Abstract
“We will talk about speculation and judgment.” These are the words uttered in my mind’s ear with the sonorous whisper of his French-Belgian accent that came to mind when I thought of writing something in honor of Professor Jacques Taminiaux. It was common for him to begin class with such an introduction coupled with the forewarning that our discussion must inevitably be “provisional.” Mining the history of philosophy requires of our attempt a willingness to continually ask the questions that preceded the questions that preceded the questions. It may well be that the history of philosophy is, as Whitehead averred, a footnote to Plato, but as Taminiaux knew well, Plato’s philosophizing was always “in the shadow of the work of art.” Indeed, it was Taminiaux’s approach to philosophizing that inspired my attempt—humble and provisional to be sure—to explore the roots of the concept of genius as it emerged in Immanuel Kant’s thought.
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Notes
- 1.
Think of some of the titles in Taminiaux’s work. For example, “The Origin of ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’” in Poetics, Speculation, and Judgment or “The Reappropriation of the Nicomachean Ethics: Poiêsis and Praxis in the Articulation of Fundamental Ontology” in Heidegger and the Project of Fundamental Ontology. The titles suggest a kind of philosophical digging.
- 2.
Note how many of his essays include two philosophers in their titles or how many essays include the interrelationship among ideas, like judgment, speculation, difference, etc.
- 3.
I cannot be sure which lecture this was—perhaps it was the lecture given to commemorate the inauguration of the Adelmann Chair at Boston College or perhaps it was another in a lecture series at BC—but I distinctly recall the comment.
- 4.
See: The Gatepost. 2015. Framingham State University’s Student Newspaper. November 20.
- 5.
Indeed, some students, at least one quoted at the Administrative Forum, apparently want quick administrative announcements on these matters. One student is quoted as saying, “I should have been notified ahead of time that this was happening, especially since I live in the building and I identify as Native American” (5). It is not clear how one could send notifications “ahead of time,” but the implication seems to be that notices of allegations should be immediately distributed.
- 6.
See https://www.aacu.org/making-excellence-inclusive. See Krantz (2016).
- 7.
Nietzsche (1997), 24.
- 8.
Taminiaux (1993), 128.
- 9.
Lonergan (1971), 64.
- 10.
Lonergan (1971), 66.
- 11.
Lonergan (1988), 22.
- 12.
For a concise explication of Lonergan’s understanding of symbol in art, see Hughes (2011), 25f.
- 13.
See Bruno (2011), 75f for a brief treatment of Kant’s conception of the symbol.
- 14.
Kant (1987), 227.
- 15.
See Plato’s Republic VII.
- 16.
Taminiaux (1993), 15.
- 17.
Taminiaux (1993), 2.
- 18.
Taminiaux (1993), 3.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Taminiaux (1993), 5.
- 21.
Taminiaux (1993), 4.
- 22.
Taminiaux (1993), 9.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Taminiaux (1993), 4.
- 26.
To be sure, the distinctions drawn between Plato and Aristotle and illustrated in the following table are provisional. Indeed, the distinction itself serves this essay as a device to explore the question of symbol in politics and education.
- 27.
Arendt (1982), 42.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
In the interest of clarity and not wanting to conflate two different issues, the argument being made in the present essay is about individuals displaying the Confederate flag and not institutions, governmental or private.
- 30.
Taminiaux (1993), 14.
- 31.
Article IV. 3 of the March 11, 1861 Constitution of the Confederate States reads as follows: “The Confederate States may acquire new territory; and Congress shall have power to legislate and provide governments for the inhabitants of all territory belonging to the Confederate States, lying without the limits of the several Sates; and may permit them, at such times, and in such manner as it may by law provide, to form States to be admitted into the Confederacy. In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.”
- 32.
As quoted in Sandel (1996), 15.
- 33.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/8-things-didnt-know-confederate-flag. January 17, 2016.
- 34.
See #3 in http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/8-things-didnt-know-confederate-flagomit extra space. January 17, 2016.
- 35.
“[T]oday, the German criminal code prohibits the public use of a symbol of any ‘political party which has been declared unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court.’ This includes the swastika, the Nazi salute, and several other symbols of the Third Reich. Punishments can range from fines to up to three years in prison. Mein Kampf and other Nazi propaganda works are also banned.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/06/24/germany_banned_its_ugly_historic_symbols_should_we_do_that_too.html. March 11, 2016.
- 36.
See Wyatt (2004).
- 37.
For a brief overview, see Boxer (2000).
- 38.
This movement is sometimes explicit: Again, see Boxer (2000), sometimes clumsy: See also “Swastika Uproar at School ‘Peace’ Chat Irks Parents.” New York Post [New York, NY] 27 Nov. 2015: 010. Biography in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2016, and sometimes “strange”: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/11/amazon-nazi-subway-ads.
- 39.
The Central Congregational Church in Providence, RI, USA, built in the 1890s has Fylfot crosses—what many would immediately call swastikas—in the stained glass of its dome. See http://www.centralchurch.us/history/
- 40.
In some measure, a part of this discussion has to do with the fact that the Confederacy and Nazis were losers. Their respective defeats have consequences.
- 41.
The state of Rhode Island, where I am from, still celebrates “VJ Day,” which is, in my experience, often met with a roll of the eyes or a derisive mention of celebrating the dropping of the atom bomb. I might also add that almost uniformly no one wants to give up a state-sanctioned holiday for reasons, I assume, that have more to do with having a paid holiday than anything to do with the war. The reaction of some to Columbus Day is another example.
- 42.
See Kant quoted in the First Session of Arendt’s Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy. The quote, taken from On History, is Kant’s reflections on progress, but he links the ideas of progress and contentment in a way that produces what Arendt recognizes as “a rather melancholy notion.” (Arendt (1982), 9).
- 43.
Gadamer (1995), 270.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
It is worth reflecting on Aristotle’s observation that the principle of non-contradiction cannot be taught. See Aristotle’s Metaphysics, IV 4.
- 46.
See Bruno (2011, chap. 3).
- 47.
Taminiaux (1993), 12.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
Kant (1987), 160.
- 50.
See Arendt’s Seventh Session in Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy.
- 51.
Flannery (2010), 118.
- 52.
- 53.
Ricoeur (1998), 33.
- 54.
I once had a conversation with Frederick G. Lawrence, translator of works by Habermas and Gadamer, about Spiel wherein he told me that he preferred to think of Spiel as meaning “game-play” rather than simply “play.” “Game-play” suggests that there are parameters or rules in which the play takes place. I used the example of tennis when discussing the relational character of “in” and “out” earlier in the essay, and it is appropriate here. A dialogue has to take place within certain parameters or “rules”: openness, listening, and respect, certainly, but also historical accuracy and perhaps humility.
- 55.
Ricoeur (1998), 33–34.
- 56.
The nickname of the University of Mississippi athletic teams is Rebels. The Confederate flag was used by fans at ballgames until 1998.
- 57.
References
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Hughes, Glenn. 2011. Ulterior significance in the art of Bob Dylan. Journal of Macrodynamic Analysis 6: 18–40.
Kant, Immanuel. 1987. Critique of judgment. Trans. W. S. Pluhar. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Krantz, Laura. 2016. A dean faces a tall order: Making harvard more inclusive. Boston Globe, January 2.
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———. 1988. Collected works of Bernard Lonergan: Topics in education. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
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Wyatt, Edward. 2004. The illegal swastika sells in Germany, but it’s still a hex. New York Times, October 7.
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Bruno, P. (2017). Symbols and Politics. In: Fóti, V., Kontos, P. (eds) Phenomenology and the Primacy of the Political. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 89. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56160-8_11
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