This is a piece which I was in the middle of writing in October 2010 when illness intervened; it is therefore unfinished. But I didn't want to let the part I had written go to waste! A Very Short Introduction to Anarchism by Colin Ward differs from other books in the series in that the …
Category: philosophy
Reeves on Mill: Chapter 9
In Chapter 9 Reeves is mainly concerned with the Principles of Political Economy (1848), Mill's relationship with Harriet, and the delineation of Mill's shifting position with regard to socialism. Principles of Political Economy gives a classical laissez-faire account of the economics of production, largely based on the work of David Ricardo (although Mill dedicated it privately to …
September Miscellany (2010)
September has been a very good month. A score of 7.07 on the Depression Scale which is the second highest ever and by far the best September. This may be partly because I am now marking more generously. It may also be partly because there is always something of a positive reaction when I emerge …
Unbridled Romanticism
In Chapter 5 of The Roots of Romanticism Isaiah Berlin considers what he terms 'the final eruption of unbridled romanticism'. Berlin says that Friedrich Schlegel, himself a part of the movement, named three vital components of this movement: Fichte's philosophy, the French Revolution, and Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister. Fichte's philosophy The innovation which Fichte and …
Reeves on Mill: Chapter 8
The impact on Mill of the events in Paris in February 1848 was, as was common among European radicals, immense and galvanising. 'I am hardly yet out of breath from reading and thinking about it......Nothing can possibly exceed the importance of it to the world or the immensity of the interests which are at stake …
Berlin on Romanticism
Writing about the work of Isaiah Berlin is an extremely difficult process. The thought is so diffuse (though only very rarely anything less than pellucid), the arguments so close, the range of reference so wide, and above all the generosity of spirit, the endless qualification and perception of alternative views, mean that any attempt at precis …
Reeves on Mill : Chapters 6-7
Chapter 6 In the late 1830's Mill once again became heavily involved with public political events. It was a time of hope for the Radicals; hopes which were centred on achieving a split in the Whigs between the progressive element and the rest, and the introduction of the secret ballot. Mill fretted that he could …
Letter From An Unknown Woman
After a long period of closure Birmingham's main 'arthouse' cinema at the Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) has reopened. Actually the whole of MAC has been resigned/redecorated/refitted and it is now a much more pleasant and airy space. I don't think they have done that much to the cinema, but it does mean that foreign language/independent/reissues …
Net Life (OP)
28th June 2007 The serendipity of the past few weeks has been coming across a number of debates and discussions about blogging (well I have met a lot about depression and mental health too, but I am probably attuned to see these even where they don't exist!) and indeed 'net life' as a whole. These …
Work, work, work (OP)
15th August 2007 Peter Linebaugh in The London Hanged (p14) writes... >>new morality became triumphant among the capitalist class at the end of the seventeenth century. Christopher Hill contrasted it with the religious attitudes prevailing earlier: 'Labour, the curse of fallen man, had become a religious duty, a means of glorifying God in our calling. …
Moving Toyshop 