of a majority of the Faculty in residence except as otherwise provided. (ii) Any instructional proposal that has been deemed campus-specific shall be subject to the procedure set forth above, except that, if an objection is made and held to on either campus, voting shall proceed only on the campus were the proposal is intended to be put into effect. Any objections that have been made and held to and submitted in writing on the other campus shall be transmitted immediately to the voting Faculty. Any objections that have been made and held to but not submitted in writing shall be reported immediately in writing to the voting Faculty. If the confidence procedure is invoked, it shall be only by the Dean on the voting campus, and it shall affect the Dean and the Instruction Committee only on that campus. (e) Only Tutors may vote on instructional matters. All Faculty members may vote on all other matters not specifically restricted in the Polity. (iii) The President may refuse to accept the resignation of the Deans or the Instruction Committee, any or all of them, whenever in the judgment of the President such resignation would be detrimental to the proper functioning of the College; provided, however, that if any six or more Tutors shall petition the Visitors and Governors, the latter shall review the President's decision within four weeks ' during which time the Deans and the Instruction Committee shall continue in office. (iv) In the event that the proposal be defeated and the resignations be accepted, the President shall proceed to the choice of new Deans in accordance with the provisions of Article V (2)(b ). (b) Upon either a petition of not less than one-tenth of the Tutors on either campus or a request from the President, the Dean and Instruction Committee on that campus shall consider any recommendation concerning instruction and shall report to the Faculty within one year their proposal concerning it. They shall decide whether their proposal is a college-wide or campus-specific proposal , and the procedure of Article X(l) shall apply. (2) Faculty Meetings. (a) Regular monthly meetings of the Faculty shall be called upon due notice by the President; except that in the period comprising the months of December and January only one regular meeting need be called. The President or, in his absence, the Dean, shall preside. In the absence of the President and the Dean, the Faculty shall elect one of its members to preside. (b) Special meetings of the Faculty may be called upon due notice by the President alone or at the request of five Faculty members. (c) Due notice shall be construed to mean no less than three days notice, except in cases of emergency. (3) The Secretary of the Faculty. At the last regular meeting of an academic year, the Faculty on each campus shall elect one of its members, then in at least his or her third year at the College, as Secretary. The Secretary shall assist in the preparation and circulation of the agenda for Faculty meetings, shall keep the minutes of such meetings, and shall collect and circulate reports of Faculty committees. Article XI THE SCHOLARS-IN-RESIDENCE AND THE ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE The Scholars-in-Residence and the Artists-in-Residence shall be appointed from time to time by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the President after consultation with the Dean and the Instruction Committee on the campus where the Scholars and Artists shall reside. Article XII THE STUDENTS (1) The primary responsibilities of the Students are to study and to make themselves as competent as possible in all parts of the St. John's Program. Their advice and service shall be sought by the Faculty in such matters and in such ways as may best serve the general welfare of the College. (2) The Students of St. John's College shall constitute the Student Polity of St. John's College in Annapolis and in Santa Fe. (3) The Student Polity in Annapolis or Santa Fe may establish for itself a government which is representative of all polity members. The Dean on each campus may delegate to the Student government a share of the responsibility for the general welfare of the Students and whatever government of the Students may be necessary for the greatest possible attainment of the aims of the program. The duties of the Student Government may include: (a) the management of funds available to the Student Polity; (b) the sanctioning of all student clubs, organizations, and activities, and their regulation, if necessary; �(c) the representation of the Students of St. John's College to the community outside the College; (d) the establishment and maintenance of formal channels of communication between the Students and the Faculty; and (e) any other duties agreed upon by the Students and the Dean. Article XIII THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE (l) The Directors. (a) There shall be a Director of the Graduate Institute on each campus to whom shall be delegated responsibility and authority, under the Chair of the Instruction Committee, for the organization and supervision on the Director' s campus of the graduate program of instruction in the liberal arts and for matters concerning the general welfare of the students. Concerning matters that affect the Graduate Institute as a whole the Director shall, in consultation with the other Director, be responsible to the Chair of the Instruction Committee. Concerning matters limited to one campus, the Director on that campus shall be responsible to the Dean on that campus. (b) The Directors shall be appointed