The Romantic Self Mark Philp Jean Jacques Rousseau1712

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The Romantic Self Mark Philp

The Romantic Self Mark Philp

Jean Jacques Rousseau(1712 -1778)/Edmund Burke (1729 -97) • Critique of enlightenment rationalism

Jean Jacques Rousseau(1712 -1778)/Edmund Burke (1729 -97) • Critique of enlightenment rationalism

William Wordsworth 1770 -1850 and the lake poets…

William Wordsworth 1770 -1850 and the lake poets…

A lecture in 3 parts • 1. Moritz – Anton Reiser • 2. Giacomo

A lecture in 3 parts • 1. Moritz – Anton Reiser • 2. Giacomo Leopardi • 3. John Stuart Mill

Karl Philipp Moritz – Anton Reiser (4 vols 1785 -90) • Friend of Goethe

Karl Philipp Moritz – Anton Reiser (4 vols 1785 -90) • Friend of Goethe (Sorrows of Young Werther) • Novel is largely autobiographical • Analysis of psychological development of a young man • Half Bildungsroman; half autobiography • Reiser is poor, often close to starving, but literate • Has a fascination for pietist religious ideas (Fr. Mystic Mme Guyon) • And with theatre and literature • And believes in the restorative powers of nature

…vulnerability of self to others • ‘One day the nobleman thanked him for his

…vulnerability of self to others • ‘One day the nobleman thanked him for his visit before he had taken his leave, - ‘it is likely that the nobleman imagined Reiser was preparing to leave and had been a little too hasty with his parting compliment. - but the very haste made such a dreadful impression on Reiser, and suddenly devalued his entire being so much, that, once he was outside the door, he remained a while stock still – ‘thank you for your visit’ became linked in his mind with the ‘stupid boy’ uttered by the inspector at the seminary, the merchant’s ‘I didn’t mean you’, the sixth formers ‘par nobile fratrum’, and the Rector’s ‘truly idiotic’ For a moment he felt as though he were annihilated; all the faculties of his soul were paralysed – the thought of having been a nuisance, even for a moment, fell upon him like a mountain – at that instance he felt he would have liked to shuffle off an existence that had been such a nuisance to another creature beside himself. ‘ 257

…and a little later His ‘strange and absent-minded appearance’ renders him subject to mockery

…and a little later His ‘strange and absent-minded appearance’ renders him subject to mockery by his schoolfellows, in front of others – hurries away so as to be on his own, where he ‘ mocked himself because he thought he was born to be mocked and despised – what mark of absurdity did he bear that nothing could efface? It was the undeserved paralysis of his soul, resulting from his own parents’ disregard of him, that from his childhood on he had not yet managed to overcome – It was impossible for him to regard anyone else as his equal – everyone seemed somehow to be more important, more significant in the world than he was – hence signs of friendship from others always felt like a kind of condescension – since he thought he could be despised, he really was despised – and often he interpreted something as contempt when someone else would never have understood it in that way. 259

…. • …and this seems to be the mutual relationship of mental powers: where

…. • …and this seems to be the mutual relationship of mental powers: where one power does not find another power opposing it, it bursts in and wreaks destruction…Strong self-confidence irresistibly consumes its weaker rival – by mockery, by stigmatising its object as ridiculous. Becoming ridiculous is a kind of annihilation, and making someone else ridiculous is an unsurpassably murderous assault on that person’s self-confidence. – By comparison, being hated by everyone else is desirable’ (because it would animate us with a spirit of self defiance) But to have no friend, and not even an enemy - that is veritable hell, comprehending all the torments of conscious annihilation that a thinking being can suffer. 260

So why all the self-doubt, and self effacement? • Tricky comparative judgment, but…… -

So why all the self-doubt, and self effacement? • Tricky comparative judgment, but…… - reduced focus on a teleology of divine purposes - nature as a touchstone – but not as a determinant - scepticism about the sufficiency of reason - sense of dislocation from the existing orders – class self-consciousness - simultaneous validation of and doubts about interiority - resignation to a contingent social order is less attractive than resignation to a divine will - building character in adversity – David Copperfield, Great Expectations but little is as raw and painful as this, hence its classic status

Giacomo Leopardi, 1798 -1837 …towards a romantic psychology…

Giacomo Leopardi, 1798 -1837 …towards a romantic psychology…

weakness of reason 1 • Reason is inimical to nature, but not the primitive

weakness of reason 1 • Reason is inimical to nature, but not the primitive sort of reasoning that man uses in the natural state, and in which the other animals, equally free, and therefore capable of knowledge, have a share, Nature itself provided us with this, and there are no contradictions in nature. The enemy of nature is the use of reason that is not natural, the excessive use, which belongs uniquely to man, and to corrupted man: the enemy of nature precisely because it is not natural nor does it belong to natural man Zibaldone 375.

