@wafflestaster i agree man something about Dr. Sugrue's lectures have me interested from start to finish. Throughout my entire undergrad degree i could never pay this much attention to any lecture, i would zone out every 3 minutes.
Yes, he is a great communicator. Great progression, clarity, and organization of ideas, fine diction and cadence, direct while layered, and humorous. I felt similarly engaged and have been by his other lectures since I came across them a month ago. My understanding of philosophy and through it myself has been clarified by Sugrue.
This man’s name will roll down in my credits. My existential realization was guided by his offerings. To start on such a philosophical confidence was a true gift of grit. /jm/
Professor Sugrue walks in the footsteps with Professor Harold Bloom. Titans of literature, philosophy, and history. With deep reverence and appreciation. "Thrust a dagger in my heart, say ye!" "The floors of hell await thee!" "Mercy, My Lord, My Grace." "A marriage made in heaven!" "Is there such a thing, your Grace ?" "May the courts set us free with dignity. To love and lust again." "The Jester of this court bears witness to the songs of everlasting love." 🙏❤️🌎🌿🕊🎵🎶🎵
Posted to /reddit: Back in the Napster years, I had a strong habit for Audio Lectures. Teaching Company, Modern Scholar, Noam Chomsky, I ran through them all, taking boxed CD sets out of the library and burning through AA batteries by the carton. If we were counting credit hours, I'd have two Masters and an honorary Doctorate by now. But there's one elusive course I recall but can not remember the citation precisely. It was on Measure by Measure by WShakespeare. He took an admittedly oddball approach, not as a "problem play" or a mixed-up collaboration, but as a structural parody of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. His argument finds a dozen points of tangency between the works, as good as the early papers on Ulysses and the Odyssey. I didn't buy his premise entirely, but by Gum, I admired the mental gymnastics and logical leaps he employed. Much like Stephen Daedalus on Hamlet, proving by algebra that the Ghost was Shakespeare's Grandfather (or whatever). Anyway, that mp3 is buried on a dead hard drive in a filing cabinet somewhere. I'm thinking it was a Modern Scholar lecture by Prof. Michael D.C. Drout, the Tolkien authority, but I can't find it on his CV or Audible or anywhere within the reach of Google. I even resorted to Bing, but no luck. There are several other Shakespeare lectures online, but they take the "problem play" approach. I'm hoping that the collective memory of the reddit community can recall it. My health insurance won't cover Sodium Pentathol or a brain scan. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PS: Someone responded with this link. Success!
This is the Measure for Measure lecture I've longed for. Utterly brilliant! This should be the axiom for all scholarship on the play. If not, scholarship will only conceal the wisdom.
Measure for measure was the only play I ever had done , it was after senior year of high school, and I was a late bloomer in the arts, didn't know I had any talent before that.
Amazing dissertation! I had no idea of the underlying themes and roles of the characters. Justice and mercy are key biblical themes - Abel’s blood cried out for justice , Cain cried out for mercy. Shakespeare, and Michael Sugrue’s analysis are brilliant .Thanks
That was brilliant. Best episode I’ve seen so far and all the episodes have been first class. The presentation of the lecture was so entertaining and engaging delivered with an addictive like passion towards the exposing of the human condition. Big fan.
I've been scratching my head at this play for a while now; I had Angelo and Lucio figured out by their names, and the Friar/Duke felt like a Jesus/God analogue with all the forgiving he does. It was Isabella as the Church that was the final piece of the puzzle for me. Excellent analysis, thank you Dr. Sugrue!
Wow what an ending! " God's mercy & justice are not distinguishable". Absolute beauty. Too many Christians don't get that. It us the summation of Revelations. Wonderful lecture. Thanks Michael.
The best lecture I've seen from Professor Sugrue, and I've listened to almost every single one. The passion, the setup, coupled with the fact that I've never heard of Measure for Measure before, made it truly riveting. Incredible!
Stopped listening halfway through to go read the play. Very excited to hear the rest of it now! What an excellent work. Thank you for introducing me to it.
Measure for Measure was a favorite of Harold Bloom's -- even more so than Hamlet. Funnily enough, he seemed to think Lucio was the best character because he accepts and loves humanity for what it is.
