Smart - Poetry

For the rest of this series, click on the 'Poetry' link at the bottom of the post.

Our next poem is from a man named Christopher Smart, who is described as a 'relgious mystic'.  The title is 'To Jeoffry His Cat'.

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of Godin the East he worships in his way.
For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having consider'd God and himself he will consider his neighbor.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons, he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
For the Cherub Cat is the term of the Angel Tiger.
For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in his goodness he suppresses.
For he will not do destruction, if he is well-fed, neigher will he spit without provocation.
For he purrs in thankfulness, when God tells him he's a good Cat.

I'm guessing that non-cat people would hate this poem.  I'm a cat person myself, so I rather like it.  The numbered list is especially eye-catching.  I'm not sure how much devotion to God such actions are, but I certainly can't dispute them either.
'For he is of the tribe of Tiger/For the Cherub Cat is the term of the Angel Tiger.'  These phrases certainly do seem to be of a mystic bent.  I'll have to tell this to my kitties and see if they seem pleased or not.  I hope that they will 'purr in thankfullness'.

Ethics - Aristotle

This is in regard to Book II and parts of Book III and VI.

These readings from Aristotle seem to be a direct answer to Plato's 'Meno' in the sense that Aristotle tackles the question of what virtue is.  He says that intellectual excellence is a product of teaching and moral excellence comes from custom.  He says that moral virtue doesn't come from nature and can't come to us by custom.  He argues:

'The Virtues then come to be in us neither by nature, nor in despite of nature, but we are furnished by nature with a capacity for receiving them and are perfected in them through custom.'

The seems exactly right to me.  We must be carefully taught virtue.  And that teaching should be backed up by constant example from the people around you.  He also says:

'For Moral Virtue has for its object-matter pleasures and pains, because by reason of pleasure we do what is bad, and by reason of pain decline doing what is right (for which cause, as Plato observes, men should have been trained straight from their childhood to receive pleasure and pain from proper objects, for this is the right education).'

Which seems to be an argument in favor of spanking.  I liked this bit here:

'Again, one may go wrong in many different ways (because as the Pythagoreans expressed it, evil is of the class of the infinite, good of the finite), but right only in one; and so the former is easy, the latter difficult; easy to miss the mark, but hard to hit it: and for these reasons, therefore, both the excess and defect belong to Vice, and the mean state to Virtue;'

This sets up a lengthy list of examples in which Virtue is the mean between two undesirable states.  For instance, Cowardice---Bravery---Reckless.  I'm not sure how much I agreed with this section.  To take this example, I don't have a problem with the idea that Cowardice and Bravery exist on opposite sides of a spectrum.  I just don't think that the if you continue along that spectrum you get to Recklessness.  It seems to me that Recklessness isn't a matter of being too Brave but of simple ignorance of possible dangers. 
There are also plenty of virtues that don't really fall into this set up.  For instance, Ignorance---Knowledge---???  Or False---Honest---???  Which isn't to say that overall idea of a golden mean isn't useful, I just wonder if Aristotle pushes it too far here. 

Picture from 'Antigone'

I think I mentioned that I was in a one act version of 'Antigone' 'way back in high school.  Here is a picture from a rehearsal.  I'm playing Haemon and am lying dead while Creon weeps over me.  (I've lost about 100% of that beautiful hair.  Sigh.)

Readings for May

I think this is the only thing so far that the Amazon Kindle department doesn't know anything about.

May Nicomachus: Introduction to Arithmetic link

Poetics - Aristotle

'Poetics' is largely a study of literature, some epic poetry but mostly stage drama.  In it, Aristotle conducts a very thorough breakdown of the pieces that go into a dramatic effort.  He uses contemporary examples throughout and explains why 'Oedipus Rex' is such a great play.
Like many of Aristotle's works, 'Poetics' reads like a series of lecture notes.  It works, but I found myself wishing for a whiteboard to help me keep things straight.  Especially the six parts that go into a tragedy (Plot, Character, Thought, Diction, Melody, Spectacle).  As I was reading through, I kept looking for areas where I would disagree but I found very little.  The basic rules that Aristotle pointed out still work.  The exceptions also work as they clearly are based on a simple reversal, in many cases simply for the sake of that reversal.
Some highlights to me:

• A story should contain a beginning, a middle and an end.  This seems like a no-brainer but just last week I saw a movie that was structured Beginning/Middle/End/Beginning/Middle/End/Beginning/Middle.  By the time the third part of the story started, I was simply waiting for some kind of climactic payoff so it would be done.  It failed that criterion.  (My friend was pleased that she got to see some shirtless Ryan Gosling, so it wasn't a complete loss.  Btw, I think that would fall under the 'Spectacle' heading.)
• A story is superior to history because a story has a specific reason behind it.  History is prone to more random events where good and evil is harder to figure out.  In this way, art is only 'art' if it has some narrative purpose behind it.  
• Drama depends on reversals.  Aristotle mentions the reversal of powerful to powerless and that is still a staple today.  Not just that a rich person becomes poor (though we get that) but that a rich person goes to prison and loses all freedom and power.  

Aristotle's main strength seems to be in taxonomy.  He does great work in categorizing things both in general and in their parts.  I'm curious how drama grew up in cultures that didn't have an Aristotelian influence.  Places like Japan, China and India.  Unfortunately I'm wildly ignorant here but I'd love to see a study of, say kabuki theater, as it relates to Aristotle.

Intro to Poetics - Aristotle

As I was preparing to read Aristotle's Poetics, I ran across this clip from an AP class.  It seems like a good intro:

Searching for Virtue

A couple of days ago I started composing a little dialogue in which I try to engage Socrates in the search for the definition of virtue.  I come in all confident and quickly founder on whether or not 'virtue' is a synonym for 'good'.  I had some vague ideas as to what points I would try and make but now I'm not so sure.
The bombing in Boston has taken over some part of my mind's efforts.  This atrocity has hit me harder than some other recent events like the shootings in Newtown.  I'm not sure why.
I keep thinking of the supreme dedication and effort that marathoners put into a marathon.  The months of training and discipline.  We expect that kind of thing from professional atheletes.  It's not hard to think something along the lines of 'pay me $10 million a year and I'll dedicate that kind of time to diet and exercise'.  But the overwhelming majority of marathoners are every day folks.  They put all that time and energy into training themselves so that they can achieve a very personal goal.  There is no big payday ahead of them.  They'll get admiration from friends and family but that's about it.
On Monday some of these every day people ran in one of the most famous marathons in the world.  They pushed themselves for hours.  And then, just short of the finish line, some random group of them were targeted.  Some of them were just yards short when the bomb went off.  The explosion and the shrapnel were low and this resulted in multiple amputations.
This was evil in a very pure form and I don't know any other word that covers it.
So as I sat back and had a little fictional joust with Socrates over the definition of 'virtue', my mind kept trickling back to a sure antonym.  The Boston bomber(s) were the precise opposite of virtous.  They were evil.  They took a good and noble thing and destroyed it.  They took good and precious lives and blotted them out.  If you ask me what evil is, I can confidently hold up the Boston bombs as an example.

There was virtue in the story as well.  I think of the people who moved quickly to help the injured.  They displayed a quick and brave sort of virtue and they deserve great honors.  I want to think of them instead of the evil ones but I can't quite get there yet.

I'm kind of hoping that merely writing this will let me move past the very emotional state and let the more analytical part of the mind start working again.