for terms of four years from among the Tutors by the Board of Visitors and Governors on the recommendation of the President, after consultation with the Deans and a special committee consisting of five members, three from the campus on which the new Director will serve, and two from the other campus, selected from among themselves by the Tutors having tenure. The Directors shall be Tutors of the Graduate Institute. (c) Every three years, on an alternating basis, one of the Directors shall write a Statement of Educational Policy and Program for the Graduate Institute. The Director who writes the Statement, after consulting with the Committee for the Graduate Institute on his or her campus, and with the other Director, shall submit the Statement to the Instruction Committee for discussion at its joint meeting. (2) The Faculty Teaching in the Graduate Institute. (a) Each Director, after consultation with the Committee for the Graduate Institute on that campus, and in accordance with the recommendation of the Instruction Committee on the same campus, shall recommend to the President Tutors for appointment in the summer session of the Graduate Institute. (b) During the summer term the Tutors teaching in the Graduate Institute on each campus shall have the authority to recommend to the Board of Visitors and Governors candidates for degrees. (3) Committees for the Graduate Institute. (a) On each campus the Committee for the Graduate Institute shares with the Director on the same campus responsibility for carrying out the program of instruction of the Graduate Institute and for the general welfare of the students. (b) Each Committee shall consist of three Tutors who have experience in the Institute in addition to the Director, who shall serve as Chair. ' (c) Members of each Committee shall be appointed by the Director with the concurrence of the Dean on the same campus after consultation with the Committee for the Graduate Institute on that campus. (4) Proposals concerning matters of instruction or policy shall originate with one of the Directors, after consultation with the other Director and with the Committee for the Graduate _Institute, and shall be submitted to the Dean on the originating campus for handlmg m accordance with Article X(l)(a)(i). Article XIV THE ALUMNI (1) Alumni shall be life-Iong members of the College, since St. John's College is a community not limited by geographical location or fixed periods of time. (2) The Alumni Association is the formal means by which Alumni participate in the life of the College. Through the election of alumni members of the Board of Visitors and Governors Alumni share in the direction of that life. ln these and other ways, Alumni shall be given the opportumty to serve the College. (3) The College shall cooperate with the Alumni Association to enable Alumni to assist in providing services such as recruiting and interviewing prospective students, placing graduates m appropnate employment, and advising students concerning careers and adm1ss10n to graduate and professional schools. (4) The College, in cooperation with the Alumni Association, shall provide seminars and other appropriate educational activities in Annapolis, in Santa Fe, and in other places. Article XV THE STAFF (1) Members of the Staff assist with the administration and maintenance of the College, performing duties necessary to its well-being. They are subject to appropriate Staff rules and regulatrons. �Article XVII (2) Members of the Staff on either campus may establish for themselves a Staff Council for the purpose of better communication and understanding of College policies as a benefit to the College as a whole. The Staff Council shall seek to establish and maintain formal channels of communication among the whole Staff and between the Staff and the appropriate College Officers. The Treasurer on each campus shall review Staff employment regulations with the Staff Council and discuss with them any changes proposed. COMPLIANCE WITH LAW No provision of this Polity shall be construed to contravene any applicable federal or state law. If any provision is determined to contravene any such law, that provision shall be deemed not a part of this Polity, and this Polity's remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. Article XVIII (3) The Staff Council may establish such committees as it deems appropriate. Article XVI AMENDMENTS AND REVIEW (1) Amendments to this Polity may be proposed by a majority of the Polity Review Committee, or by a petition submitted by not fewer than ten percent of the members of the Board, or by the Faculty as provided for in section (2) and (3) below. Written notice of a proposed amendment must be provided to the Board and to the Faculty not less than 30 days prior to the date of the Board meeting at which the amendment is to be considered. The Faculty shall have the right to inform the Board in writing of its recommendation with respect to the proposed amendment by the time of that meeting. This Polity may be amended by a twothirds vote of those members voting at any regular or special meeting of the Board, provided that the votes of no fewer than one-third of the members of the entire Board eligible to vote are in favor of such amendment. (2) Amendments may be proposed at any regular meeting of either the Faculty in Annapolis or the Faculty in Santa Fe upon petition of not less than ten percent of the members on either campus. No such proposal shall be acted upon earlier than the next regular meeting of the Faculty, whether in Annapolis or in Santa Fe. A two-thirds vote of the