@@historia_agnostic Dad said I spoke to Bloom before his death- he was a wonderfully learned man- a great reader, but he always had a blind spot about the "anxiety of influence" when it came to Christianity and Western literature which led him to argue for an improbable separation of the Romantic poets from religion, a weak reading of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and a misreading of MFM.
I love the Blooms, Allen and Harold, but I sensed that about Harold and Christianity. Just a sense. Wonderful to know, as I’m really not smart enough or well read enough to challenge most of what Harold said and thought, and I’m too busy to chase down where he was a bit off. Now, after I finish The Idiot and Aron’s “The Opium of the Intellectuals,” I’m full-court pressing your Dad’s lectures. What you and he have done is priceless.
This is genius, pure and simple, also on the part of Dr. Michael Sugrue. Our minds begin to generalize about the "human condition." On the one hand, the "individualistic" aspects of society (including even say, contemporary China); and then the "socialism" aspects (including say contemporary America). In recovery, our personal stories, if good ones, stand for the INDIVIDUAL SOUL. That's the one hand. On the other, our individual stories (like "Measure for Measure") are all-encompassing, reflecting the Bible as a whole, from Genesis to Revelation. More, such stories bring to life the actual life-world of the "human condition" in the Christian universe. Tragedy alone cannot do this; recovery is needed.
15:12 Just to point out that the story of the woman caught in adultery is not a parable, but rather an act and it's not found in the synoptic Gospels but only in John's Gospel. Also the passage in question is hotly debated as to it's authenticity and has been debated for a long time now by some as probably a later insertion by a very early editor. This is reflected in that some versions of the English Bible include it in footnotes or parentheses.
Thank you for your works on the western literature. I have read books from many eastern philosophy’s yet i discarded the western tradition. Thinking it was missing the point I now see it was I who missed the point I hope you the best In your life. You have certainly had a great influence on mine.
I share your high estimation for the great religious and philosophical traditions inside and outside the West, past and contemporary. I am indebted to ancient masters: Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Chuang Tzu, Ashoka, Marcus Aurelius, Isaiah, Amos, Mencius, Solomon, Luke, the Vedic writers, the Gilgamesh poet(s), Homer, Thucydides, at the very least. Every one of them was a better man than I am. I am indebted to a choir of voices I heard thereafter: Saint Augustine, Celestine V, Meister Eckhardt, Thomas a Kempis, Maimonides, Montaigne, Averroes, Rumi, Saint Francis, Erasmus, Pascal, Hobbes, Lessing, Spinoza, Moliere, Blake, Beethoven, Kant, Goethe, Burke, Kierkegaard, Marx. Their heroism is inspiring. I am indebted to, and currently running an intellectual tab with, a First Circle of first rate intellects, contemporary prophets all, living and dead, beyond mere mortality: Plato, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Camille Paglia, Leonard Cohen, WB Yeats, The Sex Pistols, James Joyce, Iggy Pop, Hans Urs Von Balthazar, Cormac McCarthy, John Coltrane, Jordan Peterson, Patti Smith, Maximillian Kolbe, Leo Strauss, Jackson Pollack, WH Auden, Alvin Gouldner, Eric Voegelin, Jurgen Habermas, Stanley Kubrick, Pink Floyd, John Rawls, Lenny Bruce, Thomas Mann, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Anthony Burgess, Terry Eagleton, Salvador Dali, George Orwell, GWF Hegel, Frank Zappa. All have my gratitude and respect. All have helped me ask and answer the question, “What can be defended and what is worth defending?”
@@dr.michaelsugrue Honestly thank you for your time and comment!! You have given me a great list of authors which I can start to read their writings. I have looked into a great deal of those authors and their work but, as you know I’m sure the paradox of knowledge, "as our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” -Einstein. I have practiced zen for over 12 years and coming from a Christian background I believe reading the Eastern philosophy has for lack of a better term both stretched and strengthened my relationship with “God” not just in his personified form in Judao-Christian sense or in the various ways in which we try and shrink “God” into the realm of man and of reason. If I have learned anything about “God” whatever God that is could not be explain away by words alone. The infinite cannot be realized from the point of the finite. Words as clumsy as they are and language as messy as it is will not and could not explain away this Infinite multitude of reality of which we both are the experience and experiencer in tandem. Even many of the same great ideas that try and explain god in their Various ways that have come from the east and west are in many ways the same but, of a different flavor if you will. I think those ideas that share the same “spirit” are like the evolution of wings of birds and of insects. Both have the same function but the process that creates that paralleled function of the wings are greatly different. The same like minded ideas where created in far different conditions of necessity that come from their own time, place and world views. Yes we should fight for what we believe is truth but, in our ignorance truth can be a easy thing to create if we don’t try hard enough to ponder its validity. I think Soren found a beautiful quote we could live by if we’re are to make it in this world with our sanity intact. "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." - Kierkegaard
@@dr.michaelsugrue I listened to your lecture on Meister Eckhart which was a great lecture that already inspired me to learn more about him. I am currently listening to sermons of Meister Eckhart on audible. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Please help me to understand something. When Michael says that justice and mercy are not distinguishable, does he mean to say that justice in it's purest form is a way to do upon the person who transgresses or doesn't transgress against "the law" with what the person deserves, according to their act?
