tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.comments2023-04-02T09:49:12.204-04:00Problems of LifeMatthew Pianaltohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comBlogger717125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-21787168412436045132016-06-21T17:35:40.841-04:002016-06-21T17:35:40.841-04:00Thanks. (Haha.)Thanks. (Haha.)Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-63343831501180162332016-06-21T16:56:44.744-04:002016-06-21T16:56:44.744-04:00Congratulations! I would say I can't wait to r...Congratulations! I would say I can't wait to read it, but...Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-32826326224845793622016-01-19T14:19:35.859-05:002016-01-19T14:19:35.859-05:00Thanks, that does look interesting (as does the ea...Thanks, that does look interesting (as does the earlier work on ugly feelings). Sorry I forgot to reply. Unfortunately, the philosophy of art class was cancelled due to low enrollment. Maybe next time...Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-91368103611424923612016-01-19T14:15:55.493-05:002016-01-19T14:15:55.493-05:00Thanks! (As you can see, I'm missing most blog...Thanks! (As you can see, I'm missing most blog stuff lately, too--or only catching up much later. Hope you're well.)Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-15540094911016929442016-01-08T16:06:42.673-05:002016-01-08T16:06:42.673-05:00Missed this, but congrats!Missed this, but congrats!jollekdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05743734210902639684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-11777085394571495702015-11-02T15:04:16.102-05:002015-11-02T15:04:16.102-05:00I haven't gotten around to actually reading th...I haven't gotten around to actually reading the book yet, but it does promise interesting reflections on some of our lesser and more ambiguous aesthetic categories: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/11/sianne_ngai_s_our_aesthetic_categories_zany_cute_interesting_reviewed.htmlvhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16887661953741578765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-62831495710487047182015-07-15T18:02:37.825-04:002015-07-15T18:02:37.825-04:00Check your VMI email.Check your VMI email.Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-33047350090210834392015-07-14T16:54:08.494-04:002015-07-14T16:54:08.494-04:00could you send me a copy?could you send me a copy?Reshefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350527262158734622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-441082635275344852015-06-01T12:23:59.808-04:002015-06-01T12:23:59.808-04:00Yes, congratulations! Yes, congratulations! Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-38659152318068139242015-05-26T14:24:55.641-04:002015-05-26T14:24:55.641-04:00That made me laugh, j. Thanks.
And thanks, Lars!That made me laugh, j. Thanks.<br /><br />And thanks, Lars!Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-76358344608281383602015-05-22T14:08:09.956-04:002015-05-22T14:08:09.956-04:00Congratulations on getting tenure!Congratulations on getting tenure!Lars Hertzberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09840441217838499844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-53802139730309285602015-05-21T16:29:22.837-04:002015-05-21T16:29:22.837-04:00this is unsettling
back to the rough face!!!this is unsettling<br /><br />back to the rough face!!!j.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09002699528461726304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-80188965043203109902014-06-19T17:05:34.401-04:002014-06-19T17:05:34.401-04:00Matt,
I'm not sure this is directly related t...Matt,<br /><br />I'm not sure this is directly related to the present discussion, but I read this quotation from Franz Rosenzweig today and thought of you: <br /><br />"The true concern of the philosopher is with the “essence,” the “essential” being of his subjects. He does not have to wait for an answer to his question. Answers wait for him in eager readiness…" (Understanding the Sick and the Healthy, 41).<br />Reshefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350527262158734622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-8779139085120599122014-06-19T09:59:24.037-04:002014-06-19T09:59:24.037-04:00I hadn't thought about the marshmallow test co...I hadn't thought about the marshmallow test connection. That stuff's controversial, isn't it? But I do like the metaphor of patience as strength, albeit not the obvious strength of the weightlifter but maybe more like the strength needed in yoga. That probably doesn't help you though. Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-42403219268618036742014-06-18T15:43:01.588-04:002014-06-18T15:43:01.588-04:00Thanks. It did go well. There was some good discus...Thanks. It did go well. There was some good discussion of how children experience/perceive time differently than adults, and can be deeply fascinated by things that bore us after three minutes, and about the marshmallow test.<br /><br />I'm trying to think more about the exercise business now, as I prepare to revise and redo a chapter on "limits" of patience. Even though we talk of patience as a virtue, we also call something 'patience' that can 'run out'--or perhaps become fatigued, kind of like the muscular metaphor Baumeister uses to talk about willpower...Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-11720618729358317432014-06-18T09:32:27.002-04:002014-06-18T09:32:27.002-04:00I hope it went well. It strikes me as being a real...I hope it went well. It strikes me as being a really nice piece: clear, substantial, and thought-provoking. <br /><br />I'm also struck by your reference to strength, which has me thinking about exercises to develop patience. Almost everything seems to require the exercise of patience (even taking an elevator), so we ought to have lots of it. If we don't it might be that we don't get enough variety in our exercise program. In which case long canoe trips might be helpful. Or it might be that we are simply overwhelmed. Multi-tasking can be very demanding, so it might not be that people are less patient than they used to be, but simply that we need more patience today than we did in the past. I don't know. As long as people have children and dogs they will need (and hopefully develop) patience though. Duncan Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15708344766825805406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-29530649203192183092014-05-29T10:11:34.264-04:002014-05-29T10:11:34.264-04:00Thanks, Kelly. One of my colleagues has that Pasca...Thanks, Kelly. One of my colleagues has that Pascal quote on his door!<br /><br />DMF: I haven't yet found time to watch more than the start of that video, but thanks for the link. I am not familiar with Hauerwas' work.Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-47645598755989785362014-05-27T16:05:50.397-04:002014-05-27T16:05:50.397-04:00Aquinas treats the martyr, and not the soldier, as...Aquinas treats the martyr, and not the soldier, as the paradigmatic case of fortitude. There's useful stuff on this in the section on fortitude in Josef Pieper's *Four Cardinal Virtues*. <br /><br />The sense of fortitude here is the one missing (as Pascal sees it) in most lives: "All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone." jollekdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05743734210902639684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-33417855066593758702014-05-25T09:04:34.675-04:002014-05-25T09:04:34.675-04:00https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yeAkYMXCEM
-dmfhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yeAkYMXCEM<br />-dmfAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-80756882904620712932014-05-12T03:31:27.786-04:002014-05-12T03:31:27.786-04:00Wonderfull post, thank you!
