Moby Dick - Herman Melville, Ch. 16-22: Ishmael seeks out a whaling ship for the two and comes to the Pequod. He talks with Captains Peleg and Bildad - part-owners of the boat, but not the ones to command her - and they accept him as a low-paying crewman. Captain Ahab will command, but he's sick now. Ishmael brings Queequeg by the next day. They don't like him because he's a cannibal and want him to become a Christian first. Ishmael says he's a born member of the "first Congregational Church"...of humanity. Peleg likes that and hires Queequeg on for a hefty pay because of his experience harpooning. Old "beggar-like" man, Elijah, warns them to find out about Ahab first. They ignore him. The ship is fixed up, the two go aboard early in the morning of departure, finding that Ahab came aboard last night but remains in his cabin. Rest of crew board. Peleg and Bildad order everyone around and cast off - no Ahab yet. When out at sea, the two disembark to another ship and wish them the best. Ahab is still unseen. Very symbolic, especially with characters like Elijah "the prophet". Wonderful coupling the profundity of the Quaker language with the subject matter (more of that to come). There's still murkiness in his presentation of the religious side of the men, perhaps explained by statements like: "very probably he had long since come to the sage and sensible conclusion that a man's religion is one thing and this practical world quite another".
Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol - Edmund Burke: As a member of the British Parliment, he's writing about the last two acts passed concerning the war with America. He's grieved that the legislation "subverts the liberties of our brethren". Making American ships "pirates" is more dishonorable than making them traitors. Suspension of habeas corpus for some is worse than full suspension for all because latter wouldn't be stood for. Those calling for war "have all the merits of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of contribution...It is our business to counteract them". People won't submit without feeling a "great affection and benevolence toward them" by the sovereign, which we aren't giving America. In two bonded communities, the greater is always the threat. Beware unintended consequences. The end of government is the happiness of the people. If we are to last we must reconcile our "strong presiding power" with liberty. "Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist." Very Lockeian in the ends and limits of government, very Montaigneian in its temperance/admission of ignorance. Too bad we didn't get any more (or a response by his adversaries).An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume, Sect. I-III: "Man is a reasonable being...but so narrow are the bounds of human understanding." We need both the accuracy of thinking and the beauty of sentiment. Much of metaphysics doesn't qualify as a discipline of study because of its obscurity. We must accept defeat here and "submit to this fatigue, in order to live at ease ever after". We need to subvert these abstruse philosophies with accurate and just reasoning, "and if we can go no farther than this mental geography...it is at least a satisfaction to go so far". But maybe we can discover more. Perceptions (impressions from our senses) are "lively", later memories of them (thoughts/ideas) are always less so. Analyzing our thoughts, we find all are derived from impressions, even the idea of God, there are therefore no innate ideas. There's always a connection between ideas in one of three ways: resemblance, contiguity, cause/effect. It's interesting to note that, at least for now, he's simply asserting that there's no innate ideas. Why couldn't one simply assert the opposite and land on equally shaky ground? Just because ideas might be conjoined from memories/impressions doesn't mean they were, and even if they were that doesn't mean they're false. One scientific way to get at this is through child psychology - and I know they've found some pretty remarkable suggestions of basic ideas in infants as young as a few months old ("objects shouldn't pass through each other, but collide", for example). It'll be good to get more into this, especially since many believe Hume is the major influencer in contemporary philosophy.
Federalist Papers #78-79 - Alexander Hamilton: 78) Now proceed to the judicial department. We're seeking to improve previous errors in 1) mode of appointment; 2) judges' tenure; 3) judicial authority. Judges "are to hold their offices during good behavior". It is the weakest of the three branches and holds neither "the purse" nor "the sword", therefore it's in "continual jeopardy of being overpowered". Need complete independence of judiciary if it is to act to limit government actions according to the Constitution, of which they are an extension. Thus they are the people acting to limit the delegates of the people (legislative). Permanent appointments grants judges independence. Few will qualify for the job. 79) Need a "fixed provision for their support" to ensure their independence. Their salaries can't be diminished during their terms, but can be raised because they won't be corrupted by that because they already have permanent tenures. They can be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate. Seems to imply he's only talking about the Supreme Court. I suppose subsidiary courts will come next. He also seems to have no concept of the "living document" method of Constitutional interpretation that is currently in vogue. Interesting.
On the Loadstone - William Gilbert, Book II, Ch. 1-7: There are five types of magnetic movements: coition (attraction), direction, variation, declination, revolution - but now we're only talking about the first. There's a difference between the magnetic attraction of a loadstone and the electrical attraction of amber (and other stones when rubbed). Electrical attraction comes from humours trapped inside. "Loadstone attracts only magnetic bodies; electric attracts everything." Electric bodies "give" something to each other without touching and water enhances this. Magnets attract because of their "formal efficiencies or rather by primal native strength", not from primal emanations. Magnetic strength comes from outside and inside. Fire destroys this "form" of loadstone by "confusing" it, then it later is restored when cooled. "Poles are dominate in virtue of the force of the whole." Force always pulls (even internally) to the poles - right line at the poles, oblique elsewhere. This pull exerts equidistant around stone in all directions. Again, not the most concise. Interesting about amber - especially the theory of its origins: we find it on the beach so it must come from the sea - it has insects because it washed up once, trapped them, then out and back again. Distinguishing magnets from sources of static electricity seems a great place to start.
Politics - Aristotle, Book I: Mankind always seeks what they think is good; political communities seek the highest good. Government started from families, but is different in kind from families. Only man seeks morality, government. The state is prior to the family as the whole is prior to the parts. Justice is the bond of the state. Household management involves slaves and freemen - need property and "art of getting wealth". Slave is a living possession, belongs to another man by nature. Man naturally has superiors/inferiors and superiors naturally rule (i.e. slavery is "both expedient and right"). Rule over slaves is monarchy, over freemen constitutional rule. Art of household management is limited by needs of household; it's not the same as wealth-getting, which is limitless and guided by men's limitless greed. Retail trade/bartering is unnatural use of objects (i.e. shoes, which are made for feet, not exchange). Some trade is necessary, too much bad. Objects are too heavy to carry around so people coined objects of "intrinsic value" like iron, silver, etc. Father's rule over children is royal, over wife constitutional. All, including women, children, slaves, can be virtuous, but only freemen fully. Slave only virtuous in things that prevent him from failing in his duty. Amazing example of taking what existed (i.e. life in the ancient world), assuming it's normal, then applying a deductive teleological method to explain it all. Not very popular today (the latter really, not the former). The main problem, as I see it, is his assumption that the world he was seeking to explain was "normal" (as opposed to abnormal). If man is morally fallen, then entire social structures are going to be the product of that sin (i.e. slavery, the need for the state in the first place, etc.).
Here's next week's readings:
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Ch. 23-39 (GBWW Vol. 48, pp. 48-77)
- “The Power Within Us” by Haniel Long (GGB Vol. 6, pp. 246-261)
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume, Sections IV-VII (GBWW Vol. 33, pp. 458-478)
- Federalist #80-81 (GBWW Vol. 40, pp. 234-242)
- On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies by William Gilbert, Book II, Chapters 8-39 (GBWW Vol. 26, pp. 43-59)
- The Politics of Aristotle, Book II (GBWW Vol. 8, pp. 455-471)
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