Is there any mileage in this?

[fpb]

I have a kind of intuition that one might get a lot of insight into the modern age by making a close comparative study - not only philosophical, but psychological and culture-historical too - of Rousseau and Nietzsche; beginning with their religious roots.

Comments

[dustthouart.livejournal.com]

I see only two things wrong with this plan:
1. It would be horrific.
2. If I succeeded I would have a lot of insight into the modern age, which loops around to point one.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I think these two stand out because there is much in them that can be saved, and that, indeed, it is the flame against which they rebel that makes their work so memorable. It was not some modernist hack, but GK Chesterton, in his magnificent little treatise on Thomas Aquinas, who placed Nietzsche among the giants such as Plato, the Buddha, and obviously Thomas himself. Likewise Rousseau, though profoundly corrupting, is also full of passages that lead back to the light - however hard he may be trying to turn away. And there is also this, that it would be useful to see to what extent the radical collectivism of Rousseau and his Collective Will and the radical individualism of Nietzsche's Overman arise from similar or different postulates and experiences. To denounce is easy enough; to understand enough to save what can be saved and denounce what actively corrupts and is corrupted takes a certain amount of effort.

[jelebino.livejournal.com]

Off topic, my thanks for your tip on John C. Wright's site that your treatise, Faces of Arthur, is freely available to read.

Sometimes, lurking on your journal, I've wanted to prompt you to consolidate your knowledge of post-Roman Britain, but I knew I wouldn't have the time to contribute in turn. And now I find you've done it already! I've been chewing on your introduction to Gildas: information quite new to me.

My applause!

As for Rousseau and Nietszche, have at it by all means, but I would expect your analysis to be more revealing than any conclusions that could be drawn from it. That's because I'm used to thinking of those two as contrarian outsiders (I mean, would you want to add Swift to the list?) and living in a world founded on Adam Smith and Thomas Hobbes. However, your kind of study of pioneer radicals, where you set out to tell the whole story, would be fascinating.

Regards
Jonathan Burns

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That wouldn't be Jimmy Olsen on your icon, would it? It does have a sixties-DC look to it.

[jelebino.livejournal.com]

:-) No, but you're close. It's from the cover of a '60s Blackhawk story -- We're under attack by Ant Mummies!

[panobjecticon.livejournal.com]

i wonder what you mean by 'the modern age'?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Nothing too absolute, but it was certainly here when newspapers began to be regularly printed and sold.

[joetexx.livejournal.com]

THERE IS NO MILEAGE IN THIS WHATSOVER!!!!

I have a young friend who is writing a doctoral dissertation on
the comparative roots of Nietszche and Rousseau at Texas Wetlands
Cambellite College and she sez HANDS OFF! THERE IS ROOM FER ONLY ONE
QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN!

Besides after Mme de Warine messed with him Jean-Jacques can be forgiven anything.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

->grins<- I like a man who defends his friends' interests. But I don't suppose she's been the first or will be the last. At any rate, the likelihood of my carrying this project through is roughly the same as of winning a lottery jackpot. That's why I wrote it down before I forgot it.