Ah, what a lovely time. No classes and no teaching. My girlfriend, Ahreum, arrived late last night, and we've slept in a little. Probably should have woken up earlier, but a little laziness every now and again never hurt anywone.
This morning I made nice fancy oatmeal with a little mixed spice, vanilla, and honey added in by yours personally. Plain oatmeal isn't normally that nice, but with a little tweaking it sure is a satisfying breakfast. This is a bit different than the kind of breakfast Ahreum is used to from home. It's quite interesting, but when I traveled to Korea I found that they have a very hearty breakfast. Spicy soup, rice, meat, and side dishes can all be served for a breakfast there. Luckily, Ahreum isn't a breakfast dogmatist, so she likes oatmeal too.
What makes me most grateful about this morning is that Ahreum is here. Sometimes I get a bit lonely over the weeks. PhD work leaves less time for socializing than in the past, and it makes a student somewhat isolated. It is just a bit harder to meet new people. When Ahreum is here any loneliness is instantly vanquished and I feel completely at ease. Its this kind of companionship that is so important to a relationship, and I'm glad I've found that in my life. Whatever else happens Ahreum is always there to listen. Sometimes I go on and on about crazy philosophy (or worse any kind of technological subject), but she never dismisses my geeky soliliquies. Three cheers for that.
Anyway, I don't get to take life too easy this weekend. I'm teaching on the social covenant and political obligation in Hobbes next week. But that's not all. At my department we now have a political theory seminar occurring bi-weekly, and next Wednesday is the next meeting.. The group has pulled out the stoppers across the university, and we have people coming in from several places apart from the usual suspects like politics and philosophy. Hopefully, we can net some classics and theology people interested in ethics and ancient political philosophy.
Now this Wednesday is particular important because I am giving a short presentation and inviting the other members to read an interesting piece by the Archbishop Francois Fenelon de Salignac de la Mothe. Now this name is not likely to ring any bells out there, but he is a hugely important figure in the history of ideas. Despite being the tutor of Louis XIV's heir, the Duke of Burgundy, leading to the enlightened and progressive mean of the Duke's circle, Fenelon was a firm opponent of the absolutist pretensions of the King and his ecclesiastical supporters. More importantly for the history of ideas, his novel The Adventures of Telemachus Son of Ulysses was probably the single most popular book in 18th century France. Not to mention that Fenelon almost certainly exercised a profound influence on Rousseau. The short piece I am looking at is his "Dissertation on Pure Love."
Now before any of you think I've become a total softy, this is not the kind of "true love" one might expect from a romantic relationship. Oh no. In fact it is a self-deprecating love that expects man to transcend the bounds of himself and develop general love or cherite (close to the original meaning of charity as higher Christian love, which has now been lost). This general love prefers the whole of rational creation or, in the case of the ancients, whose love Fenelon always accounts superior to the moderns, at least the whole body of the state over the interestedness of the individual. The individual should be lost in this stepping out of the self. For Fenelon this love can have no interested motivation, i.e. desire of reward or fear of punishment, but must occur for its own sake. This, even by neo-Augustinian standards, is a radical view, and quite unlike much of anything currently in circulation.
Hence, I hope that it will give our group a different way of conceiving of social love and the bounds that can unite an ethical (as opposed to purely practical) society. It will also offer an historically interesting exercise whereby we can muse over how these ideas swelled in popularity and then declined.
So now I'm off to work on Hobbes and Fenelon. Oh, and I've still got a piece on Locke that needs more revision. No rest for the wicked, as they say.
Once more into the breach,
Ben
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