Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day Four

Let's recap another exciting day of Big Thinking action. In the Midwest, the All-Destroying Kant looked sharp in a 66-50 win over 7-seed Adam Smith. Smith's controversial invisible hand had effectively regulated the critical parries of first round opponent Deleuze, but was of little use against Kant's bold and systematic theorizing. Kant moves on to … Continue reading Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day Four →

Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day Three

Friends, it was another thrilling day of games here at the Big Thinkers Tournament. We’ve seen an unusual number of upsets this year, and the pattern continued last night. The Western Canon may never be the same in light of this year’s results! Let’s start with the shocker of the night. Top seed in the … Continue reading Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day Three →

Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day Two

Let’s start our roundup of yesterday’s action in the West region. For Hobbes, life in this tournament truly was nasty, brutish and short. Facing upstart Maimonides, the Leaping Leviathan went completely cold, airballing ill-advised propositions from all over the court in a 56-47 loss. This was the first of many upsets on the day. 12th … Continue reading Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day Two →

Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day 1 Recap

Day one of the Big Thinkers Tournament is over, with half of the Round of 64 games in the books. In the South region, early modern scientists dominated, with Galileo rolling over Emerson 88-42 and Newton out-calculating Epicurus 71-56. In the East, Chomsky topped the higher ranked Locke 64-61, employing tight linguistic structures and surprisingly … Continue reading Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day 1 Recap →

Gould’s “Solitude Trilogy” – 3 Radio Documentaries

Surprisingly, these documentaries have nothing to do with music. The first, called "The Idea of North" (1967) documents the experiences of southern Canadians travelling to or dwelling in the extreme northern reaches of the country. Next comes "The Latecomers," (about the province of Newfoundland. Last is "The Quiet in the Land," about Canadian Mennonite communities. It's an overstatement … Continue reading Gould’s “Solitude Trilogy” – 3 Radio Documentaries →

Gould Recordings 4-9 and an Interview

I'll talk about the interview first. It's called "At Home with Glenn Gould" and is in 9 8-minute segments on YouTube if you want to listen. It's from the late 50's, and shed a lot of light on my experiences of these recordings so far. What I think came out most was a sense of humility … Continue reading Gould Recordings 4-9 and an Interview →

Two Concertos (Concerti?)

The third major-release record Gould recorded again pairs Bach and Beethoven. Gould selected Beethoven's 2nd, in B Flat Major, and Bach's D Minor Concerto. They're both three-movement concertos, following the common three-movement tempo pattern of medium-slow-fast. Gould was often quoted as saying he wanted to avoid the "competitive" aspect of concerto performance, where the soloist's … Continue reading Two Concertos (Concerti?) →

A Question and Kant, Durkheim and Causality

So for my current MLA course entitled "Meaning and Motive in the Social Sciences," we're reading Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Upon reading the opening pages of the book, I was extremely skeptical almost immediately, mostly I think because of the following claim made in the introduction: "At the root of our judgments, there are … Continue reading A Question and Kant, Durkheim and Causality →

Gould’s First Two Columbia Recordings – Bach and Beethoven

It’s surprising how different these two recordings are – Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Beethoven’s 30th-32nd sonatas. They both bear the mark on the same performer, and though I still don’t know that I’m qualified to say things like “this performer’s take on such-and-such piece is better than that performer’s” or “this performer is better at … Continue reading Gould’s First Two Columbia Recordings – Bach and Beethoven →

The Nietzsche Poem

As my fellow OPers know, I'm casually putting together a collection of love poetry as written by, or related to, the great philosophers. I'm not sure why I'm doing this, but it's a fun diversion, so I suppose that's reason enough. Here's my latest. It's not meant to reflect Nietzsche's thoughts about love; rather, to … Continue reading The Nietzsche Poem →