[lit-ideas] _Philosophy 4_
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:37:12 EST
_Philosophy 4_
In memoriam Owen Wister, 1860-1938, Harvard Class of '82.
Donal McEvoy refers to his 'tutor' in the philosophy of mind at Oxford and
the questions he would get at 'Collections':
(i) Can you imagine 2 + 2 = 5? If, so advice.
(ii) We've heard the story -- but can a prince turn into _two_ frogs?
--- McEvoy describes them as
>clever-clever and arsehole something
and worth an insult,
but I find them cute.
Indeed, it's quite an art to make the _correct_ questions, and I do wonder
what the surname of this professor was, as it (the name) may ring a bell (in my
brain, fig.).
--- Anway, it reminded me of Owen Wister, an author I was reading when in
Cambridge, Mass. -- This reading is from "The Harvard Book" and it was
published
way back in 1903 -- and it's about an exam in philosophy way back.
I won't transcribe the whole thing, but the questionnaire he is presented
with -- reminds one of what Chesterton wrote about how you can spoil "Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland" by making it go through a dry questionnaire.
Not the case with Wister.
The philosophy course was: Philosophy 4. -- and that was the title of the
volume.
I transcribe from the Harvard Book:
"This tale [Philosophy 4] recounted the adventures of Billy and Bertie, two
of Harvard's gilded youth, who hired as a tutor a fellow student named Oscar
and then proceeded to prove to the satisfaction of many that the best of a
gentleman's education does not lie in books."
"The story has been one of the most popular in Harvard literature."
------
Wister is best known for his novel, "The Virginian" -- which McCreery must
know by heart.
----
Excerpts from tale:
"This very hour to-morrow would see them eating their last before the
examination of Philosophy 4."
"There's one thing that's valuable. When they spring those tricks on you
about the flying arrow not moving, and all the rest, ... you learn what pure
logic amounts to when it cuts loose from common sense."
Oscar read:
"The sharp line of demarcation which Descartes drew between consciousness
and the material world," whispered Oscar with satisfaction, and knew that if
Descartes were on the examination paper he could start with this and go on for
nearly twently lines before he would have to use any words of his own."
"But my dear sir, these gentlemen know nothing! Philosophy 4 is tomorrow and
they know nothing!"
"In their field among the soft new grass sat Bertie and Billy some ten yards
apart. Each had his notes and took his turn at questioning the other. Thus
the names of the Greek philosophers with their dates and doctrines were shouted
gaily in the meadow."
"There they sat, while their memories gripped the summarised list of facts
essential, facts to be known accurately; the simple, solid, raw facts, which
should they happen to come on the examination paper, no skill could evade nor
any imagination supply."
"What about Heracleitos?"
"Eternal flux."
"Or, if he got it mixed up, and replied, 'Everything is water', which was
the doctrine of another Greek, then BIlly would credit himself with 25c on a
piece of paper."
"What's your score?"
"2.75, counting your break on Parmenides."
[They swim]
"Now we've got no towels, you fool"
"Use your notes."
"What do you suppose Oscar is doing now?"
"'Gentlemen, said he, in Oscar's manner, 'we now approach the multiplicity
of the ego."
---
"These questions settled, they resumed the lighter theme of philosophy, and
made it (as BIlly observed) a near thing for the Causal law."
"These young men could not have got fifty per cent"
"In those times, this was the passing mark. To-day, I believe you get an
A,or a B, or some other letter denoting your rank."
"Oscar called five times."
"There's multiplicity of ego for you!"
"To hear such words as cognition, attetion, retention, entity and identity,
freely mingled with such words as silver-fizz and false hair, brought him
surprise."
"They hastened to their notes for a last good bout at memorizing Epicharmos
of Kos and his various brethren. The appointed hour found them crossing the
college yard toward a door inside which Philosophy 4 awaited them: three hours
of written examination! ...
"Oscar sat... fluently writing his perfectly accurate answer to the first
question upon the examination paper."
"Here is the paper. You will not be answer all the questions, probably, but
you may be glad to know what such things are like."
----------------------------------
PHILOSOPHY 4
1. Thales, Zeno, Parmenides, Heracleitos, Anaxagoras. State briefly the
doctrine of each.
