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Showing posts with the label Young Hegalians

Die Eule der Minerva beginnt erst mit der einbrechenden Dämmerung ihren Flug.

With Ezra's foray into The Sorrows of Young Werther , Henry was feeling a little put out so has started to explore Daddy's extensive library on the works of one G.W.F. Hegel. So Saturday afternoon, when Jen was out knitting, he starts on about Elements of the Philosophy of Right , and was asking me what defines the actualisation of freedom . I said that I doubted that history had an actualisation point and wanted to leave it at that, but then he started on about what it was to lead a ' moral life ', so I asked him what it was to lead an ' ethical life ', and then Ez got started on the unity of being and nothing which Henry confused with the master-slave dialectic and things were just getting out of hand, and I was rapidly getting a headache. We did however, find some common ground regarding the owl of Minerva, that is, its big eyes made it appear quite cute.

Muscular Thinking

Someone e-mailed me a page of ersatz figurines/dollies yesterday and it gave me a chuckle. It essentially imagines a range of action toys dedicated to Western philosophers. The logic is that now – with the help of modern technology – the "greatest minds of all time now have great bodies to match". However, I couldn't help but notice some notable omissions. As a great fan of the German Idealists , I wouldn't mind seeing a " Fighting" Fichte (my own personal favourite), or "Stunning" Schelling . More obviously, no "Magnificent" Marx OR "Exacting" Engels ? That's just plain wrong! [As an aside, anyone who wants to fund my draft film script envisioning The Young Hegelians as a sexy group of private eyes who fight crime by day and make love all night, give me a call!] And even if I've gone off them a bit over the last few years, there clearly has to be scope for a whole set dedicated to the Frankfurt School . I mean really...