I imagine you’ve noticed that Sanskrit diacritical marks on this site (like the first two letters in “Śāntideva”) are currently being replaced with question marks. In case you’re wondering, this is not a problem with your browser or computer; everyone is seeing this, including me. This is one of the screwups I mentioned resulting from my transition to a new server. It is proving one of the more difficult to fix – especially as I am currently in the middle of marking my students’ essays and exams, which leaves me little time to explore the niceties of PHP and MySQL to find a solution to the problem. Rest assured that I am working on the problem and will fix it, but please bear with me in the meantime.
Troubles with diacritics
14 Friday May 2010
Posted in Blog Admin
Hello Amod! I wrote to you about a month ago about Geoff Waite who you had at Cornell. That really interests me as I read his book. I feel like I might want to meet him but am not sure if he still teaches at cornell-he did till last year.
If he were I might go there just to take his class on German Studies. But maybe he’s old by now, I don’t know.
Have you read his book yourself? If so what did you think?
You clealy are a guy who is into philosophy as well which is great. I’m currenty readng Heidegger for the first time. You seem to feel that while Marx has some insights, he misses something to. You seem, I think to beleve that religion is more than merely an “opium”, in partiuclar Easter religon?
Very interesting take on Kant as well in Yudisthira’s Elephant.
Hi Mike,
Geoff’s book was enjoyable, though quite difficult. It may be the only book I’ve ever read that is both written entirely in postmodernist jargon and yet still a lively, engaging and exciting read – its prose style is a standout accomplishment. As for his actual claim, I waver a lot more. I suspect that Nietzsche’s work may well have had the effect he thinks it has, of defanging the political left (I address some related issues in this post) but I have real doubts as to whether Nietzsche was prescient enough to intend that effect, as Geoff seems to think.
If you have a chance to take a course from Geoff, I’d do it. Extremely thoughtful and wide-ranging thinker, with a deep eye for subtle nuances and a great scope of interests. I was lucky to study with him.
Yes, I definitely believe that most of the phenomena we call “religion” is more than an opiate. Buddhism, Christianity, etc. contain a vast array of wisdom for living good lives in spite of the suffering and pain that face us every day, and that could not be eliminated even in the most just and least alienating of social structures.