Sorry to have left things hanging with Browning and Kierkegaard. I rescued a dog last week and have been busy working with him, getting him used to my routine and to the house rules and to proper etiquette on a leash, etc. I expect to get back to work here soon. Besides the B & K, I plan to say a bit about Rush Rhees and the idea of conversation, and about Husserl on psychologism (both topics currently under discussion in my Plato seminar).
My new dog is Bane.
Quantum Est In Rebus Inane 
Dr. Jolley,
With respect to Kierkegaard and to a lesser sense Thoreau (which were carrying on the same life experiments in different settings at the same time in history): Hope generates its own reason. Confirmed desperation is confirmed by dying hope only. One can be so numb as to not detect his dying hope until it stops generating reason; then the desperation becomes palpable to the point of despair. God can save if He is beseeched *earnestly* through His Son. I don’t mean to preach, but for me, to dissect these things without pointing to an ultimate way out of them is cruel. I like your blog. You have one of the best. Thanks.
Joel, thanks for your kind remark about the blog. Maybe, if you get a chance, you could explain to me a bit more what you have in mind by “dissect[ing] these things”. I’m not sure I understand.
Cutting them open (metaphorically) to reveal the insides. I say hope generates reason because it provides an asperation, something to strive toward, a reason for getting up in the morning. (Oh, how “reason” has been seperated from “reason”!) Some people fear striving for a dream (as opposed to a fantasy) because they may fail, but we all know the journey is often just as important as the treasure. If the journey is seen as a treasure unto itself no one knows what that treasure may hold or be. If the outcome is known, then the journey isn’t, because it never is. Who can say what the road will bring, and it is the narrow road that hugs. The broad road has boundaries that are never certain. And it’s overpopulated. I say the narrow road is a greater treasure-unto-itself than the broad road because it hugs like a mother, but is harder through the mountain passes. Thanks for asking.
Gabriel Marcel somewhere says that “hope is closely akin to life”, and that hope “is the stuff of which our soul is made”. One reason his brand of ‘existentialism’ is so precious to me is that it centralizes hope and not anxiety or despair.
good for you (and for Bane), I miss owning a pitbull since mine passed and hope that Obama’s folks can gain some ground on ending breed-bans and other related forms of discrimination, not voter rights or peace in the middle-east I know but if it comes I’ll be celebrating with a trip to the pound.
http://iai.tv/video/can-animals-be-moral
I hope you get to celebrate!
hey there,pardon the threadjacking but word on the streets is that mr mooney may be heading your way if his talk could be recorded and shared with those of us scattered to the winds that would be much appreciated.
I will try to get a recording. Word on the street is right.
Bane
Full of strength and laced
with fragility:
the thoroughbred,
the hummingbird,
and all things
cursed
with agility.
–Wendy Videlock
A good name, Kelly.
Great poem, Carly. Thanks for taking the time to share it with me. Hope all is well!
Bane sends his greetings, er…
“Can a dog send greetings? Why not, can he only greet in person? –I can jump up on someone if he is here, but not if he isn’t.” {Lost lines from PI}
Dr. Jolley,
If I can add one more thing: Wisdon is–when you know, to know that you know; when you do not know, to know you do not know; when you are confused, to be brave and vulnerable enough to admit confusion.