Solitude
October 20, 2013
A precondition for much great art is solitude. We all have a tendency towards sociability, communication and laughter, yet this tendency must be curbed if one is to make progress on worthy artistic endeavours. Writing, painting, composing, sculpting, choreographing, philosophizing and designing will all require deep concentration at some point, best achieved in loneliness. For …
The PhD
October 13, 2013
A few years ago I was ‘first opponent’ at a PhD defence in Norway. The procedure of the viva voce exam was very different from the UK. The candidate was to give a public lecture and then I and another opponent had to engage him in a protracted debate, all in front of a sizeable …
The Metaphysics of Chess
October 6, 2013
As soon as the necessities of life are secured, we turn to the arts but also to games. Arts and games are alike in having no immediate practical value but their very pointlessness reveals their intrinsic value to us. Games are sometimes called pastimes. It might look as if their purpose is merely to pass …
Photo Synthesis
September 29, 2013
The camera, even in my childhood a rare item, is a gadget that everyone I know now possesses. We used to choose our shots carefully. There were only 24 or 36 frames on a roll of film, which then required time and money to be developed and made into prints. Any movement led to a …
The Pianist
September 22, 2013
As dusk arrived, we took shelter in the pub by the harbour. The sea air and the mist had chilled us. The pub sat above rocks against which waves constantly crashed, the noise being inescapable outside. Inside the atmosphere was completely different: busy, warm, cosy and intimate. A fire had been lit. The décor played …
Let’s Get Physical
August 31, 2013
Philosophers develop their mental lives as much as anyone does. And academics, especially in the arts, put thinking first. But that sometimes leads us to neglect our physical being. It is essential to us that we are an embodied rationality, with a physical location and extent in space and time, exercising our free agency. It …
The Wordsmith
I was surprised this week how much I was affected by the death of Seamus Heaney. The many tributes I saw and heard seemed to make a bigger impact than his actual passing. It was clear that wordsmiths are still highly valued or, in Heaney’s case, revered. That is so encouraging. We sometimes see dystopian …
Reviewing Reviewers
August 25, 2013
My son was listening to a film review on You Tube last week. I found the reviewer to be smug, sniping and self-satisfied, poking fun at a movie that he wouldn’t have had the talent to produce in a million years. If internet reviewers really knew what they are talking about, wouldn’t they be working …
Ethics Begins at Home
August 17, 2013
I’m not a moral philosopher (and sometimes joke that I’m an immoral one). But certainly morality is an area of the arts that concerns every single person. We all have ethical deliberations to face on a regular basis. Some have a strict and explicit code according to which they live while others get by on …
Finitude
July 21, 2013
Another book idea came to me yesterday morning and I was quite excited about it. It could be important and significant. But it would take a lot of work to do it properly: maybe ten years’ worth of research time. And then I remembered that I have about six other books I want to write …
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