Innehållsförteckning för Issue 24 - No.2/2019 från New Philosopher

“Evermore in the world is this marvellous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats.”Ralph Waldo Emerson On a balmy morning in August 1974, a young man walked on a steel cable between the Twin Towers in New York. For three-quarters of an hour Philippe Petit stunned onlookers as he performed this feat 400 metres off the ground, defying fear, gravity, and a stiff breeze. “There is no why,”Petit replied when asked about the motivation for his balancing act. But I suspect there was: to create order within disorder; harmony amongst discord. Life is, whether we like it or not, out of balance most of the time. We seek ways to rebalance and, once there, we try to maintain an equilibrium. Sleep more, work less. Laugh more, stress less. Listen…

We tend to think that the correct answer to a problem must lie between two extremes. For instance, we often hear about the need to listen to “both sides of the argument”, with the implicit assumption being that the truth – balanced somewhere between the two sides – will emerge from the adversarial process. But that assumption only works if the spectrum of belief is properly calibrated. It doesn’t work, for instance, when the ‘two sides’ are belief in anthropogenic climate change and climate change denialism. The same could be said for the two-party political system that dominates much of the English-speaking world. The accepted wisdom is that the two-party system encourages policymaking towards the ‘sensible centre’, as politicians vie for the majority of voters that fall between the ‘Left’…

The dogs had been stewed and the tree stripped of its bark. But it wasn’t enough. In 1959, in the darkest depths of China’s Great Famine, Yang Jisheng watched the uncle who raised him starve to death. The experience led to journalist Yang’s magnum opus: his book Tombstone, first published in 2008 in Hong Kong and translated into English in 2013. A direct outcome of Mao’s catastrophic Great Leap Forward, Yang estimates that the 1959-61 famine left 36 million dead. Many resorted to eating corpses and violence was commonplace. In the name of Mao’s larger goal of collectivised farming, the Communist Party stuck resolutely to its policies, with deadly consequences. Yang, whom I met when I was a reporter in Beijing, told me he named his book Tombstone for one…

Janelle Hanchett recently published a memoir about raising multiple children as a non-functioning alcoholic and drug addict. I’m Just Happy to Be Here shows the author heaving her recalcitrant body into the straitjacket of ordinary life. For years she couldn’t do it. Her kids got taken away, multiple times and for multi-year stretches, while a sodden Hanchett raged against mediocrity. Like so many mothers today, she felt destined to more than a domestic life. Except for the 72-hour benders, gross negligence, and domestic violence, her story is relatable. Mothers everywhere want to be more than just mothers. I suggest that we stop being them altogether. Hanchett’s life was far from balanced. She threw herself into serial identities as though each had the power to define her once and for all:…

“Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.” Plutarch “In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread.” Anatole France “Men achieve tranquillity through moderation in pleasure and through the symmetry of life.” Democritus “Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.” Rumi “There is no hour that has not its births of gladness and despair.” George Eliot “Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terror, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.” Anaïs Nin “The fault of the utilitarian doctrine is that it mistakes impersonality for impartiality.” John Rawls “Don’t…

noun: 1. An even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady. 2. A situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions. 3. Mental or emotional stability. 4. (Art) Harmony of design and proportion. 5. An apparatus for weighing, especially one with a central pivot, beam, and two scales. 6. Counteracting weight or force. 7. Figure representing the difference between credits and debits in an account. verb: 1. In a steady position so that it does not fall. 2. Offset or compare the value of (one thing) with another. 3. Compare debits and credits in (an account) so as to ensure that they are equal. Origin: Middle English (in balance (in the sense of weighing)): from Old French balance(noun),balancer(verb), based on late…

Click on almost any article about the justice system, or step into just about any higher court of law, and you’re bound to see the same image: a blindfolded woman, holding a pair of scales in her outstretched hand. Lady Justice (Iustitia if you’re an Ancient Roman, Themis or Dike if you’re an Ancient Greek) has come to represent many of our common-sense intuitions about what justice is, or should be: impartial, balanced – in a word, fair. Indeed, the ubiquity of this image suggests that the link between justice and fairness is uncontroversial. But that belies a long-running suspicion that justice is nothing more than a game run by the powerful to subjugate the rest of us. What passes for justice, say the cynics, is just a set of…

