#55 On the unconscious
Dear Mat, Apologies for the lateness but I was on my own European jaunt and was equally if not more appalled by the moribund ivory tower I encountered at an
Author: Jamie Freestone
#53 On equipment for living
Dear Mat, One of my favourite formulations of literature — as opposed to myth — is Kenneth Burke’s claim that it is equipment for living. Literature provides us with new perspectives
Reviewing reviews
Most nonfiction book reviews suffer from the same problems. If they’re critical they generally go one of two ways. The author misses out topic X, I know about X and
Four types of myth?
In order of rough appearance in history, here are four types of myth. All of them, it should be obvious, are meaningful: they provide their users with what Kenneth Burke called “equipment
#51 On quality
Dear Mat, Could there be a cult based on Hamlet? Sure, cults (short lived belief systems) spring up all over the place all the time. But I’m pretty sure it would never become a religion
#49 On irony
Dear Mat, Thinking The Bible perfectly good or perfectly bad is wrong. Reading my criticism of it as saying it is perfectly wrong is, ironically, the same kind of wrong. Here’s my
#47 On real democracy
Dear Mat, Do I not give Jesus’ teachings a fair go because of his reputation? I have to say, my major engagement with religion has been to read the holy
Deduction, subjectivity & culture are all real enough
People and philosophers tend to get bogged down in binary oppositions like objective vs subjective, nature vs culture and inductive vs deductive knowledge. Continental philosophers tend to complicate such binaries, trying