Billy Budd - Herman Melville: Innocent, Christ-like sailor (Billy) comes on board new ship and the Devil (Claggart) has it in for him, though he doesn't seem to know why. He accuses him of conspiracy to mutiny before the captain. Billy doesn't know what else to do so he hits him, which kills him. Captain convenes a kangaroo court and sentences him to hang, which happens the next morning. Despite confused naval report about the incident, he becomes famous and lives on in naval poetry. Wonderful prose, though tedious at times. If this is Christ, he's a bit different than the guy in the Bible.
Meditation on the Divine Will - Abraham Lincoln: Observes that both sides of "great contests" claim to act in accordance with God's will, though at least one is wrong. Could it be that God has other purposes in mind with the Civil War? I'm glad he stopped short of saying God was somehow obligated to stop such contests. This almost seems a universal assumption with people today (at least when discussing the problem of evil), but whence the justification for that?
Plato's Republic, Book IV: Happiness in the state concerns the whole, not the individual guardians. A rightly-ordered state is a happy one is a just one. A state is rightly-ordered when those in each class and vocation are doing their own thing and having what belongs to them. The four virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice are interrelated and dependent on this notion. Three principles of the soul - rational, appetitive, concupiscent - exist in the soul in microcosm to the model of the classes of the state. Justice/injustice, virtue/vice is the right-ordering of these principles or departure thereof. Brilliant stuff. But, why isn't the mind a problem? I'd say the mind (rational principle) is fallen too, not just the others.
Federalist Papers # 46 - James Madison: Don't worry, federal government won't take preference over the state. The ultimate power is with the individuals, and they'll give confidence to whomever they think deserves it. Administrators always favor local governments/concerns. Citizens carry arms and state militias will be able to call up more soldiers than the federal government. Don't know about that last one. I think he's also overlooking an ideological bent towards individuals favoring larger and larger governmental bodies. It also overlooks ambitions of the individual. I kept thinking about Hillary Clinton becoming a senator for the state of New York, when she wasn't even from New York.
A Laboratory of the Open Fields - Jean Henri Fabre: He could never travel and see the world, so his back yard had to suffice. Even then, he couldn't easily acquire his little "laboratory in the open fields" because he (apparently) didn't have enough money to purchase a plot of land until he was older. Wonderful little description of the myriad goings-on of the bees, beetles, etc. It does seem, though, that the love for one subject need not obviate the value of others (he blasts marine biology). Yet, his concern for people not studying entomology in the field has both basic and applied scientific merit. Why can't marine biologists and entomologists just get along?
The Process of Thought, Ch. VII - John Dewey: When difficult situations arise, we can: dodge it, indulge in flights of fancy, or reflect. There's 5 phases of reflective thought: 1) suggestions of a solution; 2) intellectualizing situation more thoroughly into a coherent problem; 3) developing one solution into a working hypothesis; 4) mental elaboration of the idea; 5) testing the hypothesis. I think this and things like this are harder to read because it takes a situation that is so close to people as to be overlooked, then puts it into discrete logical processes with technically-accurate descriptions and justifications. Now that in itself is hard to reflect on!
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