Should we view Wittgenstein as enhancing British Philosophy, or British Philosophy as enhancing Wittgenstein?

Should we view Wittgenstein as enhancing British Philosophy, or British Philosophy as enhancing Wittgenstein? 

I support the former, though I should stipulate (specify or "spell out") that in addition to Locke and Bacon, I'd argue the "thrust" of "British Philosophy", as it were, is construed most clearly along a literary line, beginning with the Greek satirists, and from there to Robert Burton, Milton, Swift, Fielding, Peacock, Irving (Washington Irving), Poe, Hawthorne, Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain), Melville, Huxley, Orwell, Nabokov, Kubrick, and so on. "British" because it is convenient, and has some historiographic validity; though if you look at the historians and the historians of literature past fifty years, they are rather smug and reductive concerning "Whig"  (or "Whiggish") historiography, as they style it. 

As for Whigigish historiography being overly-optimistic in the face of the reality of the Human Condition?  Well, considering "Whiggish" historiography emerged from Calvinism, and small-c Calvinists like Milton, Locke, and so on, I can't for the life of me imagine much optimism or upbeat anticipation being advanced through that view of human nature. But mark this. Is it possible  that what the new historicism actually finds insufferable about Whiggish positions, is the unwelcome Whiggish--or Calvinist, both large-C and small c--habit of shining a bright light on fraud?

Which brings us back to Wittgenstein. He is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to turning on that spotlight.

The Wittgenstein family in Vienna, Summer 1917, with Kurt (furthest left) and Ludwig (furthest right) in officers' uniforms

"Satirical and Ironic Dissolutions of Art: Duchamp's Synthesis" by P. Winston Fettner

"From a Hegelian perspective, Duchamp’s place in the development of the contemporary involves a synthesis of the satiric and ironic modes of art’s previous moments of dissolution. A Hegelian understanding of satire and irony, which are the specific forms taken by the dissolution of Classical and Christian art, will allow us to grasp historically, as a replaying and a synthesis of art’s previous dissolutions, the meaning of the peculiar narcissism, hermeticism and emptiness that afflict the contemporary artworld. That reading reworks the theme of art’s dissolution into an analytic tool, and saves the concept of “the end of art” from being a mere slogan, one charged with nostalgia and despair, but of little value as a term of art-historical and aesthetic understanding."

More HERE

Duchamp leaving with his rejected painting by André Raffray

Yes, "neatly done." Shows "craft." But is it highbrow? Is the "theological" title a gimmick? Must a theological title necessitate theological content? Must a theological title necessitate the statement of theological propositions(s)? Or can a theological "utterance" suffice, and to what purpose? Does this purpose attend the title, or does the title attend the purpose?

La chute de l'ange ~ The Fall of the Angel by Max Ernst, ca1923 Oil on canvas 130,8 cm x 129,8 cm Private collection

"If a lion could talk, we could not understand him." - Ludwig Wittgenstein - Philosophical Investigations

Source

"What was the source of the stranger's incredible power?" is not a prose poem

Badger books, 1964

("'Answer: unknown' is a prose poem, but why?" is a prose poem, but why?)

"Teaching Was Fine Until We Fixed It: some thoughts on pedagogy..." by Secret Academic

Something happened at Cambridge recently. You may have noticed. We have, naturally, developed entire academic disciplines devoted to understanding education. Cambridge even had a Professor of Sociology of Education. Look how well that turned out. 

Anyway. It reminded me of something I’ve known for years. We have ruined education. And, while we’re at it, we’ve done a fairly decent job of ruining the students as well. Not because students suddenly became stupid. Or lazy. Or incapable of independent thought. Well … some did. But they didn't manage this entirely on their own. 

Universities created this. The pedagogues helped. The virtuous academics cheered them on. Management put it into a framework. And between them, they produced an education system so obsessed with support, outcomes, satisfaction, accessibility and success that they gradually removed many of the things education actually requires. Difficulty. Uncertainty. Failure. Disagreement. The possibility that you might have to work something out for yourself. Quite an achievement, really. 

We now have pedagogy. Innovative pedagogy. Inclusive pedagogy. Critical pedagogy. Transformative pedagogy. Student-centred pedagogy. Probably trauma-informed pedagogy...

 More HERE

Source image: Adobe Stock

Musing out loud

John Schoenherr, 1962

One of the structures of Casa Sperimentale near Rome, photo Oliver Astrologo

Sr.N4 Hovercraft photo essay

Click here for the Wikipedia Article on the SR.N4

Perpareing for the Highbrow analysis of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Act for Religious Freedom

We shall begin our consideration of the law in a week or so. To get the most out of that analysis, please review the following Highbrow posts:

Moral Philosophy in Context

The Declaration of Independence

Philosophical Remarks on the Declaration of Independence: Sections 1 & 2

Philosophical Remarks on the Declaration of Independence: Sections 3, 4 & 5

Declaration of Independence, the deleted passage

American Political Philosophy - The Basics (a variety of related discussions)

Questions to consider:

What are the relationship among St. Thomas Aquinas's concepts (or are they simply accurate descriptions?) of Revealed Theology and Natural Theology and Natural Law?