weakness of reason (psychology of reason) 2 • Indecisive people, once they have made

weakness of reason (psychology of reason) 2 • Indecisive people, once they have made a decision, are often very firm in sticking to it in the face of serious difficulties, precisely because of their indecisiveness, and because they cannot resolve to abandon their first decision and make another, because that seems more problematic to them, because they are frightened by the idea of going back and deciding again. Perhaps this happens most with people who are indecisiveness out of laziness and who find the laziest, easiest option is to carry on rather than turn back. • Zibaldone 375 -6

…sustaining meaning…. • …the man most prone, perhaps, to succumbing to indifference and insensibility…is

…sustaining meaning…. • …the man most prone, perhaps, to succumbing to indifference and insensibility…is the man who is sensitive, full of enthusiasm and of inner activity, and this in proportion, indeed, to his sensibility, etc. A man such as I have described, precisely on account of his extraordinary sensibility, will exhaust life in an instant. That done, he remains empty, profoundly and enduringly disenchanted, because he has experienced everything intensely and profoundly. He has not paused at the surface, he does not proceed to immerse himself in it gradually, he has gone straight to the bottom, he has embraced everything, and rejected everything as in reality unworthy and frivolous. • Zibaldone 1648 -9

desire - and habituation • The child cannot contain his desires, or only with

desire - and habituation • The child cannot contain his desires, or only with difficulty, according to whether he is more or less habituated to satisfying them. It is difficult for a grown man to conceive a desire as intense as the littlest one that children conceive. He can easily control them all, although his nature has certainly not changed, and human life is wholly composed of desires, and man (or animal) cannot live without desiring, because he cannot live without loving himself, and this love being infinite, he cannot ever be satisfied. Everything in man is therefore habituation. Zibaldone 1653

…imagination… Someone who does not have nor has ever had imagination, feeling, a capacity

…imagination… Someone who does not have nor has ever had imagination, feeling, a capacity for enthusiasm, heroism, vivid and grand illusions, strong and varied passions, someone who is not acquainted with the vast system of beauty, who does not read or hear, who has never read or heard the poets, absolutely cannot be a great, true, and perfect philosopher…. Not because the heart and imagination speak the truth more often than cold reason does, as is asserted, . . But because cold reason itself needs to know all these things if it is to penetrate the system of nature and unravel it. The analysis of ideas, man, the universal system of beings must necessarily turn in large part and in the main on imagination, natural illusions, beauty, , the passions, everything that is poetic in the whole system of nature. • Zibaldone 1833 -4

J S Mill (1806 -73) and Harriet Taylor (1807 -58) and Helen Taylor-Mill

J S Mill (1806 -73) and Harriet Taylor (1807 -58) and Helen Taylor-Mill

Mill’s Autobiography (c 1840 s, then 1860’s 70 s) Why does he write it?

Mill’s Autobiography (c 1840 s, then 1860’s 70 s) Why does he write it? he says: I have thought that in an age in which education, and its improvement, are the subject of more, if not of profounder study than at any former period in English history, it may be useful that there should be some record of an education which was unusual and remarkable, and which, whatever else it may have done, has proved how much more than is commonly supposed may be taught, and well taught, in those early years which, in the common modes of what is called instruction, are little better than wasted. ’

And… • … ‘that in an age of transition in opinions, there may be

And… • … ‘that in an age of transition in opinions, there may be somewhat both of interest and of benefit in noting the successive phases of any mind which was always pressing forward, equally ready to learn and to unlearn either from its own thoughts or from those of others’ • ‘a motive which weighs more with me than either of these, is a desire to make acknowledgement of the debts which my intellectual and moral development owes to other persons: some of them of recognized eminence, others less known than they deserve to be, and the one to whom most of all is due, one whom the world had no opportunity of knowing. ’

Unusual? • Eldest son; educated by James Mill at home; no institutional education at

Unusual? • Eldest son; educated by James Mill at home; no institutional education at all; University lectures on chemistry (aged 13 -14) • Aged 3 Greek • Latin aged 8 – and begins the Iliad. • First 6 dialogues of Plato aged 7 -8 incl. Theatetus. Arithmetic. History. Experimental (ie theoretical) science • From 12 – Logic, Posterior Analytics, Organon • 13 – political economy • No religion • utilitarianism

Result? In the course of instruction which I have partially retraced, the point most

Result? In the course of instruction which I have partially retraced, the point most superficially apparent is the great effort to give, during the years of childhood, an amount of knowledge in what are considered the higher branches of education, which is seldom acquired (if acquired at all) until the age of manhood. The result of the experiment shews the ease with which this may be done, and places in a strong light the wretched waste of so many precious years as are spent in acquiring the modicum of Latin and Greek commonly taught to schoolboys; a waste, which has led so many educational reformers to entertain the ill-judged proposal of discarding these languages altogether from general education. If I had been by nature extremely quick of apprehension, or had possessed a very accurate and retentive memory, or were of a remarkably active and energetic character, the trial would not be conclusive; but in all these natural gifts I am rather below than above par. What I could do, could assuredly be done by any boy or girl of average capacity and healthy physical constitution.

…and • There was one cardinal point in this training, of which I have

…and • There was one cardinal point in this training, of which I have already given some indication, and which, more than anything else, was the cause of whatever good it effected. Most boys or youths who have had much knowledge drilled into them, have their mental capacities not strengthened, but overlaid by it. They are crammed with mere facts, and with the opinions or phrases of other people, and these are accepted as a substitute for the power to form opinions of their own. And thus, the sons of eminent fathers, who have spared no pains in their education, so often grow up mere parroters of what they have learnt, incapable of using their minds except in the furrows traced for them. Mine, however, was not an education of cram.

…but…. (cancelled passages) i. • In an atmosphere of tenderness and affection he would

…but…. (cancelled passages) i. • In an atmosphere of tenderness and affection he would have been tender and affectionate; but his ill assorted marriage and his asperities of temper disabled him from making such an atmosphere. It was one of the most unfavourable of the moral agencies which acted on me in my boyhood, that mine was not an education of love but of fear” (The Early Draft, p. 66).

…. cancelled passages ii • “I once heard him say, that there was always

…. cancelled passages ii • “I once heard him say, that there was always the greatest sympathy between him and his children until the time of lessons began but that the lessons always destroyed it …This is true only of the elder children: with the younger he followed an entirely different system, to the great comfort of the later years of his life. But in respect to what I am here concerned with, the moral agencies which acted on myself, it must be mentioned as a most baneful one, that my father’s children neither loved him, nor, with any warmth of affection, any one else. I do not mean that things were worse in this respect than they are in most English families; in which genuine affection is altogether exceptional; what is usually found being more or less of an attachment of mere habit, like that to inanimate objects, and a few conventional proprieties of phrase and demonstration. I believe there is less personal affection in England than in any other country of which I know anything, and I give my father’s family not as peculiar in this respect but only as a too faithful exemplification of the ordinary fact. That rarity in England, a really warm hearted mother, would in the first place have made my father a totally different being, and in the second would have made the children grow up loving and being loved. But my mother with the very best intentions, only knew how to pass her life in drudging for them.

… cancelled passages iii… • In the original ms Mill speaks more specifically of

… cancelled passages iii… • In the original ms Mill speaks more specifically of “the very considerable drawbacks” that attended his education, drawbacks “which have pursued me through life. ” “I grew up, ” he says, “with great inaptness in the common affairs of every day life. I was far longer than children generally are before I could put on my clothes. I know not how many years passed before I could tie a knot. My articulation was long imperfect; one letter, r, I could not pronounce until I was nearly sixteen. I never could, nor can I now, do anything requiring the smallest manual dexterity, but I never put even a common share of the exercise of understanding into practical things. I was continually acquiring odd or disagreeable tricks which I very slowly and imperfectly got rid of. “

Mill’s mental crisis • It was in the autumn of 1826. I was in

Mill’s mental crisis • It was in the autumn of 1826. I was in a dull state of nerves, such as everybody is occasionally liable to; unsusceptible to enjoyment or pleasurable excitement; one of those moods when what is pleasure at other times, becomes insipid or indifferent; the state, I should think, in which converts to Methodism usually are, when smitten by their first “conviction of sin. ” In this frame of mind it occurred to me to put the question directly to myself, “Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you? ” And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, “No!” At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for. • In the original MS Mill first wrote: “I was, probably from physical causes (connected perhaps merely with the time of year). . . ” (The Early Draft, p. 117 n. ). For discussion and interpretation of the mental crisis see the articles by Levi (“The ‘Mental Crisis’ of John Stuart Mill”), Durham, and Cumming listed in the Select Bibliography.

