Conversation

Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
But there is another, more central question: what is this activity of reading and thinking about books? Is it a search for truth? In a way, yes, I do think this; but in another way, I find it very unhelpful.
1
6
Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
I am a big fan of making contact with reality. Most if not all of the things I really care about--including learning-- involve this. So at the end of the day, would I say that's the End of Learning? Yes, sure.
1
10
Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
But this gets real messy in the details. Sometimes the reality I encounter is not in the topic of study, but in myself, in a recognition of my own limitations. Sometimes it is even a recognition of the limitations of someone else.
1
9
Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
Here's another example, that may help for Jen to sink in her teeth some more, if she wants. I led a seminar on Macbeth a few years ago. Macbeth is a terrifying play. It is terrifying because it unearths human possibilities that are deeply unpleasant to confront.
1
11
Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
Macbeth is the kind of thing that makes me uncomfortable with "true, good, and beautiful" talk. The play can unhinge people. Anyway, we were talking about M's speech after LM's death. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow ..."
2
14
Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
Some students were happy to say that Macbeth sees the world this way because he's gone off the moral rails. I wondered aloud whether we might think rather he has had an *insight* into the nature of things. And another student suggested he might be "enlightened".
1
12
Zena Hitz
@zenahitz
In this conversation, we were encountering an experience (Macbeth's) that involved what I (religious person) believe to be a delusion. So what the students were initially saying was "true", but there was another level of confrontation that they were not reaching.
2
6
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
I wonder why reading books for the sake of learning the truth (which is in fact why I read) should be equated with reading true books. I learn a lot from reading (eg) Nietzsche, Foucault and Girard, but I think they were all pretty much wrong about the most important things.
4
1
29
Agnes Callard
@AgnesCallard
Whereas Aquinas might've been right, but he bores me (sorry Jen) so I don't find myself learning the truths he has to offer. If I knew a book would "make me better" or "teach me something"--that sounds like a scary book--I want to learn, but I don't want books to do things to me.
Image
7
6
17