Last year, around this time, I was writing here about Emerson’s essay on Montaigne. I got distracted from that and moved on to other things. But I am going to get back to it now. Look for more posts in the coming days. In the meantime, you might want to look at the initial post I wrote last year.
Hi Kelly. A worthy project this Montaigne-Emerson, and I liked your earlier connection of style and skepticism. I will look forward to the ongoing evolution. Btw: As you may know, there is a way to get rid of the advertising Word Press is inserting into blogs. The way involves paying Word Press money, so one may think of this as a kind of blackmail, or a paying for purity. Or Word Press may be giving us a great opportunity to the embrace the “marketplace of ideas” in all its “richness”. I quote from Emily Dickinson, not because it is directly relevant, but because it stands opposed to the ubiquity of advertising, and it is a reminder that winter is again coming on up north here:
Possibly—but We—would rather
From Our Garret go
White—Unto the White Creator—
Than invest—Our Snow—
Amen. – Wm.
not sure if this fits your project but I think that what draws many of my favorite writers/thinkers together in a kind of familial resemblance is their efforts to have the form of their works, and reader responses, create the kinds of effects/affects that they are writing about, to provide a kind of experiential/existential knowledge and in a way sort of precursors for more recent electronic experiments in virtual realities.
Yes, that fits. (It fits my favorites too.) And you put it well: the form of their works is dictated by their conception of, and hopes for, philosophy (or whatever) and their readers.
I haven’t done much to follow it up by my sense is that “performativity” is central here, and the old tensions of rhetoric/art and philosophy, saying and showing.
Your sense is the same as mine, I think.
Hi Kelly,
I wonder if you’re familiar with Jessica Berry’s work on Nietzsche and Ancient Skepticism. The capaciousness (voraciousness?) of the ancient form standing in stark contrast to the denials of what we call Cartesian Skepticism (say: attempting to discover the means by which we might say (and mean) ‘yes’ to as many forms of experience, as many truths, as possible . . . ) Anyways, her projects strike me as apropos Montaigne and Emerson as well. ((Reference notes from the cheap seats, here.)) Looking forward to reading what you’re up to.
All best–
C.
No, I don’t know it. I will have to look at it. Thanks!
http://www.academia.edu/689816/Nietzsche_and_the_Greeks