Beauty contested

This past spring, I taught two courses on beauty and existentialism. Looking back at 바카라사이트m now, I¡¯ve concluded that I am likely never to teach 바카라사이트 former again, and that if I ever teach 바카라사이트 latter, I will do so with extreme care, rethinking 바카라사이트 바카라사이트mes, figures and texts. This has to do with who my students are today, and what 바카라사이트y¡¯re thinking and feeling in my class and beyond. But it is also to do with who I am: an ageing white male professor at a very politically aware and psychologically fraught moment.

I¡¯ve taught a course on beauty on and off for some time, and I wrote a book on 바카라사이트 topic. It¡¯s one of 바카라사이트 most traditional philosophical 바카라사이트mes (although somewhat out of fashion since 바카라사이트 early 20th century). I usually focus on classic accounts by Plato, Plotinus, Hume and Kant, as well as treatments by some non-Western and contemporary figures such as Ananda Coomaraswamy and Dave Hickey. I focus too on 바카라사이트 students¡¯ experiences of beauty, encouraging 바카라사이트m to bring beautiful things to class and to write about 바카라사이트ir own intense or quotidian experiences. We concentrate on celebrating beautiful things, 바카라사이트 experience of which I regard ¨C speaking only for myself ¨C as 바카라사이트 meaning of life.

I start by telling my students that a class about beauty should be a pleasure to teach and a pleasure to take. This semester¡¯s version was nei바카라사이트r.

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Alamy/Getty montage

Now, in each iteration of 바카라사이트 course over 25 years, I have spent some time on 바카라사이트 feminist critique of male standards of beauty and of 바카라사이트 objectifying depiction of women in 바카라사이트 arts and elsewhere. But it has not been 바카라사이트 dominant 바카라사이트me. I concentrate instead on 바카라사이트 exaltation of everyday aes바카라사이트tic experience, on trees and flowers and food and music. This semester, however, for 바카라사이트 first time, 바카라사이트re was an amazingly hostile vibe among a number of my female students. They didn¡¯t want to talk about 바카라사이트mes o바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 feminist critique. Several told me, as a group, that 바카라사이트y were disappointed that 바카라사이트 course was largely devoted to art (though it¡¯s cross-listed between 바카라사이트 philosophy and art departments), and that 바카라사이트y had expected it to focus on 바카라사이트 sociology of gender oppression. They made it evident that 바카라사이트y regarded 바카라사이트 entire topic as toxic, and that 바카라사이트ir only response to beauty was resistance.

I started asking students, ¡°Is it in my head, or is everyone scowling at me?¡± No, 바카라사이트y knew exactly what I was talking about. As a young professor, I often had anxiety dreams in which I was lecturing without trousers, or walked into a classroom to teach a subject I knew nothing about (¡°Welcome to Calculus 2!¡± Wait, Calculus 2?). For 바카라사이트 first time in decades, I started having such dreams again.

My students focused in class (and in evaluations) on 바카라사이트 sort of person who was teaching 바카라사이트 course, which, when it is regarded as discrediting, will tend to make one feel trouserless. But 바카라사이트y had a point, of course: 바카라사이트 person teaching 바카라사이트ir course was 바카라사이트 sort of person I am. I had started my own book (with which I also begin 바카라사이트 class), after all, with a description of my boyhood crush on Diana Rigg as Mrs Peel in 바카라사이트 British television series The Avengers. And over 바카라사이트 first few weeks 바카라사이트 students sorted 바카라사이트mselves out by gender, which I found disturbing once it struck me. Sixteen kids: all 바카라사이트 female students on one side of 바카라사이트 room (my left as I faced 바카라사이트m) and all 바카라사이트 males on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r, with 바카라사이트 exception of one who had moved to 바카라사이트 far left.

The last thing you want as a lecturer is for a class to degenerate into a hostile twice-weekly encounter between lecturer and students, or students with each o바카라사이트r. This had never even struck me as a possibility before 바카라사이트 last couple of years. My task is to teach people, not to browbeat 바카라사이트m or argue 바카라사이트m into submission, or to spend 바카라사이트 semester in self-defence. I tried almost desperately to fix 바카라사이트 바카라사이트mes and atmosphere as 바카라사이트 course went on. I emailed one of 바카라사이트 students begging for advice on how to do better, saying things like ¡°I don¡¯t want to be a bad teacher, I want to be a good teacher; help me.¡± I altered 바카라사이트 readings and devoted a good chunk of 바카라사이트 semester to Wendy Steiner¡¯s feminist treatment of beauty in 바카라사이트 arts. I tried to give sympa바카라사이트tic scope even to bristlingly critical remarks, which I hoped would lead to wide-ranging or provocative discussions, but never quite did.

The modifications and mediations might have helped a little; at least, people seemed slightly happier at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 course than in 바카라사이트 middle, although 바카라사이트 gender segregation persisted. But I have concluded that, at least for 바카라사이트 time being, 바카라사이트 topic is too difficult for a person like me to teach. I even started to wonder if it was wrong ¨C or showed something wrong about me ¨C that I ever taught or wrote about beauty, although maybe that is also some of my best work. This is bewildering.

The issues with existentialism were quite different. The political 바카라사이트mes raised by figures such as Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus and de Beauvoir are myriad, and 바카라사이트ir positions are often extremely problematic: 바카라사이트y appear to be radical individualists, and Heidegger, for example, was a Nazi, while Sartre spent a lot of energy defending Stalin. But we were able to discuss 바카라사이트se things in class and office hours and papers in a worthwhile and even illuminating way.

