οἳ δὲ πανημέριοι μολπῇ θεὸν ἱλάσκοντοκαλὸν ἀείδοντες παιήονα κοῦροι Ἀχαιῶν [Iliad I.472-473] "And then all day they pleased the god with dance, the sons of the Achaeans singing a beautiful paean." Last year I spent some time (about 30 minute each morning on the train) making my way through the Iliad in the original Greek. I had some notion I'd read the whole book this way - Nates … Continue reading Reading Homer on the Metra
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Pin the Tail on the Racist
Michael Richards... Paula Deen... Cliven Bundy... Donald Sterling... That's obviously a much shorter list than I could have given - to be honest, I've already forgotten about some of the people who belong on it. This is media sport, made much easier to play by the proliferation of recording devices regularly surrounding us. And the structure … Continue reading Pin the Tail on the Racist
Of Ranchers and Dot-Commers
This guy's face is all over cable news right now, as is his embarrassingly incoherent story. For irrelevant reasons, Cliven Bundy has decided that he shouldn't have to pay federal grazing fees for his cattle. He's decided to supplement this essentially selfish and Quixotic cause with an odd theory of sheriff/county rights that suspend any obligations … Continue reading Of Ranchers and Dot-Commers
Liberty and Equality
“Between liberty and equality, there can be but little fraternity.” (Montesquieu, correspondence with Voltaire)* I’d like to follow up on our previous discussion of Libertarianism, as a way of getting clearer on the position I was tentatively putting forward there. Well, it’s still somewhat tentative, but I’ll go for it. Let’s start with some common … Continue reading Liberty and Equality
Vico’s “Discovery of the True Homer”
The project of Vico’s New Science is a confusing and idiosyncratic one, but it is one for which the role of Homer and his true identity Vico takes as central. To better present Vico's arguments, I'll clarify the context in which Vico’s answer to the Homeric Question arises. Understanding its context in The New Science as … Continue reading Vico’s “Discovery of the True Homer”
Vico on the Origin of the Gods
One of the central premises of Vico's "Poetic Wisdom" (Book II of the New Science) is that the myths of the ancients can tell us about the true ancient history of humanity. So Vico spends much of Book II developing what he calls a "natural theogony." A theogony is an account of the origin of the … Continue reading Vico on the Origin of the Gods
Vico on the Origin of Language
[This is last part of a longer series - previous post ("Joyce, Vico and the Homeric Question")] One of those questions that intellectuals in the 18th and early 19th century seem to have taken really seriously, one that perhaps we don't, is the question of how spoken and written language began. My sense is that most contemporary … Continue reading Vico on the Origin of Language
Who Wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey?
Nates asks a set of questions on a recent thread about Joyce and Homer: I still find it odd to think of the Odyssey (or the Iliad, which I know much better) as a communal text. I don’t disagree with the claim; I just find it an odd truth–and a difficult one to explicate. I … Continue reading Who Wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey?
Vico Contest
Who doesn't like a good game of "interpret-that-frontispiece"? Below is the frontispiece for The New Science, by Giambattista Vico, about which Vico writes, in the helpfully titled opening section, "EXPLANATION OF THE PICTURE PLACED AS FRONTISPIECE TO SERVE AS INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK", that "As Cebes the Theban made a table of moral institutions, we … Continue reading Vico Contest
In Praise of James Joyce
It's quite common, even among well-read people, to joke about Joyce's willful obscurity, and to suggest that people don't really read or enjoy most of his books, except to say they have done so. For me though, these books have been a nearly endless source of joy, the word that forms the root of their … Continue reading In Praise of James Joyce
Original Positions 