Is it enough to change laws, institutions, customs, public opinion, and the whole social context, for men and women to become truly equal? “Women will always be women,” say the sceptics. Other seers prophesy that in casting off their femininity they will not succeed in changing themselves into men and they will become monsters. This would be to admit that the woman of today is a creation of nature; it must be repeated once more that in human society nothing is natural and that woman, like much else, is a product elaborated by civilisation. The intervention of others in her destiny is fundamental: if this action took a different direction, it would produce a quite different result. Woman is determined not by her hormones or by mysterious instincts, but by…

When I tell people that I am a professor of philosophy, and that I do metaphysics, I am usually greeted with either blank stares or scepticism. When the person I am talking with is a scientist, I get even worse than scepticism: I get raised eyebrows and the instant conclusion that am I a goofy flake, not an intelligent person, not an educated person, and that there is no need to talk with me any further. This dismissive attitude of scientists toward metaphysics is the unfortunate legacy of a misguided philosophy of science called ‘logical positivism’, or ‘logical empiricism’, that was influential during most of the 20th century. According to logical positivism, only science is meaningful; metaphysics is nonsense. The logical positivists thought there was a way to distinguish clearly…

Extraordinary quality in all respects. New Philosopher is one of the best things happening. I love how the writing reminds me that the types of issues we are grappling with today are similar to those grappled with by philosophers for centuries. I love this magazine. I no longer like reading or listening to mainstream news as it is not good for my health. Your magazine is good for me. It has real discussions that relate to life rather than reporting sensational ‘news’. Thank you. Your magazine is so helpful and is churning up the little grey cells, as Hercule Poirot says. Thank you, this world is brighter, more aware, and more meaningful with your publication in it. Great magazine. Finally one worth reading. Will recommend it to all friends. This…

What is your demon? I don’t have one. What is the most important part of your education? University. Which “thinker” has had the greatest influence on your life? Averroes (Ibn-Rushd). What do you doubt most? Altruism. If you could change one thing about the world, what would that be? No more fear. What does ‘balance’ mean to you? Happiness. What illusion do you suffer from? None. What would you never do, no matter the price? Never do harm. If you could choose, what would you have for your last meal? Nothing. The question you’d most like to ask others? What makes you tick? Your favourite word? Dignity. What is a good death? No such thing... but probably while asleep. What is the meaning of life? Whatever you make it to…

The experience will be familiar to anyone who’s tried to change their lives by following the steps in a typical self-improvement manual: you get everything set up to implement your new habit – the sneakers waiting beside the door for your morning run, the carrot sticks you’re going to chew instead of reaching for a cigarette – but then, when the moment arrives, you falter. A strange new mood has arrived, like an uninvited guest: it’s not that you just can’t be bothered to follow through on your plans, but that something inside you actively wants to sabotage them. Part of you wants to get fit, or quit smoking. But another part – a part of which you were unaware when you formulated the original goal – wants to assert…

Is balance a self-evident good? It certainly thinks it is. Take a cliché like ‘work-life balance’. To be out of balance is by definition to get something wrong. Perhaps you’re working too hard, or not enough, or exhibiting insufficient joie de vivre. In any of these cases, what you need to do is obvious (even if doing it is difficult). You must weigh up your options and commitments, then find a way to bring yourself back into balance. Philosophically speaking, the principle of balanced living owes a lot to Aristotle. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the metaphor of a craftsman creating an excellent work to illustrate his ideal of the golden mean. Excellence in art or craft, he argues, describes a point where nothing remains either to be added…

When the Royal Academy in London announced an upcoming exhibition on the Renaissance Nude, the press and commentariat went into overdrive, with a flurry of coverage along the lines of: ‘political correctness gone mad’. The Telegraph raged: “Royal Academy nudes to have ‘gender equality’ in new post-#metoo exhibition”. The Museums Association, the professional body for the sector, enthused and confirmed: “It is the first time the academy has introduced a gender quota for its exhibitions.” But it wasn’t true; there was no quota for the show. Though there were, roughly, as many male nudes as female, achieving equity was not the intention of the curators. The number of men’s buttocks was about the same as female bottoms, because that’s what the artists of the time painted. Take a peek at…

