Huenemanniac

Getting distracted by ideas

  • Rawls, merit, Nz

    “The human person, once perceiving that the Revelation of the Word is a condemnation of the self, casts away all thoughts of his own merit . . . . The more he examines his life, the more he looks into himself with complete honesty, the more clearly he perceives that what he has is a… Continue reading

  • Going to Jupiter

    We attended a concert last night by the Jupiter String Quartet. Fabulous. Their first piece was Haydn’s last finished quartet, opus 77 # 2. Elegant. The last piece was a quartet Mendelssohn wrote when he was only 18. Lots of late LvB in it — dynamic, evocative, surprising. But the middle piece, opus 83 #4… Continue reading

  • On studying history of philosophy, my style

    For a while I wanted to be a history major. This was entirely due to a professor I had, Jack McGovern. He had a great mind, and a real passion for his subject, and was a true mensch. Then I realized that studying history didn’t just mean listening to McGovern lecture, and it meant figuring… Continue reading

  • On interpretive charity, part 2

    You might think, from my last post, that I would condemn the way Jonathan Bennett does history of philosophy. But Bennett is an exception. Bennett’s critics often charge him with historical insensitivity and anachronism. To exaggerate a bit, they say something along the lines of “Bennett treats historical texts as if they were published yesterday.… Continue reading

  • On interpretive charity

    When I was in grad school, I remember there being some discussion among my professors about interpretive charity. The basic idea is simply good sense: try not to interpret what you hear or read as coming from a moron. The background assumption is that most people are not morons, and so if there are two… Continue reading

  • Down one dog

    We had to put down our dog Annie today. Fifteen years old. She was a real sweetie. Continue reading

  • Back from SC

    It is really a delight to be invited to a place where people have no choice but to listen to your ideas and give the impression of being interested. Everyone should have that experience from time to time, and if they are lucky the place will be Columbia, SC. The couple of days I spent… Continue reading

  • Jerry’s sculture

    Remember my trip with Jerry to the scrap yard? Here’s what he got out of it: Continue reading

  • Jerry’s Coyotes

    See Jerry’s coyote paintings here. (Added the link to the blogroll, right.) Continue reading

  • Nietzsche’s natzschuralism

    Looking for comments. I will be presenting it at U South Carolina next week. [UPDATED: it has an end now.] Nietzsche’s natzschuralism Continue reading

  • Prizes & potatoes

    It is a little-known fact, but the phrase “small potatoes” actually stems from a practice among state universities in the middle ages. Every year, the medieval administrators would pass out awards to the faculty, and the award in each case was a very small potato, which was useful in its own way, and tasty, but… Continue reading

  • Nietzsche & life’s perspective

    I haven’t been posting lately, since I’ve been working on a couple of Nz papers, with quickly-approaching deadlines. Here is a link to one of them through SSRN: Nietzsche and the perspective of life It’s a much-revised version of the “Valuing from life’s perspective” paper. In it I try to explain what “Life’s perspective” is,… Continue reading

  • Can’t find the passage!

    Darn it! Where is that blasted passage where Nietzsche wishes upon his friends every hardship, misfortune, illness, etc.? Continue reading

  • Days like this …

    .. are worth recording. I get up, drink my coffee, walk my path to campus, drag a deer carcass to the side, play online chess with a friend in Budapest, and make a decent stab at understanding the nature of Nietzsche’s revaluation of values. Hell, it’s not even noon. Continue reading

  • Milestone

    HEY! 18,000 hits! Whodathunkit. I think I’ll go have a scotch. Continue reading

  • Surveyor lamp

    Back when we bought the Columbia Grafonola, we also bought an old surveyor’s tripod. A trip to the home supply store, a bit of retro-fitting, and — voila! A lamp. Somehow, it doesn’t sound as exciting as it feels. Continue reading

  • Utah patriotic-a-looza

    Living in Utah can be both weird and thrilling. Last night we experienced a bit of both by attending a performance by our local American Festival Chorus, under the baton of Craig Jessop, who used to conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and now heads our Department of Music. The evening was to commemorate the bicentennial… Continue reading

  • Wim Klever’s “Locke’s Disguised Spinozism”

    Wim Klever is a great scholar of Spinoza. His work over the years has traced significant influences upon Spinoza (say, by Francis van den Enden) and surprising influences of Spinoza on others. I am providing a pdf copy of a paper he recently sent me (“Locke’s Disguised Spinozism”) about Spinoza’s influence on Locke. It is… Continue reading

  • TRUTH vs. truth

    Pardon me if this post ends up being obvious to everyone but me, but I’m trying to work out the relation between Nz’s perspectivism and truth, and I need to go back and retrace some steps. Let’s start with a Kantian/Schopenhauerian division between the phenomenal and the noumenal. In other words, there is the apparent… Continue reading

  • The invisible book I’m credited with … um, mentioning?

    Find out more here. Continue reading

  • Clark’s Nietzsche on Truth and Philosophy (1990)

    I should have read this book ages ago. I have read a lot about it — you can count on seeing it cited and discussed by any good recent book on Nietzsche. So I have learned from others what Clark says. But this is my first time reading the book, and I am extremely impressed… Continue reading

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  • Scrappin’ with Jerry

    We went up to a salvage yard in Idaho, hunting for stainless steel. Along the way, we stopped at an antique store, where I bought 20 or so 78s, including the one you’ll hear on the video: “One Alone,” performed by Nat Shilkret and the Victor Orchestra. Continue reading

  • Charlie Bowers’ metal-eating bird

    There’s weird, and there’s weirder. It’s weird to think of a metal-eating bird, who then lays an egg which hatches into an automobile. It’s weirder, I submit, to think of living in a rural western state, and going out at night to hear gypsy jazz performers play along to silent movies that are almost forgotten.… Continue reading

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  • Pacifica Quartet

    Last night we enjoyed a performance by the Pacifica Quartet. This group is fantastic. They have perfected a blending of their voices, so that no single voice overpowers the rest (unless or until the music requires it). And the program was stimulating. They started with a Mendelssohn quartet (op. 44, no. 2), which I gather… Continue reading

  • The Columbia Grafonola

    I had such a great time with Chris (see below) that I concluded, “gotta get me one.” She’s not a true Victrola, but a Columbia Grafonola, of Columbia Record Company. I haven’t really explored thoroughly, so I’m not sure of year or model, but it seems to fall in the 1911-1925 range. Found her at… Continue reading