To grant someone justice is to grant him mercy, since only someone seeking to keep you miserable would not want you to understand what you have done. As in the who believes in freedom will teach you how to fish, while the rest is content with trading you for it, depending on profit, to chain you in the Teufelskreis as well.
What justice is seen to be evolves over time and changes back and forth and has many layers. And even if we submit to accepting and understanding what we've done often is not enough for those in positions of power to grant a more leniant sentence. So that the perpetrator now not o ly has to endure his punishment but also to endure his guilty conscience without forgiveness. This is why many inmates turn to fantasy religion where they can feel forgiven by some ultimate metaphysical judge. We are not a forgiving culture when it comes to acts we find reprehensible, but we seek understanding and acceptance from others for acts that are rephrensible and violent. Aborting the unborn is the main issue that comes to mind. A most violent act against the most vulnerable of our species and one where the justifications and hand waving is in steady supply.
Excellent lecture. Very insightful. However, Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic during the time of the reformation. He put life and limb on the line to actually practise. Both he and his father were committed to their faith. The scholars Martin Lings wrote that he believed that Shakespeare was part of an esoteric Christian brotherhood, which existed in the county of Warwickshire, because of his indepth understanding of the faith and its higher spiritual dimensions. Therefore, the professor's statement about Shakespeare not being Christian could not be more incorrect. The knowledge of the Bible was part of Shakespeare's heart, body and soul. Otherwise Measure for measure would not be so excellent.
Most of the sonnets are love poems to the Earl of Southampton, a 17 year old aristocrat. CS Lewis wrote that "this was not a normal friendship between men" because the sonnets are obviously queer. I don't know many many practicing, much less devout Catholics inclined to address an adolescent boy as "the master mistress of my passion". Do you?Shakespeare's other sonnets are to a "Dark Lady". Shakespeare may have made a deathbed Confession and returned to the Church, but his conduct in the notoriously bawdy theatre culture of London does not seem indicative of great religiosity in any particular direction. For decades he and his wife did not cohabit [although they did have children] and his sex life seems to have been as unorthodox as his family life. BTW, King John, which is little produced, is red meat for Protestant interpreters. Sonnet 20 BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion; A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted With shifting change as is false women’s fashion; An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling, Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth; A man in hue, all hues in his controlling, Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth. And for a woman wert thou first created, Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting, And by addition me of thee defeated By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure, Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
This is very interesting. I agree with much of what you say, but not with all of it. For instance, I think you're overlooking tragedy's status as cautionary tales, which make the main characters in those just as general and archetypal as in the comedies.
One quibble about the comedy/tragedy distinction - aren't Rosalind, Viola and Beatrice individuals rather than types? Overall this reworks those 1950s readings of the play as pure Christian allegory (G Wilson Knight, R Chambers etc). Fine, as long as you have no problems whatsoever with patriarchy in religion and politics...it is play that is brilliant (up to its midway point) but perhaps not for the reasons given here. You can just as easily read it as matching the cynicism of "Troilus and Cressida".
23:38 What is the relationship between a whitened sepulchre and a hypocrite? I don't understand that reference but i have seen it used in Conrad's Heart of Darkness where he describes the society that he's in in the begining of the story in that way in order to criticize it. I looked up it up and it said its an old tomb of some kind but I'm missing the subtext of it. Anyone know?
The relationship exists because of its use in the famous verse in which Jesus attacks the hypocrisy of the puritans of the day: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness (Matthew 23.27)
@@shakshiagrawal1375 Hahah 9 months later but finally got the answer. I didn't know it was a direct quote from the bible. It's funny cause I was just think about heart of darkness again the other day. Good timing. Thank you
@@Laocoon283 Haha, you're welcome. I was wondering if you'd see the reply or not because it had been a while, I'm glad I could help. The sepulchre imagery is also used widely in poetry, I don't remember which poems but it is quite common, thought it would interest you :)
@@dr.michaelsugrue I hope he gets better. How is he handling his illness and the thoughts of his own possible mortality? I know he spoke an awful lot about Keikegaard and his contemplations on mortality. It will be interesting to know your dad’s personal experience in reality vs his initial philosophical contemplations. He is such a great man, with such presence, I could almost feel like I knew him personally and I only started listening to him 2 weeks ago. Thank you for uploading these contents.
Sugrue states that the narrative of Jesus and the adulteress (which he misdescribes as a parable) is in the Synoptic Gospels. In fact, it is in John's gospel only.
I'm always looking for new interesting lectures on Psychology/Philosophy, please let me know if you guys have any recommendations, would be highly appreciated
It remains a problem play with obvious weakening and after the superb Isabella Angelo scenes that introduce very sharp reasoning; Sugrue fails to point that Shakespeare lost his commitment here while overstating the Christian symbolism. By contrast the play is focused neither on this nor simple sexual morality but instead sexuality as fundamental beyond all principle. This is what needs analyzing, and the Apollonian and sexually repressed culture behind it, and certainly not presupposing as Sugrue does the crazy piety and high minded notions of right behaviour. The Dionysiac trumps the intellect in an instant, as Angelo finds out.
@@dr.michaelsugrue I simply anounce those things which strike my nerve. After all who is not most sensitive to when one offends our own position? This is a beef that I would happily take up with anyone so persumptious to speak in the voice of a Christan Orthodoxy. History herself conjured the Arabs to punish the Orthodoxy for this particular arrogance. She is being merciful to you by only conjuring me.
I was on the edge of my seat as if I watching an action thriller. This lecture is amazing.
I think you need to get out more bro
@wafflestaster i agree man something about Dr. Sugrue's lectures have me interested from start to finish. Throughout my entire undergrad degree i could never pay this much attention to any lecture, i would zone out every 3 minutes.
Yes, he is a great communicator. Great progression, clarity, and organization of ideas, fine diction and cadence, direct while layered, and humorous. I felt similarly engaged and have been by his other lectures since I came across them a month ago. My understanding of philosophy and through it myself has been clarified by Sugrue.
There is brilliant, and then there is this guy.
Mmmm waffles…
This man’s name will roll down in my credits. My existential realization was guided by his offerings. To start on such a philosophical confidence was a true gift of grit. /jm/
What does /jm/ mean?
Professor Sugrue walks in the footsteps with Professor Harold Bloom.
Titans of literature, philosophy, and history.
With deep reverence and appreciation.
"Thrust a dagger in my heart, say ye!"
"The floors of hell await thee!"
"Mercy, My Lord, My Grace."
"A marriage made in heaven!"
"Is there such a thing, your Grace ?"
"May the courts set us free with dignity.
To love and lust again."
"The Jester of this court bears witness to the songs of everlasting love."
🙏❤️🌎🌿🕊🎵🎶🎵
Wish I could forget everything I saw here so I could watch again and experience this as if my first time. Utterly brilliant!
Excellent!
You will very much be missed, Dr. Sugrue. I will think you whenever Measure for Measure comes up.
What an incredible educator, RIP sir. 😢
Posted to /reddit:
Back in the Napster years, I had a strong habit for Audio Lectures.
Teaching Company, Modern Scholar, Noam Chomsky, I ran through them all,
taking boxed CD sets out of the library and burning through AA batteries by the carton.
If we were counting credit hours, I'd have two Masters and an honorary Doctorate by now.
But there's one elusive course I recall but can not remember the citation precisely. It
was on Measure by Measure by WShakespeare. He took an admittedly oddball approach, not as a "problem play" or a mixed-up collaboration, but as a structural parody of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. His argument finds a dozen points of tangency between the works, as good as the early papers on Ulysses and the Odyssey.
I didn't buy his premise entirely, but by Gum, I admired the mental gymnastics and logical leaps he employed. Much like Stephen Daedalus on Hamlet, proving by algebra that the Ghost was Shakespeare's Grandfather (or whatever).
