Dante and usury article

Simon Ravenscroft, “Usury In The Inferno: Auditing Dante’s Debt To The Scholastics,” Comitatus: A Journal Of Medieval & Renaissance Studies 40 (2011) 89-114.

Can be viewed HERE 

Abstract:

There is a close connection between Dante’’s portrayal of usury in the Inferno and wider scholastic argumentation on the subject. Reading Dante’’s account in light of the scholastic critique of usury reveals a conceptual depth and clarity to the former which has, in the absence of such a reading, remained unfortunately opaque. Dante’’s treatment is informed by three of the four main scholastic arguments against usury, which are cen- tered around the themes of the nature and purpose of money, the relation between labor and a just recompense, and the medieval vision of society as an harmonious whole. Each of these themes are weaved by Dante into his poem in a range of diverse ways, yet the final (social) element is arguably a unifying factor. In this regard, his account of usury can be read in continuity with other critiques of ‘‘bad commerce’’ which are in evidence throughout the Inferno.

Muse feat. The Edge, Glastonbury 2010

U2 obviously cancelled their much-hyped Glastonbury appearance this year due to Bono’s dodgy back. And by all accounts, their replacements (Gorillaz) didn’t quite live up to the billing. However, The Edge DID make a guest appearance on Saturday night with Muse, to play Where The Streets Have No Name. Not a complete consolation, but a pretty impressive performance:

More Joseph Arthur

More genius:

Joseph Arthur Solo

The idiosyncratic, indie genius Joseph Arthur – beloved of critics, largely unknown by the populace – is apparently in the middle of his first solo tour for some time in the States. This guy is an artistic luminary (as well as an incredibly innovative musician, he is a reasonably successful painter, and a poet), and has been for some time top of my list of favourite performers, largely because, despite his undoubted genius, he remains largely obscure and little known (other than one or two well-known pieces). In this sense, he seems to me like a modern-day William Blake… or something like that.

Anyway, here are couple videos from some recent solo performances. For those not in the know, Arthur uses pretty complex looping techniques when he plays without his band, which are kind of stunning when you first see them. I’ve messed about with looping devices myself, and while they’re great when you get it right, they’re not easy to use, which makes Arthur’s effortless precision even more impressive. On the second video below, also, Arthur sets up some loops, and then proceeds to complete a (quick) painting while singing, which was to be sold after the gig to raise money for Haiti relief. Enjoy!

“Too Big To Fail”? Nothing Changes

Compare this, by Frankfurt School economist/philosopher Friedrich Pollock, writing in 1941:

“Today many enterprises in industry and banking have grown so gigantic, that no state power, no matter how liberally it behaves (this is within the terms of reference of laissez-faire economics), can stand by and witness their downfall. Above a certain size of capital, the enterprise may continue to claim the profits for itself, but the risk is unrolled [passed on] to the mass of tax-payers, since its collapse would bring about the most severe consequences – both for the body economic and the political situation”.

_{cited by David Held in Introducing Critical Theory, p.57}

… to this, cited by Wolf in 2009:

“In a recent speech, governor Elizabeth Duke of the Federal Reserve told an anecdote from just after the failure of Lehman Brothers last September. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, was asked, “Well, what if we don’t do anything?” To which he replied: “There will be no economy on Monday”.”

_{from Goodchild, here, p.1}

…and finally to this:

“What is wrong with the global financial system is that it threatens us with a live and devastating weapon: the possibility of its own implosion.

…Major financial institutions are at once players within the financial system as well as conditions for the survival of the system: this is why taxpayers have been forced to offer a free insurance policy to underwrite them. It is a matter of economic survival, not of political ideology. [Thus] the financial crisis is apocalyptic in the ancient biblical sense: it is a disclosure of underlying powers. Political decisions have been shaped by economic forces. Far from a return to state sovereignty over economic affairs, the current crisis discloses the submission of the state to economic forces”.

_{ibid. pp.1-2}

January Recommendations

Who doesn’t like recommendations?? Eh? Who? No-one. So, even in the midst of piles and piles of books, here are some for you from me:

Florence & The Machine – Lungs

Review here

Listen here

Soul-tinged, bluesy alt-rock. Lyrically interesting. Highly recommended by U2. Music the wife and I can agree on.

Sufjan Stevens – The BQE

Review here

Listen here

His first classical album. