Same! Thanks for spiking my interest in philosophy - I couldn't relate until now because I thought it's all just ancient greek motivational quotes and chain smoking hedonistic men.
Wow Liv's ability to process all of this complex information and articulate it with such clarity is incredibly impressive. I'm unfamiliar with Sontag's work, but I can tell that she was very much engaged with the intellectual trends prevailing in Paris in her day. Looking at the top of the page at 1:20, we see the parenthetical affirmation Sontag stamps upon Nietzsche's famous "no facts, only interpretations" quotation. This affirmation is revealing. I can understand why the structural anthropology of Claude Levi-Strauss was so appealing to Sontag, but I can also see where she gets herself ensnared in many of the same conceptual difficulties the French thinkers of her day fell into. These conceptual difficulties are still very much present in Western philosophy today. On the one hand, Sontag calls us to return to our senses and hold fast to the written senses of the words of the text without running the risk of distorting it by projecting our own interpretation onto it. On the other hand, we cannot be sure that we've accurately apprehended the meaning of the text because we can't say the words refer to anything as a matter of fact. So I don't think that "(rightly)" Sontag gives to Nietzsche's quotation about interpretation "in the broadest sense" puts her in a very strong position to argue against interpretation in any sense. This is one example of the philosophical issues that set the stage for Jacques Derrida to become such a prominent intellectual, beginning just one year after Sontag published "Against Interpretation." I know Liv has a lot on her shelf as is, but there's a short (roughly 200 pages) and excellent study of this stuff that I found especially helpful: _Modern French Philosophy_ by Vincent Descombes. This is one of those books that I wish I came across a few years sooner than I did. I wasted a lot of time in my search to better understand doctrines like semiology, structuralism, postmodernism, and a number of other influential intellectual movements. And based on her videos, I'm sure Liv can read it in a third of the time it took me and absorb three times as much :). Good work and good luck.
It’s so great to find someone on the internet talk about sontag!!!!!!!Most of my classmates at uni don’t seem to take personal interest in her aside from when her works were given as readings. I’d love to see videos on how you structure your essays as a philo major too! Do you mind if i followed you on ig or goodreads if you’re active in either of them ??
Yes, of course - I don't use goodreads sorry, but feel free to follow me on ig (it's linked on my youtube); I do share some excerpts I read sometimes. And I'll definitely consider making a video about writing essays!
so happy to find against interpretation on audible! got it on now :) Excited to see more videos & checking out your best phil reads. I look forward to finding more time to read when I return to Oxford.
It's also a bit of a false dichotomy. Part of our experience and enjoyment with the text involves some level of interpretation. I do not see how an ideal reader of a text would be the person most disconnected. The stories that endure in a culture endure because of how they connect. Think of mythical stories that sustain and yet are changed over time, revealing different concerns of a variety of audiences.
Yes I totally agree, it’s like Jameson says, even surface reading is interpretation due the nature of language. Does the cultural and personal “revamping” of a text not make it valuable art?
hi, i love your videos but it's really hard to do anything else while watching/listening as the volume is low-ish? i was wondering if it was a problem with my computer but it doesn't seem like it is?
I just watched Kidology's video and came to watch this!
Same
Same! Thanks for spiking my interest in philosophy - I couldn't relate until now because I thought it's all just ancient greek motivational quotes and chain smoking hedonistic men.
Wow Liv's ability to process all of this complex information and articulate it with such clarity is incredibly impressive.
I'm unfamiliar with Sontag's work, but I can tell that she was very much engaged with the intellectual trends prevailing in Paris in her day. Looking at the top of the page at 1:20, we see the parenthetical affirmation Sontag stamps upon Nietzsche's famous "no facts, only interpretations" quotation. This affirmation is revealing. I can understand why the structural anthropology of Claude Levi-Strauss was so appealing to Sontag, but I can also see where she gets herself ensnared in many of the same conceptual difficulties the French thinkers of her day fell into. These conceptual difficulties are still very much present in Western philosophy today.
On the one hand, Sontag calls us to return to our senses and hold fast to the written senses of the words of the text without running the risk of distorting it by projecting our own interpretation onto it. On the other hand, we cannot be sure that we've accurately apprehended the meaning of the text because we can't say the words refer to anything as a matter of fact. So I don't think that "(rightly)" Sontag gives to Nietzsche's quotation about interpretation "in the broadest sense" puts her in a very strong position to argue against interpretation in any sense. This is one example of the philosophical issues that set the stage for Jacques Derrida to become such a prominent intellectual, beginning just one year after Sontag published "Against Interpretation."
I know Liv has a lot on her shelf as is, but there's a short (roughly 200 pages) and excellent study of this stuff that I found especially helpful: _Modern French Philosophy_ by Vincent Descombes. This is one of those books that I wish I came across a few years sooner than I did. I wasted a lot of time in my search to better understand doctrines like semiology, structuralism, postmodernism, and a number of other influential intellectual movements. And based on her videos, I'm sure Liv can read it in a third of the time it took me and absorb three times as much :). Good work and good luck.
It’s so great to find someone on the internet talk about sontag!!!!!!!Most of my classmates at uni don’t seem to take personal interest in her aside from when her works were given as readings. I’d love to see videos on how you structure your essays as a philo major too! Do you mind if i followed you on ig or goodreads if you’re active in either of them ??
Yes, of course - I don't use goodreads sorry, but feel free to follow me on ig (it's linked on my youtube); I do share some excerpts I read sometimes. And I'll definitely consider making a video about writing essays!
The last essay discussed here can be branched off into a larger conversation on retribution vs reparative justice
so happy to find against interpretation on audible! got it on now :)
Excited to see more videos & checking out your best phil reads. I look forward to finding more time to read when I return to Oxford.
it's a niche issue but everyone can relate to it is "notes on camp"
Thank you for free education
Good keep the spirit up for ever
It's also a bit of a false dichotomy. Part of our experience and enjoyment with the text involves some level of interpretation. I do not see how an ideal reader of a text would be the person most disconnected. The stories that endure in a culture endure because of how they connect. Think of mythical stories that sustain and yet are changed over time, revealing different concerns of a variety of audiences.
Yes I totally agree, it’s like Jameson says, even surface reading is interpretation due the nature of language. Does the cultural and personal “revamping” of a text not make it valuable art?
You got yourself a subscriber
hi, i love your videos but it's really hard to do anything else while watching/listening as the volume is low-ish? i was wondering if it was a problem with my computer but it doesn't seem like it is?
Your voice is so low