…attribution to reason Analytic habits may thus even strengthen the associations between causes and

…attribution to reason Analytic habits may thus even strengthen the associations between causes and effects, means and ends, but tend altogether to weaken those which are, to speak familiarly, a mere matter of feeling. They are therefore (I thought) favourable to prudence and clear-sightedness, but a perpetual worm at the root both of the passions and of the virtues; and above all, fearfully undermine all desires, and all pleasures, which are the effects of association, that is, according to theory I held, all except the purely physical and organic; of the entire insufficiency of which to make life desirable, no one had a stronger conviction than I had.

…. solution… • I did not think I could possibly bear it beyond a

…. solution… • I did not think I could possibly bear it beyond a year. When, however, not more than half that duration of time had elapsed, a small ray of light broke in upon my gloom. I was reading, accidentally, Marmontel’s Memoirs, and came to the passage which relates his father’s death, the distressed position of the family, and the sudden inspiration by which he, then a mere boy, felt and made them feel that he would be everything to them — would supply the place of all that they had lost. A vivid conception of the scene and its feelings came over me, and I was moved to tears. From this moment my burthen grew lighter. The oppression of the thought that all feeling was dead within me, was gone. I was no longer hopeless: I was not a stock or a stone.

…turns to… • Romantic poetry, esp Wordsworth • Music • Self-cultivation/self-development – ‘I, for

…turns to… • Romantic poetry, esp Wordsworth • Music • Self-cultivation/self-development – ‘I, for the first time, gave its proper place, among the prime necessities of human well-being, to the internal culture of the individual. ’ • ethology

…utility plus… • If I am asked what system of political philosophy I substituted

…utility plus… • If I am asked what system of political philosophy I substituted for that which, as a philosophy, I had abandoned, I answer, no system: only a conviction, that the true system was something much more complex and many sided than I had previously had any idea of, and that its office was to supply, not a set of model institutions, but principles from which the institutions suitable to any given circumstances might be deduced. The influences of European, that is to say, Continental, thought, and especially those of the reaction of the nineteenth century against the eighteenth, were now streaming in upon me.

Mrs Harriet Taylor, 1830 • Respectively 25, and 23 (HT) • In general spiritual

Mrs Harriet Taylor, 1830 • Respectively 25, and 23 (HT) • In general spiritual characteristics, as well as in temperament and organisation, I have often compared her, as she was at this time, to Shelley: but in thought and intellect, Shelley, so far as his powers were developed in his short life, was but a child compared with what she ultimately became. Alike in the highest regions of speculation and in the smallest practical concerns of daily life, her mind was the same perfect instrument, piercing to the very heart and marrow of the matter; always seizing the essential idea or principle. The same exactness and rapidity of operation, pervading as it did her sensitive as well as her mental faculties, would with her gifts of feeling and imagination have fitted her to be a consummate artist, as her fiery and tender soul and her vigorous eloquence would certainly have made her a great orator, and her profound knowledge of human nature and discernment and sagacity in practical life, would in the times when such a carrière was open to women, have made her eminent among the rulers of mankind.

…cancelled by Harriet in draft… • Morally she was already so perfect that even

…cancelled by Harriet in draft… • Morally she was already so perfect that even she could not add anything to her type of perfection in after life. Every noble & beautiful quality seemed in turn to be her leading characteristic so long as only that side of her character was looked at. The passion of justice might have been thought to be her strongest feeling, but for her boundless generosity & a lovingness ever ready to pour itself forth upon any or all human beings however unlike herself, if they did but shew a capacity of making the smallest return of feeling or even a wish to have feeling bestowed on them. Her unselfishness was not that of a taught system of duties, but of a heart which thoroughly identified itself with the feelings of others, & even, imaginatively investing others with an intensity of feeling equal to its own, often took great suffering upon itself to save others from pain which would have been comparatively small.

What Mill is rescuing? • Denial of automaton • Assertion of the principle of

What Mill is rescuing? • Denial of automaton • Assertion of the principle of self-development • Implicit rejection of his own education • But… • His mother • His relationship with Harriet • His relationship with Helen Taylor

Age of anxiety? • • • About masculinity About agency About meaning About (political,

Age of anxiety? • • • About masculinity About agency About meaning About (political, social, cultural, personal) ‘relevance’ But raises Q about the place of women in this masculine romantic orientation – encourages objectification. • See Liber Amoris – Hazlitt • Stendhal’s Love and various memoirs Henry Brulard, Of an Egoist, and novels Charterhouse of Parma, The Red and the Black • Thomas and Jane Carlyle