Vitalism seminar details

The seminar idea has generated a lot of interest — thank you!

So it turns out that distributing large chunks of copyrighted text likely would not fall under “academic fair use,” which is a fairly restrictive standard. I should have thought that through more carefully.

I will put the syllabus below with links to buy the books at Amazon, for those who want to do that. I have added one little gem to the segment on “Metaphysical Hope”: Charles Peguy’s 5-page “Abandonment”. So good.

I will post my notes and reflections tied to each week’s readings on Fridays. I will try the video seminar-recap idea as well, after the first in-person session, and see how it goes. In addition to reporting the nuggets of wisdom that emerged in the seminar room (with the permission of whoever offered them), I think I’ll read aloud the notes and reflections I have posted as text, so they are available aurally as well. (Some people prefer to listen rather than read.) Maybe I’ll read aloud some especially compelling passages from the readings as well. I want this to feel cozy. Make a cup of tea and pull up a comfortable chair, my friends.

I hope you can join us!

Matt

Schedule of readings

Part One: Does Christianity diminish man, or enlarge him?

Jan 16: Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, First Essay (entire) and Second Essay, sections 1-11. Together these are pp. 24-76 in the Kaufmann translation.

Jan 23: Friedrich Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, Second Essay sections 12-25 and Third Essay (entire). Together these are pp. 97-163 in the Kaufmann translation.

Jan 30: Guest lecture by Talbot Brewer (philosophy, University of Virginia) on Plato’s Timaeus, with text to be distributed ahead of time.

Feb 06: Max Scheler, Ressentiment, chapters 1-3 (pp. 23-77 in the Marquette translation).

Feb 13: Max Scheler, Ressentiment, chapters 4-5 (pp. 79-125 in the Marquette translation).

Part Two: A brief history of vitalism in America

Feb 27: Jackson Lears, Animal Spirits, Introduction and chs. 7&8

William James, “Is Life Worth Living?” (beginning with section II) in The Will to Believe, pp. 38-62 and “The Moral Equivalent of War.”

Part Three: Solidarity, the circumscribed life-world, and the universal

March 13: Michael Oakeshott “The Tower of Babel” in Rationalism in Politics, pp. 465-487

Stephen Jenkins, “The Rock and the Hard, Hard Place” in Come of Age, pp. 211-232.

March 20: Andrew Willard Jones, “Nationalism” in The Two Cities, pp. 219-224.

Stephen Wolfe, “Loving Your Nation” in The Case for Christian Nationalism, pp. 117-171

Christopher Dawson, Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, chapters 1,2,4.

Part Four: Men and women

March 27: Leon J. Podles, “Can a Man be a Christian?”, “What Is Masculinity” (parts) and “God and Man in Judaism” in The Church Impotent, pp. 27-46 and 60-73.

C.S. Lewis, “Eros” in The Four Loves

Part Five: Metaphysical courage

April 03: Hartmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of the World, pp. 1-4

Paul Sherz, Tomorrow’s Troubles, Ch.3: “Anxiety and the Temporality of Risk” and Ch.4: “The Hunger for Security”

Charles Peguy, “Abandonment,” in God Speaks, pp. 32-36.

April 10: Matthew Crawford, “The Boldness of Belief and the Timidity of Technology”

Mark Shiffman, “Hope and Optimism”

Conclusion: The erotics of God and man

May 1: George Grant, “Appendix” in Technology and Justice, pp. 71-77

Dionysius, “On the Divine Names,” IV: 7-17 and VIII: 7-9