NewAPPS is about three years old now. We have a wider, more durable, and pleasingly engaged audience than we ever imagined. Our activism and discussion about professional issues have generated quite a bit of publicity and controversy. Yet, one feature has not received much public comment: week in week out, we produce free-standing philosophical essays (generally between 800-1200 words) that are nothing like journal articles nor (generally) even appropriate as drafts of journal articles. Of course, often we develop themes and even an identity over (explicitly and implicitly connected) series, but, in principle, each of the posts is independent. While plenty of other philosophical blogs also offer free-standing philosophical essays, these tend to be longer, or more narrowly focused on an area of expertise, and (generally) not as frequent. (Of course, many of us were inspired by Crookedtimber and Thoughts Arguments and Rants.) To be 'historical' about it, our philosophical blogging is -- despite our analytical or continental identity -- closer in spirit to the kind of thing one might find in Bacon's or Montaigne's essays than anything we have been trained to write.
Can you tell I am pretty proud of this? (Yeah, check 'vanity' in Montaigne!)
While there are precedents in the Ancient world (Epicurus' and Cicero's Letters), Seneca's Letters are the ground-zero for philosophical essayists. (I welcome alternative candidates.) I have been blogging about the Letters, but an extended discussion with my PhD students* made me realize the significance of Seneca's adopted constraints of form. For, the first four letters conform to a very tight 'template.' (These letters have an average of 383 words!) I am using 'template' to capture something about structure/form.
- Each letter starts with an arresting and almost invasive claim.
- Each letter encourages the recipient/reader to memorize some non-philosophical claim.
- Each letter draws attention to the teacher-student relationship and, in doing so, draws attention to some persona, 'Seneca,' behind the letters.
- Each letter diagnoses a psychic malady and proscribes a cure for it. (The cure either involves some practice or some words.) For example, in letter four there is a mental vacilation between the fear of death and the hardship of life.
- Each letter pivots on a metaphysical (or highly abstract) thought that -- strikingly -- often does not get emphasized further by Seneca. For example, in my treatment of letter 2, I skipped "Nusquam est, qui ubique est," (nowhere is everywhere).
- Each letter primarily focuses on the recipient as an individual. This turns out to have two surprising features: (i) Seneca often identifies how the recipient/reader would react, thus, suggesting (a) that the recipient is a certain character-type; I am constantly reminded of the rich, ambitious boys -- that hanker as much after wisdom as honor/praise -- surrounding Socrates. (The letters identify other types along the way.) And (b) the persona Seneca is a knowledgeable about such types. (ii) The persona 'Seneca' does not fit the recipient-type in the present.
- Each letter draws brief attention to political or social features relevant to individual psyche.
- Each letter uses some economic and medical metaphors.
- Before closing the letter offers some advice on how to live.
- Each letter uses relatively a lot of words to restate the paradox of wealth near the end.
- Each letter cites some kind of (non-Stoic) wise-seeming authority near closing.
Some of the items on the list may be elective not necessary. I may have missed something about the 'template' or perhaps emphasized something that is irrelevant to the 'template.' Not all the items on my list are part of the 'recipe' that goes into the 'template.' I am not claiming all of Seneca's Letters adhere to this 'template'; it can evolve/develop as the Letters develop.
Such 'templates', even if not over-strictly adhered to are the (often not-quite-conscious) vehicle that allow bloggers to structure their thoughts and define both a blog-style (and, more subtly, individual styles). In fact, Seneca's template is a clear originator of the one at least some of us rely on at NewAPPS.
Now, once one masters such a 'template' it becomes, of course, a way to communicate one's message(s) very efficiently because it allows one to structure one's thoughts by way of a pre-existing mould which creates 'natural' constraints. (Experienced journal article or sonnet writers will recognize what I am talking about.) Most of the time the 'template' remains invisible, below the surface; it's sub-text, not expressed. But, there is, thus, a mechanics of writing, even frivolous blogs.
* Barnaby Hutchins, Madalina Giurgea, Jo Van Cauter, Laura Georgescu
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