Seventeenth-Century Moral Philosophy: Self-Help, Self-Knowledge, and the Devil's Mountain

Garrett, Aaron

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199545971.013.0012

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Convincing reasons are put into concise and memorable maxims for use in daily life, removing the need to go back over the antecedent arguments. 29 Jacqueline Rose explores such texts' awareness that the giving and taking of advice was a matter of altering power relations, as the adviser moved above and below the sovereign in the act of offering counsel. 30 This culture of counsel is dramatized: not only in terms of content, but also in reflections about the giving and receiving counsel (how decisions are affected, who to rely on, and what happens if this is done), Ivan Lupić shows.…”

Section: Bethmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

Sullivan¹

2023

Shakespeare Survey 76

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Setting aside the fancy (pleasing though it is) that Elizabethan and Jacobean society pullulated with hot lovers, critics have offered a range of weighty explanations for the popularity of the literature of obsession, from attracting the attention of the monarch, to artistic rivalry, to making subjectivity the subject of study. 1 This article suggests a more tongue-in-cheek approach to advice on love in Sidney and Shakespeare, based on recent reappraisals of the use to which self-help books are put. Readers approach these as refreshing fantasies of a radical potential change in lifestyle, but with little intention of putting most (if any) of their advice into practice. From this perspective, Astrophil and Stella (1591) depicts a lover who encourages counsel only to resist it, a move which gives a new view of the lovecure game played between Rosalind and Orlando in As You Like It (1599).Today's self-help books share similar techniques to cure the unhappily obsessed. In some cases, this is a serious business, of course: bibliotherapy can be an effective way to allow people to understand their mental condition, so they cease to be merely objects of advice and treatment. When readers re-describe their own situations to themselves in different genres, or recognize similarities in texts by others, including fictional ones, they may come to understand the perceptions and angles they have been obsessed by, and hence change any persistently unrealistic and inflexible thinking on their part. Moreover, such readers may be comforted by recognizing that they are part of a community of affect, as they find out how similar problems bedevil others as well as themselves. 2 A rapid survey of the self-help shelves in my local bookshop suggests that, after careers, love relationships are probably the best-selling topic of advice. Like myself, most prospective buyers were lurking and flicking -half-abashed, half-fascinated -through titles like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, The Complete Book of Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr Right, and He's Just Not that Into You: the No-excuses Truth toUnderstanding Guys, excusing ourselves in part by also skimming parody versions, such as 1 For surveys of some of these approaches, see M.

show abstract

Section: Bethmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

Sullivan¹

2023

Shakespeare Survey 76

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, it invites readers to examine what happiness and the good is, how they can best attain it, and what their place is in the order of the universe as a whole. Shaftesbury's works are practical not merely in the sense that he prioritises philosophical topics that are of practical significance, but further they are practical in a more immediate sense: they are meant to be transformative for readers and meant to offer "self-help" (Garrett 2013, Renz 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shaftesbury on Liberty and Self-Mastery

Boeker

2019

International Journal of Philosophical Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this paper is to show that Shaftesbury's thinking about liberty is best understood in terms of self-mastery. To examine his understanding of liberty, I turn to a painting that he commissioned on the ancient theme of the choice of Hercules and the notes that he prepared for the artist. Questions of human choice are also present in the so-called story of an amour, which addresses the difficulties of controlling human passions. Jaffro distinguishes three notions of self-control that are present in the story of an amour. Although I agree with many aspects of Jaffro's interpretation, I question his conclusion that self-control in the Stoic sense is best reserved for 'moral heroes.' I propose an alternative developmental interpretation, according to which all human beings are on an intellectual journey aimed at personal and moral improvement. My interpretation takes seriously that for Shaftesbury philosophy is meant to be practical and help improve our lives. I end by arguing that rather than trying to situate Shaftesbury's concept of liberty within debates among compatibilists and incompatibilists it is more promising to understand it in terms of self-mastery and thus regard it as a version of positive liberty.

show abstract

“…This hopeful view is the target of skeptics like Pierre Nicole and La Rochefoucauld. See also Garrett ().…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Deferring to Others about One's Own Mind

Doyle

2019

Pacific Philosophical Qtr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pessimists about moral testimony hold that there is something suboptimal about forming moral beliefs by deferring to another. This paper motivates an analogous claim about self‐knowledge of the reason‐responsive attitudes. When it comes to your own mind, it seems important to know things “from the inside”, in the first‐personal way, rather than putting your trust in another. After motivating pessimism, the paper offers an explanation of its truth. First‐person knowledge is distinctive because it involves knowing a state of mind and finding it intelligible from one's point of view. It concludes by considering the value of this form of self‐understanding.

show abstract

Seventeenth-Century Moral Philosophy: Self-Help, Self-Knowledge, and the Devil's Mountain

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

‘I Would Cure You’: Self-Help Advice on Love in Sidney and Shakespeare

Shaftesbury on Liberty and Self-Mastery

Deferring to Others about One's Own Mind

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About