What  are the political and legal ramifications of considering human beings to be "God's Property" (via John Locke, by way of an exemplar of argumentation along these lines)?

What constitutes a "False Religion" in the Virginia Act of Religious Freedom, according to Jefferson?  

Do "False Religions" under Jefferson's definitions have any claim to protections, exceptions, emoluments, privileges or even a place in American society, law, and culture?

Until we return to this topic, Highbrow posts will continue as usual, exploring the frontiers of ephemera, aesthetic discriminations, and the activity of dispelling Philosophical Credulousness through the clarification of grammar.

Aristotle studying in his youth

A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom

"A BILL for establishing RELIGIOUS FREEDOM" - Thomas Jefferson

 § 57-1. Act for religious freedom recited.

The General Assembly, on January 16, 1786, passed an act in the following words:

"Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, have established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical, and even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labors, for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though, indeed, those are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet, neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he, being of course judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rules of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere, when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail, if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested or burthened, in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.

"And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that, therefore, to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind; and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right."

Source

More

More 

Analysis forthcoming.  Stay tuned.

Raoul Hausmann, 1886 - 1971 Cofondateur du mouvement Dada à Berlin et surnommé le «Dadasophe»

Emanations contributor Marleen S. Barr has a new book: Feminist Science Fiction’s Sartorial Spaces: Fashioning Future Females

 Click the cover image (or HERE) for the Amazon sales page.  Routledge description HERE.

Feminist Science Fiction’s Sartorial Spaces: Fashioning Future Females is a collection of critical essays consisting of established critical voices and cutting-edge new generation fresh perspectives across feminist theory, science fiction, and fashion. This book brings science fiction to bear upon the limiting impact clothing still has upon women. Science fiction literature can envision how yet-to-be-designed clothes can unequivocally signal female power. The contributors argue that it is time to turn to science fiction to lead the way in making empowering female attire real. This book is for scholars and students who are interested in the interplay between fashion and science fiction.

Highbrow Performances: Todd Rundgren "Utopia" (alt. title "Utopia Theme"), 1974

Cover art from a science fiction gaming magazine with an image evidently derived (loosely so) from Lovecraft - sensational, provocative, speculative, surreal (interesting for about fifteen seconds)

Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 13, 1982

Roger Penrose explains describes Godel's incompleteness theorem in 3 minutes

explains

Occult Material in the Invisible Tower Trilogy?

None.  It is adventure, high fantasy, satire, and an inquiry into the character and nature of the Human Condition.

Click the image to view the Amazon descriptions of the books:

Los Angeles' Occult Past: interview with Ronnie Pontiac

Curious subject, curious ideas, curious sub-culture, curious--and very interesting--history... indeed a curious city

An abstract crossing the borders of genre

Richard M. Powers’ (1962) for Conditionally Human by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Sample pages from Fluxus

Source

Fluxus materials and books available at AbeBooks

A review by Richard Kostelanetz: The Fluxus Newspaper 1964-1979 edited by George Maciunas and Fluxus Editorial Council for Fluxus

Fluxus has been the moniker for a group of artists mostly in downtown Manhattan, with compatriots in Europe and Japan, that coalesced in the late 1950s. Coming to know many of them personally a decade later, I realized that I might have been one of them had I been born a few years earlier than 1940 and not been a graduate student at uptown Columbia until 1966.

Their esthetic descended from Dada and John Cage (as did mine, later), as they worked in music, visual art, literature, and especially performances. (Only the last I didn’t do.) Though initially attended by a choice few, some of the last have been memorialized in art writing and eventually scholarship.

Respecting Cage’s demand of freedom in choosing esthetic materials, they eschewed heaviness with innovative work that was initially esthetically acceptable to everyone who cared. Two intentions were audacity and comedy, which are ideals I want for my own art.

Their leader and most brilliant exemplar was George Maciunas (1931-1977), a Lithuanian who’d come to America after WWII and initially trained as an architect at first-rank US universities. In addition to organizing and helping his colleagues, he did many things in his own name, some more brilliantly than others, some ephemeral and others permanent. Among the latter I count his publishing, and the first achievement of The Fluxus Newspaper (Primary Information, 2024) is bringing together scarce issues from nearly fifty years ago, mostly only a few pages long, all bound together in a single book outsized at 10.5” x 14”.

The first departure is that Maciunas as an inventive designer used the larger printed page as a field for various elements both visual and verbal and then in different typefaces. The book’s cover exemplifies his departure.