Alex Hinds: Balance is a topic that you have touched on in your work across political philosophy, law, feminist epistemology, and egalitarianism – and in particular, in your forthcoming book on the history of egalitarianism. Elizabeth Anderson: Balance plays a really important role in moral and political philosophy, both in terms of methodology and in terms of the substantive content of moral requirements. If we think about methodology, we have this notion of ‘reflective equilibrium.’This is the idea that in trying to figure out what is right or just, we seek an equilibrium between intuitive, general propositions or principles about right and wrong and our intuitions about particular cases. We move back and forth; we refine the principles against our intuitions about cases and try and find principles that will…

The Teacher Confucius 551–479BCE The doctrine of the mean What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; an accordance with this nature is called The Path of duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction. The path may not be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path. On this account, the superior man does not wait till he sees things, to be cautious, nor till he hears things, to be apprehensive. There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore the superior man is watchful over himself, when he is alone. While there are no stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said to be in the…

The Cyber Effect Mary Aiken Shut-up toys Somewhere along the line, a misinterpretation of neuroscience has led parents to believe that all stimulation for a child is good stimulation. They believe, wrongly, that a young brain must be kept constantly challenged and engaged. It’s as if parents fear their toddler will become bored with real life, which I guess means life without a screen. And fearing a toddler tantrum may be another reason that tablets and mobile phones are pulled out of handbags and totes by parents and caregivers to placate and pacify young children. I have seen articles by psychologists referring to these as “shut-up toys”. The Path Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh Patterns of behaviour Many of the Chinese thinkers would argue that you are not and should…

How stone stacking wreaks havoc In the past decade or so, there has been an explosion of cairns (stone stacks) around the world – in national parks, in the Scottish Highlands, on the beaches of Aruba. Park rangers, environmentalists, and hikers have all become alarmed, to varying degrees. The movement of so many stones can cause erosion, damage animal ecosystems, disrupt river flow, and confuse hikers, who depend on sanctioned cairns for navigation in places without clear trails. newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/ people-are-stacking-too-many-stones Devil’s dictionary AMBIDEXTROUS, ADJ. Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left. The best books on Confucius As Confucianism makes a comeback in China and its ideas become more, Daniel A. Bell, a professor of philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, lists which books to read…

Michael Puett Michael Puett is the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology, as well as the Chair of the Committee on the Study of Religion, at Harvard University. His interests are focused on the inter-relations between philosophy, anthropology, history, and religion, with the hope of bringing the study of China into larger historical and comparative frameworks. He is the author of The Ambivalence of Creation, To Become a God, and The Path. Mariana Alessandri Mariana Alessandri is Assistant Professor of Continental Philosophy, Existentialism, Philosophy of Religion, and Spanish-language Philosophy at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. She has written for The New York Times, Philosophy Today, Womankind magazine, Times Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education and many academic journals. Her teaching interests include Existentialism and Mexican-American Philosophy.…

In terms of wealth distribution, Credit Suisse reported in 2018 that the bottom half of the global population owns less than 1% of total wealth in the world. The top 1% owns 47% of all global assets. The earliest Chinese characters for yin and yang date back to the 14th century BCE and are found in inscriptions made on ‘oracle bones’. At a global level, males slightly outnumber females 50.5%/49.5% (102 men for every 100 women). At birth, however, the ‘natural’ sex ratio is approximately 105 males to 100 females. In the OECD’s work/life balance survey, the top 5 countries were Netherlands, Denmark, France, Spain, and Belgium. The bottom 5 were Turkey, Mexico, Israel, Korea, and Japan. Australia was the 9th worst (out of 38); USA the 10th worst. The…

In March 2018, a man named Mike Hughes climbed into a homemade, steam-powered rocket, and launched himself 700 metres above the Mojave Desert floor. Thankfully, he came back down in one piece, if a little sore. Like most of us, Mike is entranced by the idea of going into space. Unlike most of us, he wants to do so (at horrendous risk to his life) because he believes the world is flat, and wants to see for himself. “Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a frisbee? I believe it is. Do I know for sure? No. That’s why I want to go up in space.” Modern flat-earthers have been around for more than two centuries, but in the internet age two interesting shifts seem to have occurred. Firstly,…

In 1947, the Danish quantum physicist Niels Bohr faced a dilemma. The newly-minted King of Denmark, Frederick IX, had just surprised Bohr by announcing that he was to be awarded the Order of the Elephant, Denmark’s highest order of chivalry, in recognition of his contributions to science.This was a remarkable achievement, not least because the Order of the Elephant was normally reserved only for royalty and heads of state, and Bohr was a mere commoner. In fact, only one other scientist had ever been awarded the Order of the Elephant in its 500-year history, and that was the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (who had the advantage of already being nobility). It takes multiple perspectives, often conflicting or contradictory, in order to make full sense of reality. In addition to receiving…