entire Faculty in residence, including at least a simple majority vote of the Faculty in residence on each of the campuses, shall be required for approval and the amendment shall not become effective unless approved by the Board in the manner set forth in Section (1) above. (3) Every five years this Polity shall be reviewed by a committee of six, three to be elected by the Faculty on each campus. The report of the Committee shall be submitted to one regular Faculty meeting and voted upon at the next regular Faculty meeting. A two-thirds vote of the entire Faculty in residence, including at least a simple majority vote of the Faculty in residence on each of the campuses, shall be required for approval of any proposed amendments. Whatever action is thus recommended by the Faculty shall be submitted to the Board for final decision in the manner set forth in Section (1) above. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE There shall be a Management Committee for the college composed of the Presidents and Deans of both campuses. The Chair of the Management Committee will report to and be appointed annually by the Board of Visitors and Governors. With the advice of the Committee and in a collegial manner, the Chair shall exercise executive authority over the College as a whole with respect to: ( 1) college-wide strategic planning, including defining the processes for strategic thinking, leading conversations regarding strategic decisions, and presentation of and planning for the strategic goals of the college and their accomplishment; (2) college-wide advancement, including capital campaigns, external relations and publications, common college-wide donor information and databases, oversight and 1mplementat1on of ongoing development initiatives, and oversight of alumni relations efforts, including the work of the Alumni Relations directors and that portion of the work of Career Services directors pertaining to alumni; (3) budgeting and resource planning, including approval of campus-specific budgets, preparation of college-wide budgets, oversight and implementation of a college-wide information management system, and oversight and implementation of consistent accounting, audit, and financial reporting processes; (4) approval and monitoring of admissions and financial aid policies for both campuses; and (5) such other matters as may be assigned to the Chair from time to time. The Management Committee shall not have executive authority over instructional matters assigned to the Instruction Committee and its Chair under Articles V and IX(l) of the Polity. �ARTICLE XIX TRANSITION SCHEDULE The reduction in size contemplated by the October 2011 amendments to the Polity is intended to take place over a period of time. No member is to have his or her term shortened by virtue of this change, which will be accomplished through the normal expiration of members' current terms. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Charter and Polity of the College Description An account of the resource Revised and amended editions of the St. John's College Charter and Polity.<br /><br />The College's first Charter and Polity was published as the <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3768">September 1950</a> issue of the <em><a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/collections/show/37">Bulletin of St. John's College in Annapolis</a></em>. Revised and amended versions were published as individual issues of the <em>Bulletin</em> in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/3746">1951</a>, <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7844">1960</a>, <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7845">1963</a>, and <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7846">1965</a>. <br /><br />The Charter and Polity was published as a separate document in <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7850">1955</a> and again from <a href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/show/7851">1970</a> forward. The most recent version of the Charter and Polity is also available on the College's <a href="https://www.sjc.edu/about/leadership/board-visitors-governors/charter-polity">website</a>. <br /><br />Click on <strong><a title="Items in the Charter and Polity of the College Collection" href="https://digitalarchives.sjc.edu/items/browse?tags=Charter+and+Polity&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CDate">Items in the Charter and Polity of the College Collection</a></strong> to view and sort all items in the collection. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource St. John's College Greenfield Library Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data PDF Page numeration Number of pages in the original item. 32 pages Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Charter and Polity of the College, 2011 Description An account of the resource Charter and Polity of the College, amended and restated October 2011. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource St. John's College Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available St. John's College Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Annapolis, MD Santa Fe, NM Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-10 Type The nature or genre of the resource text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF Subject The topic of the resource St. John's College (Annapolis, Md.) Legal instruments Language A language of the resource English Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Charter_and_Polity_2011_ac Charter and Polity