Modern Intellectual History: From Descartes to Derrida, by Lawrence Cahoone (Teaching Company) ????
I’ve been a bit disappointed recently at the quality of Teaching Company lectures and have backed off on purchase of some of the latest productions from that company. My feeling was that the lecturers were too biased in their discussions without giving credence to opposing views. In this lecture series, Cahoone maintains a very compelling discussion of the major philosophers from Descartes to those still alive today, holding ones’ interest while giving an in depth review of the main philosophical contributions of the person under discussion. He ends a touch weak, with a discussion arguing against the death of philosophy. It seems as though philosophy has gone full circle, with philosophy realizing that a crisis created by Derrida and other post-modernists have left no discussion since the claim is that all truth is either un-knowable or un-communicateable. Cahoone shows how modern philosophers have tended to return to the classics to resolve this muddle, creating a spiral (not a circle). Thankfully, he doesn’t discuss whether philosophy is spiraling downwards or upwards, as I tend to feel that it’s taking a downward spiral. After all, without an infinite reference frame, there should be no way of knowing whether one is spiraling up or down! This is a lecture series worth listening to, and will probably be heard again by me.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, by Gary Rendsburg (The Teaching Company) ????
This lecture series was a fairly comprehensive introduction to the history of the discovery and research on the Dead Sea scrolls, but also lengthy discussion of the various factions in Jewish society around the 200BC to 100AD time period in Palestine. Rendsburg was delightful to listen to, and remained fairly even in his discussion, always being willing to admit, and to discuss alternative interpretations and division in the field of Dead Sea scroll research. It is believed that the scrolls were the product of the Qumram community, who lived in a small community (about 200-300 people) on the northwest side of the Dead Sea. Rendsburg removes much of the mystery as to why it took so long for many of the scrolls to be published, as well as the actual contents of the scrolls. Besides numerous copies of the OT scriptures, many scrolls details the rules of life within the (presumed) Qumram community and various other writings of the community. Interestingly, one scroll was even a so-called treasure map, describing the various location of vast amounts of gold and silver, none of which has been found. Unlike many of the religious lecture series from the Teaching Company where the lecturer presents a single opinion on any subject, Rendsburg was quite engaging in discussing the Dead Sea scroll subject with true academic humility, often admitting that many questions remained unanswered.
Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World, taught by Glenn Holland ?
This is an audio lecture offered by the Teaching Company. It’s focus is the ancient religions of the Mediterranean basin, including the ancient religions of Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, Canaan, Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as Israel. The entire set is not what I had hoped it to be. I doesn’t give a very good feel for the development and structure of religions outside of the Judeo-Christian realm. Coverage of important texts, like the Gilgamesh epic, leaves much to be desired. Holland offers very little analysis of these non-Israelite religions until the very end of the series, when he offers the pathetic statement of how they all have a unifying notion of our search for the divine. I don’t need to suffer through a 48 lecture course for that conclusion. There is no serious comparison and contrast of the various religions, and typically minimal insight into how these religions and their differences affected the various cultures. There were many religions that Holland mostly glosses over, such as the religions of the Ammonites and Edomites, which have substantial source material to work with. Meanwhile, he is quite ready to offer inane criticisms of the Bible, falling into the confusion of the higher school redaction criticism of the texts. Even here, Holland is not up to date on his facts or critical of his assessments, as I would expect of a university professor. As an example, his disagreement with the dating of Abraham simply shows misguided and uninformed criticism. He seems to be most critical of the Judeo-Christian texts since they are endowed with a certain reverence in the Western world. I don’t expect him to manifest a similar enthusiastic reverence, but I do hold him accountable for providing a critical review free of personal bias and as eager to prove as well as to disprove the veracity of a the sacred texts at hand. It was difficult to endure to the end this series because of the absence of true scholarship.
Robert Greenberg- The Music of Wagner ????