Anyway, that mp3 is buried on a dead hard drive in a filing cabinet somewhere.
I'm thinking it was a Modern Scholar lecture by Prof. Michael D.C. Drout, the Tolkien authority, but I can't find it on his CV or Audible or anywhere within the reach of Google. I even resorted to Bing, but no luck.
There are several other Shakespeare lectures online, but they take the "problem play" approach.
I'm hoping that the collective memory of the reddit community can recall it. My health insurance won't cover Sodium Pentathol or a brain scan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS: Someone responded with this link. Success!
This is the Measure for Measure lecture I've longed for. Utterly brilliant! This should be the axiom for all scholarship on the play. If not, scholarship will only conceal the wisdom.
Measure for measure was the only play I ever had done , it was after senior year of high school, and I was a late bloomer in the arts, didn't know I had any talent before that.
I’ve watched and rewatched your classic lectures & thoroughly enjoy your current discussions. We appreciate you Prof ❤
"Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm." Emerson. That you again.
Amazing dissertation! I had no idea of the underlying themes and roles of the characters. Justice and mercy are key biblical themes - Abel’s blood cried out for justice , Cain cried out for mercy. Shakespeare, and Michael Sugrue’s analysis are brilliant .Thanks
this lecture (and the hand gestures) is gold
That was brilliant. Best episode I’ve seen so far and all the episodes have been first class. The presentation of the lecture was so entertaining and engaging delivered with an addictive like passion towards the exposing of the human condition. Big fan.
I've been scratching my head at this play for a while now; I had Angelo and Lucio figured out by their names, and the Friar/Duke felt like a Jesus/God analogue with all the forgiving he does. It was Isabella as the Church that was the final piece of the puzzle for me. Excellent analysis, thank you Dr. Sugrue!
Superb. Every time I watch one of these lectures I learn something new. Thanks for uploading all of these, they really are excellent.
Wow what an ending! " God's mercy & justice are not distinguishable". Absolute beauty. Too many Christians don't get that. It us the summation of Revelations. Wonderful lecture. Thanks Michael.
The best lecture I've seen from Professor Sugrue, and I've listened to almost every single one. The passion, the setup, coupled with the fact that I've never heard of Measure for Measure before, made it truly riveting. Incredible!
Miss you Michael!!! ❤❤❤❤
1. Tragicomedies
2. Measure for Measure
Grateful ❤
A mind-opening analysis on the influence of the Bible on a cornerstone of Western culture
Rest In Peace Dr Surge. Your legacy will live on forever. Thank you for the wisdom
I’ve always enjoyed commentary on Shakespeare to the plays themselves. This lecture is cool!
I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! Absolutely brilliant!
Utterly Brilliant. Thank you
Stopped listening halfway through to go read the play. Very excited to hear the rest of it now! What an excellent work. Thank you for introducing me to it.
Outstanding! The lecture was marvellous and does justice to the material.
Like many I viewed Shakespeare’s comedies as moon to the bright sun of his tragedies. I’m very happy to discover my ignorance.
This is one of the most amazing lectures I have ever watched. Bravo.
Measure for Measure was a favorite of Harold Bloom's -- even more so than Hamlet. Funnily enough, he seemed to think Lucio was the best character because he accepts and loves humanity for what it is.
Dad said Bloom was a wonderfully well read scholar but his treatment of MFM was hopelessly weak.
@@dr.michaelsugrue I was also pretty surprised by Bloom's take after having heard the analysis here.
@@historia_agnostic Dad said I spoke to Bloom before his death- he was a wonderfully learned man- a great reader, but he always had a blind spot about the "anxiety of influence" when it came to Christianity and Western literature which led him to argue for an improbable separation of the Romantic poets from religion, a weak reading of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and a misreading of MFM.
I love the Blooms, Allen and Harold, but I sensed that about Harold and Christianity. Just a sense. Wonderful to know, as I’m really not smart enough or well read enough to challenge most of what Harold said and thought, and I’m too busy to chase down where he was a bit off.
Now, after I finish The Idiot and Aron’s “The Opium of the Intellectuals,” I’m full-court pressing your Dad’s lectures. What you and he have done is priceless.
this was incredible to listen to. thank you
Omg. What a totally superb lecture. And omg Szakespere was and is unreal.
