I'm all in favour of the tradition of the autodidact, worker-philosophers capable of honest labour one moment, intellectual debate the next and manning the barricades the next. Like much else in life I have failed miserably to live up to this ideal but I continue to try. Organisations such as the WEA and Open University are an inspiration I reckon, and the new movement of Philosophy In Pubs sound pretty tasty as well. No surprise that the latter has a strong base in Liverpool where there is a long and noble tradition of people gobbing off in boozers. When I came across Jules Evans' Philosophy For Life it sounded right up my street and in truth it's not a bad read if perhaps a little too American Self Helpy for my taste; but I'm not so sure about Evans since finding this little philosophical gem on his website.
"For my money, the great champion of the mass intelligentsia is Jamie Oliver - I'm serious, I think Oliver and Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall have done more to promote learning and shift ethical attitudes in our culture than 99% of academics. Chefs have become the philosophers of our society. Anyway, the latest addition to the Oliver empire is a new drop in cookery school in Notting Hill Gate. Good idea." Yeah! Fucking ace!
"For my money, the great champion of the mass intelligentsia is Jamie Oliver - I'm serious, I think Oliver and Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall have done more to promote learning and shift ethical attitudes in our culture than 99% of academics. Chefs have become the philosophers of our society. Anyway, the latest addition to the Oliver empire is a new drop in cookery school in Notting Hill Gate. Good idea." Yeah! Fucking ace!
2 comments:
We have arrived. The Society of the Spectacle is truly upon us. However I'm repeating a statement I wrote in 1968 and the influences then were Fanny Craddock and Johnny.
I don't rate this pub philosophy much nor the spate of books about philosophy and eating, philosophy and drinking and so on. Just easy stuff and mindless fashion. Pharoah once asked Euclid for an easy introduction to philosophy and Euclid replied that there was no royal road. Wittgenstein told would be philosophers to 'go the bloody hard way'. The OU can point you in the right direction and they have put together some very good readers and edited editions. But I would start with Plato, his Symposium is about boozing, love, sex and virtue. His Republic covers every political standpoint ever considered.
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