It is hard to dislike anything that Greenberg does, and this Teaching Company series is no exception. Many of us waited for years for Greenberg to produce this set of lectures, as I’m sure it did not come easy to him. Throughout the lecture set, you sense a very strong love-hate relationship with Wagner and Greenberg. This feeling is reflected in the cynicism found throughout each and every lecture, though usually presented quite humorously, like suggesting, when the sword was named Notung, that perhaps Wagner even had a name for his pillow. In his animosity against the person of Wagner, Greenberg has forgotten his comments on the operas of other composers. Almost every opera has a silly if not ridiculous plot. Almost every opera is inconsistent with real life. No opera is believable. One could crack insults at Verdi for writing an opera where a larger-than-life character becomes fatally obsessed over a lost handkerchief, or a Puccini opera where ladies die of consumption at precise moments and heroes magically appear at the right moment to save tragedy, or Mozart operas where heads of state are made to look like bumbling idiots, Queens of the night appear out of no-where, etc., etc. Greenberg seems to love the music of Wagner, but writhes in agony at the consummate anti-semitism of the composer. Greenberg certainly is correct when he spends lengthy hours describing Wagner as inconsistent, arrogant, self-adoring, egotistical, impetuous, racist, mean-spirited, and any other possible negative epithet. All of these are correct, and would Wagner be alive today, he would be regarded as a despicable Arschloch. Greenberg is quite informative in showing how the thinking of Schöpenauer and virile anti-semitism is reflected in all of the music of Wagner, and this was most informative.
Greenberg does a marvelous job of following the chronological history of Wagner. Of interest is his almost certain Jewish father, which Wagner probably was aware of in forming many opera characters with lost identity. Greenberg probably added too much comment regarding Wagner’s desire for German unification. Most German intellectuals were desirous of unification, just as France had accomplished earlier, and Italy was in the process of accomplishing. It is wrong to presume that what was right for France, England, the United States and Italy was wrong for Germany, and perhaps the world wars came partially as a result of this prejudiced exceptionalism of the rest of the world to German unification. Wagner reflected a German ethos rather than a personal arrogance in desiring to see a unified country.
Greenberg is correct when he repeats often that one cannot separate the man from his music. He is incorrect in not stating that perhaps the greatest insult to Wagner the man is for his music to performed by Jewish conductors (such as Levine) with absolute disregard for the “deeper” meaning in his writings. Such disregard is not only possible but necessary, so that even in an unforgivably flawed person like Wagner, there remains genius to be appreciated. I await the day when a Jewish conductor with an all-Jewish orchestra from Israel performs Parsifal at Bayreuth in a comic fashion.
Ancient Empires Before Alexander, by Robert Dise, from the Teaching Company ????
Many of my recent Teaching Company reviews have been less than favorable, but this series is an exception. Covering in this series is a discussion of the rise of the concept of empires, first noted historically by Sargon in Mesopotamia. Dise proceeds to then discuss the Ur kingdom, the Kassites, Hatti (the Hittites), Egypt, Minoan and Mycenaean empires, Israel, Assyria, neo-Babylon, Persia, and finally Carthage. Throughout, Dise remains informative as well as interesting. His discussions do not err as many in extrapolations of data, but instead gives a good review of our current knowledge of the various empires above. My most serious complaint is his treatment of Israel and use of the Biblical data. It is so often the case that while trying to maintain an air of objectivism and critical review of the sources of ancient literature, one fails to appreciate the differences in stylistic writing that would clue one into the credibility of the literature in question. Such is the case with the Biblical script, which should not come under doubt simply because it is also considered a religious genre. Other than that, it is nice to see that moderns did not invent the concept of empire, which existed from earliest written history. It is not a question of whether or not empires will exist, but rather, who will lead and control those empires. All empires have had the tendency to be expansionistic. Some empires desired expansion for economic reasons (Carthage), many for defense of borders, and some simply for the joy of lording over others. Power seems to remain throughout history a stronger driving force than wealth or any other characteristic in motivating empire. This series does a masterful job of helping one explore the concept of empire, and understanding those driving factors throughout mankind that drives for empire.