This is genius, pure and simple, also on the part of Dr. Michael Sugrue. Our minds begin to generalize about the "human condition." On the one hand, the "individualistic" aspects of society (including even say, contemporary China); and then the "socialism" aspects (including say contemporary America). In recovery, our personal stories, if good ones, stand for the INDIVIDUAL SOUL. That's the one hand. On the other, our individual stories (like "Measure for Measure") are all-encompassing, reflecting the Bible as a whole, from Genesis to Revelation. More, such stories bring to life the actual life-world of the "human condition" in the Christian universe. Tragedy alone cannot do this; recovery is needed.
15:12 Just to point out that the story of the woman caught in adultery is not a parable, but rather an act and it's not found in the synoptic Gospels but only in John's Gospel. Also the passage in question is hotly debated as to it's authenticity and has been debated for a long time now by some as probably a later insertion by a very early editor. This is reflected in that some versions of the English Bible include it in footnotes or parentheses.
‘Tis a far better synopsis than I’ve had the pleasure to hear
Well, somewhat near
Amazing lecture!
I like your videos immensely. I find them very well constructed. I think they help to inform my own teaching.
This guy is a legend.
Bravo sir! That conclusion was inspired. Thank you so much for your hard work. I am grateful for your knowledge and wit.
Beautiful lecture, just wow!!
Would love to see more lectures on classics of English Literature. Has he ever talked about Shakespeare's tragedies?
Wake me up when he gets to the post-modernists. . . .
Is "part 2" missing from this series? I noticed there's only parts 1 and 3 for this one on the Bible and Western Culture
Lost to time
wonderful and thanks
Thank you!
Great lecture
excellent video!!! please upload more like these pertaining to Eng Lit :)
Excellent
Thank you for your works on the western literature. I have read books from many eastern philosophy’s yet i discarded the western tradition. Thinking it was missing the point I now see it was I who missed the point I hope you the best In your life. You have certainly had a great influence on mine.
I share your high estimation for the great religious and philosophical traditions inside and outside the West, past and contemporary.
I am indebted to ancient masters:
Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Chuang Tzu, Ashoka, Marcus Aurelius, Isaiah, Amos, Mencius, Solomon, Luke, the Vedic writers, the Gilgamesh poet(s), Homer, Thucydides, at the very least. Every one of them was a better man than I am.
I am indebted to a choir of voices I heard thereafter:
Saint Augustine, Celestine V, Meister Eckhardt, Thomas a Kempis, Maimonides, Montaigne, Averroes, Rumi, Saint Francis, Erasmus, Pascal, Hobbes, Lessing, Spinoza, Moliere, Blake, Beethoven, Kant, Goethe, Burke, Kierkegaard, Marx. Their heroism is inspiring.
I am indebted to, and currently running an intellectual tab with, a First Circle of first rate intellects, contemporary prophets all, living and dead, beyond mere mortality:
Plato, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, Camille Paglia, Leonard Cohen, WB Yeats, The Sex Pistols, James Joyce, Iggy Pop, Hans Urs Von Balthazar, Cormac McCarthy, John Coltrane, Jordan Peterson, Patti Smith, Maximillian Kolbe, Leo Strauss, Jackson Pollack, WH Auden, Alvin Gouldner, Eric Voegelin, Jurgen Habermas, Stanley Kubrick, Pink Floyd, John Rawls, Lenny Bruce, Thomas Mann, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Anthony Burgess, Terry Eagleton, Salvador Dali, George Orwell, GWF Hegel, Frank Zappa. All have my gratitude and respect.
All have helped me ask and answer the question, “What can be defended and what is worth defending?”
@@dr.michaelsugrue Honestly thank you for your time and comment!! You have given me a great list of authors which I can start to read their writings. I have looked into a great deal of those authors and their work but, as you know I’m sure the paradox of knowledge, "as our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” -Einstein. I have practiced zen for over 12 years and coming from a Christian background I believe reading the Eastern philosophy has for lack of a better term both stretched and strengthened my relationship with “God” not just in his personified form in Judao-Christian sense or in the various ways in which we try and shrink “God” into the realm of man and of reason. If I have learned anything about “God” whatever God that is could not be explain away by words alone. The infinite cannot be realized from the point of the finite. Words as clumsy as they are and language as messy as it is will not and could not explain away this Infinite multitude of reality of which we both are the experience and experiencer in tandem. Even many of the same great ideas that try and explain god in their Various ways that have come from the east and west are in many ways the same but, of a different flavor if you will. I think those ideas that share the same “spirit” are like the evolution of wings of birds and of insects. Both have the same function but the process that creates that paralleled function of the wings are greatly different. The same like minded ideas where created in far different conditions of necessity that come from their own time, place and world views. Yes we should fight for what we believe is truth but, in our ignorance truth can be a easy thing to create if we don’t try hard enough to ponder its validity. I think Soren found a beautiful quote we could live by if we’re are to make it in this world with our sanity intact.