A second departure was the seemingly unlimited variety of materials on a single page, ranging from abstract designs to pseudo-news clipping to historic photographs to price lists for other items that Maciunas was publishing. Look at the cover. The disparities among the items make many Fluxus pages funny, as indeed was he.

On the front page of February 1964 are these blocks in five vertical columns: a headlined news story about mosquito extermination, “Latest News” above an array of five-digit numerals, more news about the complaints of women wearing girdles at high altitudes, a defaced one-dollar bill, a thumbnail about “knots,” a “curve” street sign, “WOW!,” a short Scottish news article about “yeggs” (burglars) locking themselves in a “Ladies’ Room,” a current price list for Fluxus editions, another vertical thumbnail photo of a 19th century West Coast bean dealer who resembles Maciunas, the reproduction of an ancient patent for a “saluting device” hat, and much, much else, again all within a single page. Otherwise, another whole page of this book is devoted to George Brecht’s legendary conceptual texts, horizontal thumbnails each less than a few lower-case words long, nearly all of them incorporating the word “page”: “spit on this page,” “eat something on this page,” “turn 14 pages slowly,” “hide this page,” “write as much as you can on this page,” “listen five minutes before turning this page,” “astonish someone quickly with this page,” etc. In the middle is a blank thumbnail, literally an empty page, that implicitly enhances the others. 

Another section of this book has first a recto and then a two-page spread with dozens of thumbnails both horizontal and vertical of several Fluxus performances in 1969 and 1970, all accompanied by a numbered sidebar in Maciunas’ signature sans-serif typeface in which individuals and details are identified. 

Therefore, within this book’s 80 unenumerated pages are really 10 times as many distinct blocks of printed matter. As pages offer different configurations, merely flipping from a recto to a verso often offers surprise. Therefore as well, anyone reading through this book for the second time or even a third time will discover marvelous blocks that he or she missed on first reading. 

The customary promotion for this anthology lists all the contributors, many of whose names are remembered a decade later, reminding us that few reprints from any historic periodical can offer such a distinguished exhaustive list: “Ay-O, Carol Bergé, Joseph Beuys, Elaine Bloedow, George Brecht, Christo, Philip Corner, Walter De Maria, Willem de Ridder, Bern Erismann, Nye Ffarrabas [participating as Bici Forbes], Robert Filliou, Henry Flynt, Ken Friedman, Carolyn Krumm, Heinz Gappmayr, Eugen Gomringer, Raymond Hains, Dick Higgins, Geoffrey Hendricks, Jon Hendricks, Alice Hutchins, Tatsu Izumi, Ray Johnson, Joe Jones, Allan Kaprow, Milan Knížak, Alison Knowles, Arthur Köpcke, Takehisa Kosugi, Ruth Krauss, Philip Krumm, György Ligeti, George Maciunas, Angus MacLise, Jackson Mac Low, Larry Miller, Peter Moore, Hans Nordenström, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Benjamin Patterson, James Riddle, Dieter Roth, Takako Saito, Mieko Shiomi, Tomas Schmit, Daniel Spoerri, Christer Strömholm, Yasunao Tone, Stan VanDerBeek, Ben Vautier, Jacques Villeglé, Wolf Vostell, Yoshimasa Wada, Robert Watts, Emmett Williams, William S. Wilson, La Monte Young, and Marian Zazeela.” (Yes, I regret not being among them.) I’m not aware of any other periodical, neither in literature nor in art, offering such a comprehensive inventory decades later, simply because nearly all the contributors’ names would have become unfamiliar.

With materials no less deviant than they were several decades ago, this Newspaper book is a treasure, a monument to the continuing life of Fluxus. 

P.S. Regarding Maciunas’ achievement as a highly original arts historian, may I recommend this appreciation by a German scholar writing in English:

© Copyright 2026 Richard Kostelanetz, reproduced by permission. Source: KostelOmnibus on Substack 

Richard Kostelanetz by Leonid Drozner,

Exploiting a Typology?

Wifredo Lam - Rumblings of the Earth, 1950 

Staccato Onomatopoeia (text or typology?)

 

Zzzzzzz... 

First French rigid airship "Spiess" (1913)

 

Будет ласковый дождь - 1984 Soviet animation based on Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains"

A prose poem? An ultimatum? A theological treatise? A schismatist's enthusiasm for an eccentric myth?

"When Man faces doom from outer space, he must choose between escape to other worlds or life in giant cocoons."

Dean Vollmar - "A perspective on life, death, human consciousness, and the eternal nature of the soul"

 

Highbrow adventures in comparative choreography: Bob Fosse and Vito Paulekas

Bob Fosse: "The Aloof", "The Heavyweight", "The Big Finish" from Sweet Charity:

 

Meet Bob Fosse:

Vito Paulekas: "Invocation and Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin":



Meet Vito Paulekas:

How Economic Power Shifted Over 200 Years

Please click HERE for discussion.