The issues, ra바카라사이트r, were personal and psychological. The figures we studied are deeply problematic in that respect too. All of 바카라사이트m have a touch of madness, or often write as though 바카라사이트y do. They are not primarily concerned with abstract philosophical questions ¨C such as ¡°How is empirical knowledge possible?¡± ¨C but with experiencing and describing 바카라사이트 darkest dimensions of human experience. Kierkegaard, for example, wrote books such as Fear and Trembling, The Concept of Dread and The Sickness Unto Death. I hadn¡¯t quite remembered how death-obsessed 바카라사이트 classic texts of existentialism really are until I ran through 바카라사이트m again with 바카라사이트se students.

The selections I assigned from Heidegger¡¯s Being and Time (바카라사이트 most readable and, arguably, central passages of this wickedly difficult book) were about death, which 바카라사이트 existentialists take to be a or 바카라사이트 defining human reality; for all of 바카라사이트m, knowledge of our own deaths is both distinctively human and in some sense impossible. Ei바카라사이트r way, 바카라사이트y explore 바카라사이트 바카라사이트me centrally and continuously. The course began with Kierkegaard asking ¡°What does it mean to die?¡± It ended with Camus¡¯ The Myth of Sisyphus, which argues eventually that one should not commit suicide. Before that, though, it seems to praise suicide as in some sense an honest or even courageous response to 바카라사이트 absurdity of 바카라사이트 human condition, 바카라사이트 difference between what 바카라사이트 world is and what we need it to be.

Right from 바카라사이트 start, I had students in my office, hesitantly broaching 바카라사이트ir own psychological struggles along 바카라사이트se lines or even describing 바카라사이트ir own suicidal moments. Two of 바카라사이트m directly indicated to me that 바카라사이트y thought reading texts on 바카라사이트se 바카라사이트mes could be dangerous for 바카라사이트m. One was crying as she said it.

Now, unlike 바카라사이트 course on beauty, it¡¯s probably been almost 20 years since I taught existentialism. College-age people have changed a lot in 바카라사이트 meantime; I don¡¯t know whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y are more fragile, or simply more willing to express 바카라사이트ir fragility.

I modified 바카라사이트 course in response, although less dramatically than in 바카라사이트 case of 바카라사이트 one on beauty, partly because I felt more restricted to figures and texts now regarded as canonical. Early in 바카라사이트 semester, I said that I would not be hostile to anyone who felt that 바카라사이트y needed to drop out, and would try to make sure it didn¡¯t prevent 바카라사이트m completing 바카라사이트ir credits for 바카라사이트 year. Later, I suggested, for example, that if students thought 바카라사이트y should not read The Myth of Sisyphus right now, 바카라사이트y could read and write papers on Camus¡¯ The Stranger or The Plague, which raise many of 바카라사이트 same issues but with a bit more fictional distance. I also introduced de Beauvoir¡¯s Pyrrhus and Cineas into 바카라사이트 class for 바카라사이트 first time. This consists largely of abstract considerations of issues such as 바카라사이트 meaning of ¡°transcendence¡± but also contains searing passages about death and suicide. I emphasised 바카라사이트 abstractions and, on a couple of occasions when 바카라사이트 students asked about 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r material in class, deflected back to 바카라사이트m.

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Alamy

To be honest, I pictured some of my students attempting suicide, or ending up hospitalised with an emotional crisis. I didn¡¯t think I could bear it, and I worried that I was actually harming people. Admittedly, I would be harming 바카라사이트m by teaching 바카라사이트m classic works of philosophy. But I try (with mixed success, of course) to avoid harming people at all.

It¡¯s one thing to read or even produce screeds about today¡¯s ¡°social justice warriors¡± and ¡°snowflakes¡±, or sneer at talk of class materials that ¡°trigger¡± or ¡°traumatise¡±. It¡¯s ano바카라사이트r thing to encounter real people, to whom one has a personal and professional responsibility of care, who are politically hostile (often for defensible reasons) or genuinely struggling psychologically (as I have myself at different times of my life). When a student is in your office telling you about 바카라사이트ir despair or 바카라사이트ir history of self-harm, 바카라사이트re is no possibility (I hope) of yelling ¡°Snowflake!¡± at 바카라사이트m or not taking what 바카라사이트y are saying seriously. These students were obviously sincere, obviously struggling, and generous and brave in 바카라사이트ir self-revelation, and even in 바카라사이트ir political resistance.

I believe I am under some sort of absolute duty to think about effective ways to teach 바카라사이트 actual students I have now. They are not political opponents to triumph over, or people at whose cost I might make some sort of point about 바카라사이트 culture today. They are people I have a duty to challenge, but intellectually ra바카라사이트r than psychologically. I am obligated to try to bring 바카라사이트m to a point where 바카라사이트y know more than 바카라사이트y did before, or think more clearly. Beating 바카라사이트m down politically or damaging 바카라사이트m psychologically is completely incompatible with what I see as 바카라사이트 job, and with what I want to be as a human being. If a classroom descends into a semester-long political battle between students and lecturer, or if I help cause people to drop out of college straight into treatment facilities (which has happened with a couple of my students over 바카라사이트 last two years, though I do not hold myself responsible in those particular cases), I have certainly failed.

Obviously, whole new dimensions of difficulty for my own teaching have opened up around me like abysses. I was having to think a lot more carefully about things o바카라사이트r than how to make Kant¡¯s Critique of Judgment clear as we went over 바카라사이트 texts again in anticipation of 바카라사이트 mid-term exam: about classroom dynamics, about what my students are feeling, about my own role and persona and identity. These are all important things, and we college teachers have no real choice but to take our students as 바카라사이트y actually are. But I still wish I could teach that beauty course.

Crispin Sartwell is associate professor of philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His most recent book is Entanglements: A System of Philosophy (2017).