"Life is not a problem to
be solved, but a reality to
be experienced." - Kierkegaard
Start with Thomas Merton's Way of Chuang Tzu. You would profit from Meister Eckhart too.
@@dr.michaelsugrue I listened to your lecture on Meister Eckhart which was a great lecture that already inspired me to learn more about him. I am currently listening to sermons of Meister Eckhart on audible. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Thanks!
Amazing 🤩
Ah !! Shakespeare. Gods marvel for sure.
Met my wife while she was an English-Lit major + Classics minor
Wow. Just wow
Please help me to understand something.
When Michael says that justice and mercy are not distinguishable, does he mean to say that justice in it's purest form is a way to do upon the person who transgresses or doesn't transgress against "the law" with what the person deserves, according to their act?
To grant someone justice is to grant him mercy, since only someone seeking to keep you miserable would not want you to understand what you have done.
As in the who believes in freedom will teach you how to fish, while the rest is content with trading you for it, depending on profit, to chain you in the Teufelskreis as well.
What justice is seen to be evolves over time and changes back and forth and has many layers. And even if we submit to accepting and understanding what we've done often is not enough for those in positions of power to grant a more leniant sentence. So that the perpetrator now not o ly has to endure his punishment but also to endure his guilty conscience without forgiveness. This is why many inmates turn to fantasy religion where they can feel forgiven by some ultimate metaphysical judge. We are not a forgiving culture when it comes to acts we find reprehensible, but we seek understanding and acceptance from others for acts that are rephrensible and violent. Aborting the unborn is the main issue that comes to mind. A most violent act against the most vulnerable of our species and one where the justifications and hand waving is in steady supply.
Excellent lecture. Very insightful.
However, Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic during the time of the reformation. He put life and limb on the line to actually practise. Both he and his father were committed to their faith. The scholars Martin Lings wrote that he believed that Shakespeare was part of an esoteric Christian brotherhood, which existed in the county of Warwickshire, because of his indepth understanding of the faith and its higher spiritual dimensions. Therefore, the professor's statement about Shakespeare not being Christian could not be more incorrect. The knowledge of the Bible was part of Shakespeare's heart, body and soul. Otherwise Measure for measure would not be so excellent.
At 8:30 - Shakespeare was probably a practicing Catholic . There is evidence that he was possibly a devout one. Much recent literature on this topic.
Most of the sonnets are love poems to the Earl of Southampton, a 17 year old aristocrat. CS Lewis wrote that "this was not a normal friendship between men" because the sonnets are obviously queer. I don't know many many practicing, much less devout Catholics inclined to address an adolescent boy as "the master mistress of my passion". Do you?Shakespeare's other sonnets are to a "Dark Lady". Shakespeare may have made a deathbed Confession and returned to the Church, but his conduct in the notoriously bawdy theatre culture of London does not seem indicative of great religiosity in any particular direction. For decades he and his wife did not cohabit [although they did have children] and his sex life seems to have been as unorthodox as his family life. BTW, King John, which is little produced, is red meat for Protestant interpreters.
Sonnet 20 BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman’s gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change as is false women’s fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love’s use their treasure.
I never knew Shakespeare was an idealist. Oh but would we have a Church, and leaders thereof, who could be as wise and just.
I liked, much more funny than the divine comedy.
Tragedy individuates. Brilliant
This is very interesting. I agree with much of what you say, but not with all of it. For instance, I think you're overlooking tragedy's status as cautionary tales, which make the main characters in those just as general and archetypal as in the comedies.
