tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post504322000848140467..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: A Definition of the EnlightenmentJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-17382561990137284772012-05-09T20:00:16.083-04:002012-05-09T20:00:16.083-04:00Agreed. She, like so many academics of her generat...Agreed. She, like so many academics of her generation, loves to see things shaken up. Since she is only a literature professor, this will do no harm, and maybe some of her students should be trying to get more distance from their parents. But carried into politics this attitude is what gave us, for example, the Cultural Revolution in China.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-89114019774982363402012-05-08T23:06:06.128-04:002012-05-08T23:06:06.128-04:00Castle's essay (on both this and the parental-...Castle's essay (on both this and the parental-rejection point) reminds my of a phrase of that I heard Steven Schiff use once: "the exalted turmoil that is the hallmark of great art." Castle is clearly in love with such turmoil (as she confesses), and such turmoil may be useful in both personal and occasionally even social development, but fundamentally it's not a legitimate social form (which is one reason that it's both exalted and in turmoil). Socially and politically its end is conflict and death, whether experienced by one of Castle's heroes or by someone like Savonarola (who was as much a social rebel, defier of heirarchies, and disappointment to his parents as any philosophe or freedom rider).Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com