First female heads of government 1960s Where: Sri Lanka Who: Sirimavo Bandaranaike When: 21 July 1960 How long: 4 years, 249 days Where: India Who: Indira Gandhi When: 24 January 1966 How long: 11 years, 90 days Where: Israel Who: Golda Meir When: 17 March 1969 How long: 5 years, 78 days 1970s Where: Argentina Who: Isabel Perón When: 1 July 1974 How long: 1 year, 267 days Where: Portugal Who: Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo When: 1 August 1979 How long: 186 days Where: United Kingdom Who: Margaret Thatcher When: 4 May 1979 How long: 11 years, 208 days Also in the 1970s: Bolivia (Lidia Guelier Tejada, 1979). Also in the 1980s: Dominica (Eugenia Charles, 1980), Yugoslavia (Milka Planinc, 1982). Also in the 1990s: Lithuania (Kazimira Prunskienė, 1990), Haiti (Ertha…

Nigel Warburton: From outside Chinese philosophy it seems that balance, and particularly within Daoism, is a crucial concept – it’s the balance of forces, that’s an idea that filters through to the West. Is that accurate, that balance does play a large part in Chinese philosophy? Michael Puett: It does indeed. And one of the key reasons it’s such a key part of Chinese philosophy is that one of the opening assumptions in China is: Imagine the world as a very messy world of constantly flowing energies, often very different energies and different modalities of energies. And therefore, in this world of constant energies things are endlessly bumping against each other, often in poor ways. And this is particularly bad when you get to, for example, humans, who are also…

It’s precisely at this moment, again and again, that I’m catapulted backwards in time. As the preamble ends (in this episode, the shop assistant, working late and alone, pulls back the curtain on the change cubicle, having received no response to her “are you alright in there?” only to reveal the looming, unmistakeable metallic form of, yes, a cyberman) and the opening titles and theme tune kick in, it feels as though the decades contract. When that 1950s era blue Police Box begins its rotation through the vortex, propulsive bass, four-four tempo, and squalling synth underscoring its apparently eternal passage, I might as well be eight years old again, as sitting here, close to fifty, flanked by my own children, seven and nine, watching Doctor Who. Parenthood elasticates time. During…

There has been such a thing as letting mankind alone and tolerance; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind. Letting alone Springs from the fear lest men’s natural dispositions be perverted and tolerance springs from the fear lest their character be corrupted. But if their natural dispositions be not perverted, nor their character corrupted, what need is there left for government? Of old, when Yao governed the empire, he made the people live happily; consequently, the people struggled to be happy and became restless. When Chieh governed the empire, he made the people live miserably; consequently the people regarded life as a burden and were discontented. Restlessness and discontent are subversive of virtue; and without virtue there has never been such a thing as stability. When man…

Sydney Writers’ Festival Sydney, Australia April 29 – May 5, 2019 Sydney Writers’ Festival presents more than 300 events, attracting audiences of 100,000 plus for a week-long conversation of books and ideas. The festival brings together some of the world’s most curious and compassionate, irreverent but respectful, intelligent and argumentative writers. With the finest writing and storytelling at its core, their programming is driven by the ideas and issues that animate all types of literature. Previous international guests include Neil Gaiman, Susan Faludi, Paul Beatty, Colson Whitehead, Anne Enright, Armando Iannucci, Roxane Gay, Carol Ann Duffy, Ian Rankin, Gloria Steinem, Julian Barnes, Alice Walker, George Saunders, and many more. www.swf.org.au/ Keith Haring Exhibition Tate Liverpool. Liverpool, UK June 14 – November 10, 2019 A part of the legendary New York…

It is a cliché of our times that work has wormed its way into the home, eating away at our free time. On this view we are, in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s words, “born free, but everywhere are in chains”. With Wi-Fi and a smartphone, you are never really away from your office if something needs doing. Indeed, the office, a place where you go to work, is a thing of the past for many – it has become an abstract concept, a virtual set of relations, not a physical space. We just work where we happen to be, interacting with co-workers, clients, and the public in a complex web of relations. We receive emails and phone calls, do things, reply to people, click on buttons, stuff happens, and we get paid…