One quibble about the comedy/tragedy distinction - aren't Rosalind, Viola and Beatrice individuals rather than types? Overall this reworks those 1950s readings of the play as pure Christian allegory (G Wilson Knight, R Chambers etc). Fine, as long as you have no problems whatsoever with patriarchy in religion and politics...it is play that is brilliant (up to its midway point) but perhaps not for the reasons given here. You can just as easily read it as matching the cynicism of "Troilus and Cressida".
Decimating the Platonic ideal
Tragedies - Individuals
Comedies - Types of persons
7:14 The Bible in the form of a comedy
23:38
What is the relationship between a whitened sepulchre and a hypocrite? I don't understand that reference but i have seen it used in Conrad's Heart of Darkness where he describes the society that he's in in the begining of the story in that way in order to criticize it.
I looked up it up and it said its an old tomb of some kind but I'm missing the subtext of it.
Anyone know?
The relationship exists because of its use in the famous verse in which Jesus attacks the hypocrisy of the puritans of the day:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness (Matthew 23.27)
@@shakshiagrawal1375 Hahah 9 months later but finally got the answer. I didn't know it was a direct quote from the bible. It's funny cause I was just think about heart of darkness again the other day. Good timing.
Thank you
@@Laocoon283 Haha, you're welcome. I was wondering if you'd see the reply or not because it had been a while, I'm glad I could help. The sepulchre imagery is also used widely in poetry, I don't remember which poems but it is quite common, thought it would interest you :)
Can I pitch-in to have you do The Way Of All The Earth? I have a copy I can send, couldn't find a PDF online last I tried.
@Indigo Child are you sure he is dead?
@@StoicFlame My father is ill but still alive.
@@dr.michaelsugrue thank god, i hope he recovers soon, he is one of the best teachers ever.
@@dr.michaelsugrue brother is he doing fine ??? Sending love from pakistan
@@dr.michaelsugrue I hope he gets better. How is he handling his illness and the thoughts of his own possible mortality? I know he spoke an awful lot about Keikegaard and his contemplations on mortality. It will be interesting to know your dad’s personal experience in reality vs his initial philosophical contemplations. He is such a great man, with such presence, I could almost feel like I knew him personally and I only started listening to him 2 weeks ago. Thank you for uploading these contents.
Where is part 2?
Sugrue states that the narrative of Jesus and the adulteress (which he misdescribes as a parable) is in the Synoptic Gospels. In fact, it is in John's gospel only.
Shakespeare would likely agree that much of today's comedy is a politically-corrected tragedy.
Thank you for uploading this. Do you know if Dr Sugrue has any other lectures on the works of Shakespeare?
wheres part 2 ? :D
I'm always looking for new interesting lectures on Psychology/Philosophy, please let me know if you guys have any recommendations, would be highly appreciated
Any video on this channel
Jordan petersons biblical series lectures. He does a psychological Interpretation of biblical stories and what they symbolize.
I thought that Antigone ended with Creon learning his tragic flaw rather than Antigone
Same.
I am a judge
3:44
It remains a problem play with obvious weakening and after the superb Isabella Angelo scenes that introduce very sharp reasoning; Sugrue fails to point that Shakespeare lost his commitment here while overstating the Christian symbolism. By contrast the play is focused neither on this nor simple sexual morality but instead sexuality as fundamental beyond all principle. This is what needs analyzing, and the Apollonian and sexually repressed culture behind it, and certainly not presupposing as Sugrue does the crazy piety and high minded notions of right behaviour. The Dionysiac trumps the intellect in an instant, as Angelo finds out.
Merci !
Johnson Susan Martinez Shirley Moore Elizabeth
This reminds me a lot of there will be blood
Your father would have been a great preacher
"Would have been"?
@@dr.michaelsugrue was!!
was a Professer instead
"she's a real Lady Macbeth"
Not exactly comedic
Z,
It is the hight of arrogance to talk about the "christian perspective" as if Christans all agree and can be represented with a single voice.
How gracious of you. The height of arrogance is the least of my vices, and I appreciate your not mentioning the entire scroll of my enormities.
@@dr.michaelsugrue I simply anounce those things which strike my nerve. After all who is not most sensitive to when one offends our own position?
This is a beef that I would happily take up with anyone so persumptious to speak in the voice of a Christan Orthodoxy. History herself conjured the Arabs to punish the Orthodoxy for this particular arrogance. She is being merciful to you by only conjuring me.
Silence by Shusaku Endo was a tragedy
Wow very informative thank you good sir!