2. Phenomenon, noumenon. Discuss these terms. Name their modern descendants.
3. Thought = Being. Assuming this, state the difference, if any, between (1)
memory and anticipation; (2) sleep and waking.
4. Democritus, Pythagoras, Bacon. State the relation between them. In what
terms must the objective world ultimately be sated? Why?
5. Experience is the result of time and space being included in the nature
of mind. Discuss this.
6. Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensibus. Whose
doctrine? Discuss it.
7. What is the inherent limitation in all ancient philosophy? Who first
removed it?
8. Mind is expressed through what? Matter thorugh what? Is speech the result
or the cause of thought?
9. Discuss the nature of the ego.
10. According to Plato, Locke, Berkeley, where would the sweetness of a
honeycomb reside? Where would its shape? its weight? Where do you think these
properties reside?
-------------------
"Ten questions, and no Epicharmos of Kos. But no examination paper asks
everything, and this one did ask a good deal. Bertie and Billy wrote the full
time allotted, and found that they could have filled an hour more without
coming
to the end of their thoughts. Comparing notes at lunch, their information was
discovered to have been lacking here and there. Nevertheless, it was no
failure; their inner convictions were sure of fifty per cent at least, and
this
was all they asked for the gods. 'I was ripping about the ego,' said Bertie.
'I was rather splendid myself,' said Billy, 'when I got going. And I hgave him
a huge steer about memory.' After lunch both retired to their beds and feel
into sweet oblivion."
"Some six mornings later, when the Professor returned their papers to them,
their minds were washed almost as clear of Plato and Thales as were their
bodies of yesterday's dust."
"The dates and doctrines, hastily memorized to rattle off upon the great
occasion, lay only upon the surface of their minds, and after use they quickly
evaporated."
"To their pleasure and most genuine astonishment, the Professor paid them
high compliments."
"Bertie's discussion of the double personality had been the most intelligent
which had come in from any of the class. The illustration of the intoxicated
hackdriver who had fallen from his hack and inquired who it was that had
fallen, and then pitied himself, was, said the Professor, as original and
perfect an illustration of our subjectivity-objectivity as he had met with in
all
his researches."
"And BIlly's suggestions concerning the inherency of time and space in the
mind the Professor had also found very striking and independent, particularly
his reasoning based upon the well-known distortions of time and space which
hashish and other drugs produced in us."
"This was the sort of thing which the Professor had wanted from his
students: free comments and discussions, the _spirit_ of the course, rather
than any
strict adherence to the letter. He had constructed his questions to elicit as
much individual discussion as possible and had been somewhat in his hopes."
"Yes, Bertie and Billy were astonished. But their astonishment did not equal
that of Oscar, who had answered many of the questions in the Professor's own
language."
"Oscar received 75 per cent for this achievement -- a good mark. But Billy's
mark was 87 and Bertie's 90".
"'There is some mistake," said Oscar to them when they told him; and he
hastened to the Professor with his tale."
"'There is no mistake,' said the Professor. Oscar smiled with increased
deference. 'But,' he urged, 'I assure you, sir, those young men knew absolutely
nothing. I was their tutor, and they knew nothing at all. I taught them all
their information myself.' 'In that case,' replied the Professor, not pleased
with Oscar's tale-bearing, 'you must have given them more than you could spare.
Good morning.'"
"Oscar never understood. But he graduated considerably higher than Bertie
and Billy, who were not able to discover many other courses so favourable to
'orriginal rresearch' as was Philosophy 4."
"That is twenty years ago."
"To-day Bertie is treasurer of Treasurer of the New Amsterdam Trust Company,
in Wall Street; Billy is superintendent of passenger traffic of the New York
and Chicago Air Line."
"Oscar is successful too. He has acquired a lot of information. His smile is
unchanged. He has published a careful work entitled, 'The Minor Poets of
Cinquecento,' and he writes book reviews for the Evening Post."
-- (c) Owen Wister,
_Philosophy_ (New York, 1903).
Repr. in William
Bentinck-Smith, ed. The Harvard Book. Cambridge, Mass. & London, England:
Harvard
University Press.
By courtesy of
J. L. Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
---
And have a Happy Thanksgiving!
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