The Fool's Progress

One more from the active ‘to read’ shelf picked up at a now forgotten bookstore outing, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, & Kafka is a short analysis of a fun bunch of guys. The book treats each writer in turn, with short biographies and a treatment of their work, but for the most part the author assumes a certain level of familiarity. The meat of this short paperback comes in two short closing essays. The Four Apocalyptic Horsemen draws them together as a group, noting their many similarities such as lack of success, loneliness, woman problems, and the like. The most striking comparison is that each felt they were at the end of a great tradition, screaming into an uncaring or complacent wilderness, and each presaged the coming apocalypse of 20th Century Europe. The copyright on the inside cover of this book is 1952, but I have no idea when the original essays were written. The Angel’s Finger calls into clear sight the existential crises present at the outset of the Cold War, and is a great sense of the European pulse at that time. The essay also sorts the 19th Century writers into helpful roles for a present that is now over fifty years past. This little book was a great read on several levels.

I tore through The Gate, a riveting memoir, three or four years after I first read a review, somewhere. Accused of being a spy, Francois Bizot is the only known Westerner that the Khmer Rouge released from political prison in the chaos of Cambodia’s civil war. The details of his interactions with his Grand Inquisitor are unforgettable. Amazingly, after that ordeal Bizot stayed on in the country long enough to witness the fall of Phnom Penh to the rebels and accompany the remnant caravan from the French Embassy to the Thai border. As always in any ‘humanity at the edges’ experience, Bizot witnessed the best and worst we are all capable of and tells a tale that will haunt its readers.

The column ran Saturday, with some minor editing that was mostly for the better. The Star cut a few lines, as the essay I submitted was about fifty words long. The only complaint I have is a sentence omitted that justifies Harris' theory in a Darwinian sense:

“Children seek their socialization cues from a group wider than their immediate family, for good evolutionary reasons. Harris estimates that due to shortened life expectancies, a Paleolithic child had a one in three chance of having both parents alive at age ten.”

The editors cut the second sentence. Bummer, as it is a key point to her theory. As is, the reader is left hanging as to what the 'good evolutionary reasons' are.

The Essential Peirce, Volume 1 is a fantastic introduction to eminent American Philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Peirce is both approachable and difficult, depending on the subject and audience he was writing for. He wrote enough ‘popular’ essays for periodicals of the time that a cogent yet clear picture emerges of his philosophy. His work on logic is more elusive, at least for me, but that is probably more a reflection on my lack of proper education. The Fixation of Belief, written in 1877, may warrant an entire Midwest Voices piece from yours truly. Briefly, Peirce argues that belief is our brain’s natural state, and that any period of uncertainty is uncomfortable and this irritation will be avoided at all costs. The method of filling in the blank, of ‘fixing belief’, is what is interesting. Peirce gives us four options, in increasing order of complexity.

The first is the method of tenacity, of simply clinging at all costs to the beliefs we already have. Peirce argues this method is ultimately untenable, as constant erosion of doubt will undermine the fixing of beliefs. The second method is for the individual to yield to the will of the state, or of the state imposing itself on its citizens. This could be religious or political oppression, and Peirce notes this method of inquiry is capable of immense works such as the Pyramids. A doctrinal approach fails, however, to regulate every subject. This means an opening will exist in any system for an inquiring, impious mind. The third method of settling belief is the a priori method or common sense in modern parlance. This method of inquiry seeks explanations that are naturally agreeable to reason. The problem, of course, is that we do not live in a common-sense world. Heavier objects do not fall faster than lighter ones. Euclid geometry and Newtonian physics break down upon further review. Further, what is reasonable today may not be tomorrow, and any method of seeking answers that waivers, subject to popular opinion will not be long lasting.

Peirce traces the failures of these methods in involving the inquirer. Peirce thought proper reasoning would not be dependent on the observer, that there is a reality independent of what humans would like to think. Peirce is arguing for the scientific method, that independent observers, performing repeatable tests, will arrive at the same conclusion. The answer may not be the one we sought, but exists nonetheless. I still have 300 words to go; this might be an article in June.

Gilead is the second novel by Marilynne Robinson, and is a very satisfying read. I keep circling round faith like moth to a porch light. Set in 1956, an old preacher who knows the end is coming writes to the man his young son will become, passing on such insights a well-lived life yields. The family history is fascinating, as Mr. Ames’ grandfather may have aided John Brown in an abolitionist raid. The book eases into a summer full of filial odysseys, questions of faith, and gentle admonishment as Mr. Ames winds down. In addition, Ms. Robinson has blessed us with susurrus, in the murmuring mid-summer leaves of an oak. This novel hits all of my buttons, history, family, and faith. The book is masterfully written and a pleasure to read.

In the end, Dennett didn’t go as far as I feared he would in Breaking the Spell. He merely asks the religious to lead considered lives, to grapple with the tough questions with the benefit of post-Enlightenment thinking. If a religious person is comfortable with belief as a natural phenomenon than that is good enough, because it is impossible to prove otherwise. A considered skepticism is the best we can do for knowledge, after that the William James Will to Believe still applies. According to James, there are times when a leap of faith is required to make any philosophical move, and in these instances, any faith will do. James includes the scientific method in faith in these instances. Unfortunately, those who have found Truth with a capital T are usually uninterested in philosophical arguments of why they must be wrong. Certainty is not in our cards, we are not to know in this life, regardless of how bitter a pill that is to swallow.

Dennett closes this way:

So, in the end, my central policy recommendation is that we gently, firmly educate the people of the world, so that they can make truly informed choices about their lives. Ignorance is nothing shameful; imposing ignorance is shameful. Most people are not to blame for their own ignorance, but if they willfully pass it on, they are to blame. One might think this is so obvious that it hardly needs proposing, but in many quarters there is substantial resistance to it. People are afraid of being more ignorant than their children – especially, apparently, their daughters. We are going to have to persuade them that there are few pleasures more honorable and joyful than being instructed by your own children. It will be fascinating to see what institutions and projects our children will devise, building on the foundations earlier generations have built and preserved for them, to carry us all safely into the future.

It is a pity this was written a good year before the Danish Mohammed cartoon riots, they fit right in to Dennett’s arguments. Religious-based ignorance is not somehow immune to polite scrutiny. In fact, as the riots show, there is no better place to start.

Housekeeping is a bleak little novel I picked up to read before Ms. Robinson’s second book, Gilead. It is a youthful angst novel, bleak, and ultimately unsatisfying, like life itself – at least according to an existentialist. 'Not all my songs are sad. Some are hopeless.' - my new favorite Townes Van Zandt quote. Anyway, the few people who strive and try stick out and are pathetic for their efforts. Those who ease into the buffeting stream of life with low or no expectations are pathetic too, but at least they have nothing at stake, and expect no better.

I picked this up and started reading it will ill with the flu in February, and then set it aside before finishing. The oddity of family relations, the roles assumed that become all encompassing, rings true. Who the heck are the strangers I’m intimate with, anyway? Not an unsettling read, unfortunately, but all too familiar. I wish it wasn’t.

I am failing in my life’s balancing act – reading, writing, husbanding, fathering. As you will see by the spate of little reviews about to appear, when in doubt I read and writing suffers. Perhaps I need to take a more active stance, but I was able to procrastinate effectively with the forthcoming article due. It is also harder to fail at reading than writing; I am a chicken at heart.