“To imagine a God who judges many of the forms of life He created to be sinful, then tortures us eternally for our brief participation in them, is hardly to imagine a solution to the problem of evil.” – Susan Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought
Cosmic psychopathy is probably not the solution
April 23rd, 2012 · 9 Comments
Tags: Lit & Crit
9 responses so far ↓
1 CJ // Apr 23, 2012 at 7:47 am
That’s a thought loop I tend to stay clear of.
2 Tetman Callis // Apr 23, 2012 at 9:34 am
Same here. And that god is not my god. Or more accurately, I am not his.
3 CJ // Apr 23, 2012 at 10:07 am
Today I am rereading Kant on the difference between the beautiful and the sublime. I have always been, in my art and my writing, less concerned with busy happiness and more in awe.
4 Tetman Callis // Apr 23, 2012 at 12:14 pm
My lack of Kant is an embarrassing gap in my philosophical readings. The only work of his that I have read (rather than read about) is his “Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals” (trans. Abbott), which I read only once, and that was seven years ago this month. I’m assuming you may be reading “Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime,” but I’m only guessing. What can you tell me of Kant’s “difference between the beautiful and the sublime,” if you have a moment?
Awe is an appreciation of the world modern persons seem to have lost or perverted, and more’s the pity.
5 CJ // Apr 23, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Yes, that is what I am reading. Years ago I read The Critique of Pure Reason, and then could hardly move. This one is reaffirming and much clearer.
The sublime is to the beautiful as the night is to the day. As melancholy is to gaiety. The sublime in art is less concerned with happiness and more in awe of the terrifying loneliness of existence.
6 Tetman Callis // Apr 23, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Thank you. That is presented with precision and grace.
7 CJ // Apr 23, 2012 at 12:41 pm
A great oak, a sacred grove, towering and powerful thought, as opposed to a flower bed, trimmed trees and pretty ideas.
8 Tetman Callis // Apr 23, 2012 at 1:19 pm
This reminds me of something the late David Lynn Hall said to me once (and I don’t know but he may have got this from someone else) about what various philosophers read: “The Anglo-Americans read everyone, the French read only the French, and the Germans read the Mind of God.”
9 CJ // Apr 23, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Mutt that I am I read what makes sense in the moment.
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