Social psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists would not be baffled by this apparent contradiction. Many have long believed that morality is essentially a system of social regulation. As such it is in no more need of a divine foundation or a philosophical justification than folk dancing or tribal loyalty. Indeed, if ethics is just the management of the social sphere, it should not be surprising that as we live in a more globalized world, ethics becomes enlarged to encompass not only how we treat kith and kin but our distant neighbours too.
Tag: 05.22.18
Dance Critic Judith Mackrell Is Leaving The Guardian; Lyndsey Winship Steps In
Mackrell: “Dance has been so very generous to me as a writer, and The Guardian such a fantastic platform, that I feel I’m walking away from my own dream job. But I’ve been doing it for 32 years (nine of them at The Independent before I joined The Guardian) and if it’s time for me to focus on other projects it’s also time to hand the mic to another voice.”
Magazine Puff Pieces Aren’t ‘Puff’ Anymore – Now They’re ‘Power Pieces’
“One hundred years after the puff piece floated into our consciousness, it is being swept aside by a new kind of celebrity profile, developed within a newly engaged culture. It may be no less calculating than its predecessor, but its purpose is the opposite. Rather than meaning nothing, it means everything. The power piece positions itself as the celebrity profile as activism, and sometimes it even succeeds.”
Tom Wolfe’s Notorious Critique Of The Architecture Profession Still Has A Point
“Wolfe was wrong to mock Modernism as purely utilitarian, and to let its worst abuses speak for the entire genre. … What Wolfe got right — and it’s a criticism that still rings true today — is his skewering of what can be an insular, snotty, tone-deaf culture, from the almost religious zealotry of the early days of Modernism to now.”
We Take Fonts For Granted. They’re A Whole Different Proposition In Chinese
The default set for English-language fonts contains about 230 glyphs. A font that covers all of the Latin scripts—over 100 languages plus extra symbols—contains 840. The simplified version of Chinese, used primarily in mainland China, requires nearly 7,000. For traditional Chinese, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the number is over 13,000.
Marcel Proust’s Love Letters To The Composer Who Was His Secret Paramour
“The pair were the cultural beacons of their generation, but their relationship, known in their refined circle, was to remain secret from the public throughout their lives. In his missive, in scrawled and often barely legible handwriting, Proust, then 24, writes: ‘I want you to be here all the time but as a god in disguise, whom no mortal would recognise.'”
Art Community Complains That Nominees For Prize Are All Straight White Males – So All The Nominees Withdraw
“Earlier this month, members of the Belgian art community signed an open letter objecting to the exclusionary selection of artists for [the 2019 BelgianArtPrize] shortlist. … {Now those five artists] contend that the shift in public attention away from ‘artistic discourse or content’ and towards ‘white male privilege’ has undermined the prize and made it impossible for their work to be taken seriously. The withdrawal, they say, is a necessary step ‘in order that the question of art and merit can plausibly be rethought, restored and put back into the equation.'”
Fluxus Artist Geoffrey Hendricks Dead At 86
“The Flux Divorce” – a famous public ceremony he staged with his wife, artist Nye Ffarrabas, to mark their split – “was just one of many adventurous artworks and art events he created or participated in during a career that also included teaching art at Rutgers University for 47 years. Mr. Hendricks literally looked to the heavens for inspiration for some of his art; he was known for paintings of the sky, which he would render on traditional canvases and assorted other surfaces. (A fellow artist, Dick Higgins, gave him the nickname Cloudsmith.) But, like other Fluxus artists, he went far beyond the boundaries of painting.”
How Doctors Learn To Be Doctors… In Humanities
“As a philosophy major in college before medical school, I believe I learned what it means to be a good doctor equally from my humanities classes as from my science classes. Studying the humanities helps students develop critical-thinking skills, understand the viewpoints of others and different cultures, foster a just conscience, build a capacity for empathy, and become wise about emotions such as grief and loss. These are all characteristics that define a good doctor.”
Rambert Premieres Its First Full-Length Story Ballet In Nearly 40 Years
“Choreographer Kim Brandstrup’s new work was inspired by Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 17th-century play [Life is a Dream] about a prince imprisoned in a tower by his father. … Inspired by the play’s themes of ‘the longing for authentic experience, and the need to dream’, the Olivier-winning choreographer has transposed the action to a rundown 1959 rehearsal room.” (photo journal)