SabrWonderfull post, thank you!<br />SabrAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-63364235976149799632014-04-11T00:14:14.308-04:002014-04-11T00:14:14.308-04:00Sorry for the non-response until now. ["Thank...Sorry for the non-response until now. ["Thank you for your patience. Your comment is very important to us." ;) ]<br /><br />I don't know if a special kind of patience is needed to philosophize as opposed to, say, creating good art or so forth. I might say something about this in the Preface when I write it, but it might just be better to leave it implicit. I do discuss the connection between patience and wisdom in the chapter in which I consider the links between patience and other virtues. There is a draft paper on my webpage called "Patience and Practical Wisdom" that may be relevant here. (It combines elements from a couple shorter conference papers and is going to be part of an edited collection on the connections between moral and intellectual virtues, edited by a philosopher at Western Kentucky University named Audrey Anton.)Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-81288061748842717162014-04-04T07:56:43.526-04:002014-04-04T07:56:43.526-04:00Thanks.
Are you also discussing in the book the ...Thanks. <br /><br />Are you also discussing in the book the patience needed to philosophize? It seems as though a special sort of patience is required in philosophy. Just looking at what you wrote in the paragraph in your last response, there is a special kind of worry that seems to be involved in what you do: Will people understand? There is a constant danger of being misunderstood, and a constant need to say things like “I didn’t mean that, but only this.” And there is a persistent worry that even this will not be enough, and that minds will not meet. What you do in this paragraph can thus be thought of as an exercise of patience. – Would you agree? Is a special kind of patience required for philosophy? Reshefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350527262158734622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-40447045597120919142014-04-03T14:28:19.070-04:002014-04-03T14:28:19.070-04:00Yes, I would take that on. It was something I had ...Yes, I would take that on. It was something I had to think about today as I was finding my way to the end of the chapter I've been revising/rewriting that deals with defining patience. I think the last paragraph I composed today is germane to all of this. Just after discussing the merits of a broader definition/conception of patience (that goes beyond a focus on waiting, and characterizes in terms of acceptance of unavoidable or assumed burdens), I say the following:<br /><br />"Even so, there is no point in denying that the term patience is used in varying ways in our daily talk, and I think there are limits how useful it is for a philosopher to declare that we ought to use the term in certain ways and not others. The various definitions considered in this chapter indicate different ways of specifying what we might mean in invoking the concept, and it is useful at times to call for precision and clarification of our intended meaning when our words our susceptible to multiple interpretations. If I say that patience is always a virtue and my listener takes me to be claiming that it is always good to wait, then I have not successfully communicated my point to this listener (unless I really meant to say that it is always good to wait—a claim, as it should be clear, that I would not want to make). Patience can mean—and has meant—more than this listener takes it to mean, and by attending to the depth of meaning made available by this broader conception of patience, our understanding of what it means to say that patience is a virtue may be transformed. In adopting and making use of this enlarged understanding, we won’t lose the ability to make sense of what others mean when they speak of patience in more restricted ways. But we might smirk a bit when, as wait to speak to a customer service representative on the telephone, we hear the recorded announcement drone, 'Thank you for your patience. Your call is very important to us.' For we will know that, on the one hand, the fact that we are waiting does not imply that we are doing so patiently and, on the other, that there is more to patience than is captured in such mundane statements."Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-74950398082547773242014-04-03T06:53:29.293-04:002014-04-03T06:53:29.293-04:00When I said what I said about your target audience...When I said what I said about your target audience, it perhaps didn’t come out right. What I meant was that your task is much more difficult than that of someone who is arguing against a theory of patience. There the target is clear. But you are taking on a natural, or ordinary, notion of patience, which is much more elusive. It has no clear boundaries, it is not unified everywhere, it is fluid and changing, it is hard to grasp once and for all. My question is about the right approach, if that is your target—or how to understand your method, your activity, here. Perhaps this would be it: Your discussion is more a participation in an ordinary conversation than an external response to that conversation. – Would you endorse this characterization?Reshefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01350527262158734622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20662860.post-72419062494929360912014-04-02T18:17:07.771-04:002014-04-02T18:17:07.771-04:00"what could permit me to philosophize with th..."what could permit me to philosophize with them?"<br /><br />I can't imagine there being just one answer to that question because there may be various reasons for philosophical discussion. Forcing the conversation to philosophy could also be bad for various reasons (wrong time or place, etc.) But forcing the issue might make sense sometimes, too. <br /><br />I wouldn't say I'm aiming my questions at non-professionals. Or if I am then there's something odd about taking this paper to a philosophy conference!Matthew Pianaltohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16380038537888895216noreply@blogger.com