Source: Visual Capitalist

A Hermaneutic Fantasy: Prolegomena to Any Past Zenoic Proverbialness (repost, from April 14, 2016)

And now dear friend, I shall ask you to consider it possible to travel back through time upon the sedan chair of the imagination, so passing through an infinite number of moments to at last settle into a clear picture of what it is Zeno is saying, moreover with true proverbialness. We move back from one moment to the next, but only to encounter another moment, so on forever, as the number of moments is infinite, and thus the proverbialness we seek remains perpetually an unobtainable carrot at the end of an infinitely long stick.

(Kind thanks to Professor Hodges for allowing me to derive from his theoretical work on one-line poems the neologism "Zenoic Proverbialness.")

Preparing to Meet Zeno

Can the Human Condition be allegorized effectively? To what end?

Antony Williams - Intergalactic Castaway - oil on canvas

John Geraghty: an acrostic in the Hymn to Hermes

For some time now, Professor John Geraghty has been using AI to explore acrostics in Paradise Lost. Recently, he has been identifying acrostics in Chapman's translation of the Homeric Hymns:

Medieval Philosophy - Bryan Magee & Anthony Kenny

The appearance (verb) of an invisible tower, and that tower's appearance (noun)

            Naivete

Afar off an orchid tower

   Purple prose arranging

Mounting expectations

  Distant, arising, a spectacle

Coaxing a young soul

  Earnest and wild and breathing

Grasping a known unknown

    Credulous colors coalescing

An adhering moment viewing the future

   Persistent impression, fostering dreams

 

 

More? Please click HERE.

If the Invisible Tower was Visible

More? Please click HERE.

The Paradise Lost Legacy - November 7-15, 2026 - Davao City, Philippines, curated by Bienvinedo Bones Bañez, Jr.

Bienvinedo Bones Bañez, Jr. has announced "The Paradise Lost Legacy" art show scheduled for this November in the Philippines.  The show will feature the work of Terrance Lindall, Mr. Banez, and forty-one Philippines artists. Several volumes of Emanations will also be part of the exhibition. Here is the latest announcement for the show and, below that, Terrance Lindall's remarks on a broad range of subjects relating to the exhibition.

Paradise Lost has been translated into Chinese. Various editions are available, including both classical and modern translations. Translations can be found in bookstores and online platforms in China.

 Paradise Lost has been translated into several African languages. Various editions are available in countries like Nigeria and South Africa. Online platforms provide access to digital copies across the continent. Literary festivals in Africa sometimes feature discussions on the work.

Southeast Asia nations altogether probably have many translations. What is unique about the upcoming presentation of Milton’s work in both art & literature is that art and interpretive versions in early 21^st century productions are presented. This is our time to celebrate the greatest work in the English language by some of the greatest proponents of this work in our time.

Philippine art combines indigenous folk art, East-Asian and classical traditions. During the Spanish colonial period, art was used to spread Catholicism mainly through paintings and sculptures. Victorio Edades, known as the father of Modern Philippine Art, popularized Modernism in the Philippines in 1920s and 1930s.

Bienvenido Bones Banez Jr. was born in 7. 1962 in Davao City, Philippines, and attended the Learning Center of the Arts (now Ford Academy of the Arts) in Davao, where he studied Drawings and paintings from Professor Calota Abellana de Pio, and Professor Victorio Edades.

Banez’s work revolves around the theme of Paradise Lost, the 666 Human Imperfection, the reign of spiritual darkness in the world, which expresses itself through psychedelic depictions of evil human nature and sub-human auras. The bible message in Matthew 4 :8 is the point of departure for his proposition. It is a proposition that stems from mythology and faith into the strong belief in the Tower of Babel, Christendom and in the Judeo-Christian metanarrative wherein the Devil's rebellion is an overarching end prevailing in the mundane world. Bones using jewel-toned colors, and human "evil" promulgating the idea of feelings that rise up in themselves when we are faced by wars, experimental vaccines, racism and environmental degradation.

 Between 2009 and 2014 several drawings and paintings of Banez were acquired for the Robert J. Wickenheiser John Milton collection at the University of South Carolina. In 2017 a portrait of John Milton was added to the Milton’s Cottage collection, and he was named to the editorial board of Emanations, a print anthology of poetry, fiction, essays and fine arts published by International Authors founded by Professor Carter Kaplan. In 2010 he was included in Lexikon Surreal and KunstHerz 2021 by Prof Gerhard Habarta.    

 

 The exhibit includes Terrance Lindall, as seen in Milton for Moderns:

https://issuu.com/lindall/docs/lindall_s_milton_for_moderns                
                                                                          -- Terrance Lindall