Siris' Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends View]
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014
| Time |
Event |
| 12:59a |
What Charity Is Not http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-charity-is-not.html What charity is not, therefore, is looking after others by telling them how to live. This is Mrs. Elton's idea of charity, and it is clearly shown to be misguided, as her officious exertions on behalf of Jane Fairfax demonstrate. In addition to directing the lives of the less fortunate, Mrs. Elton also sees charity as a matter of style. In her estimation, charity is what those in power offer to those without power: it both assists the beneficiary, and increases the positive social image and self-image of the benefactor. Early in the novel, Emma is guilty of conceiving of charity in just this way, and the introduction of Mrs. Elton to Highbury is a reminder to her of how charity should not be conducted. For example, Emma feels for Jane when Mrs. Elton insists that her servant will pick up Jane's mail, or when she insists on arranging a governessing position for Jane. Even when Mrs. Elton is planning her part in the strawberry party, her focus is on her image, and her ability to make Jane over in her own image.... Sarah Emsley, Jane Austen's Philosophy of the Virtues, p. 135. Later Emsley characterizes this by saying that Emma is "concerned with the difference between charity as love and charity as image" (p. 138). | | 3:01p |
Rosmini on Uprightness of Judgment http://branemrys.blogspot.com/2014/01/rosmini-on-uprightness-of-judgment.html We can see wonderful uprightness of judgment in children, and often in the honest, just judgments of peoples (taken as a whole) free from agitators. Children's uprightness derives from their lack of passions, or lack of subjection to them, as we ll as from their freedom from bad habits, prejudices, and so on; the uprightness of a people depends necessarily on their being free from sophisticated passions, and from the considerations and sophistries of cultural human beings, which find their source and development in the possibilities open to the powerful. However, uprightness of judgment on the part of children and peoples does not prevent their falling into error. It is different for the truly wise, who unite virtue and experience of human affairs with the search for knowledge. Prudent persons of this kind are more easily on their guard against error because they have no love for it. Using reflection illuminated by experience, which has informed them about the danger of error, they put a brake on their passions and at the same time rule the natural instinct drawing them towards hasty judgment. As a result, they form a habit of suspending their judgment when necessary, and of examining matters coolly and accurately before pronouncing on them. Antonio Rosmini, Certainty, Denis Cleary and Terence Watson, tr., Rosmini House (Durham: 1991) p. 196n. |
|