Of course I am really new around here so I have only clicked on the thanks button once, but what I appreciate is a really well made argument or observation about the topic at hand. Also, I really admire the ability to deepen a topic by linking literary or philosophical discussions to the day-to-day ...

Why thank you Seespotrun.

Could you suggest a means for amplifying or accessing the preconscious? I think abstraction sometimes helps. There are myriad ways. Much of spiritual, philosophical and psychological technology are such methods. But really, all that is involved is learning to attend to what we do with unaccustomed ...

But in The Republic Plato allows women a full role in rulership, so he considers them equally possessors of reason with men. He does say that women can be rulers. He had a rather ambivalent view of women. I always wondered if he had a female patroness during the time he was writing The Republic. Bu...

Grim wrote:MaryLupin just so you know it is unfair to provide so many good choices. How is anyone supposed to decide?

Don't. Read all three.

Saffron, the prehistoric paradigm for sexual reproduction was the agricultural sowing of seed. According to this view, since the male possessed the seed, he was the originator of life. Everything else follows from this paradigmatic assumption. With respect to the cultures that claim intellectual de...

I have gotten more practical help in responding to texts from psychology that from aesthetic theory, especially the James-Lange theory of emotions (posture evokes feeling) and the ideomotor effect (form evokes action) I found that really interesting. It seems we are on similar tracks. The best of c...

The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode http://www.amazon.ca/Sense-Ending-Studies-Fiction-Epilogue/dp/0195136128/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233503969&sr=8-2 Here's part of the blurb from Amazon: "Examining the works of writers from Plato to William Burrows, Kermode shows how t...

Has reading aesthetic theory helped you to interpret texts? Oh yes. I have become much more sensitive to the relationship between the body and the text. For example, how the rhytmn of a passage is interpreted by the body provides insight into how a text achieves its deep and often lasting emotional...

My favourite bits in Paradise Lost are the ones that most clearly present Satan's deep humanity. For me, one of the 2 best passages that set up this idea is the last stanza from book 2, here copied. It is such a well wrought passage. Here he is, having come from the darkest of human desires and fear...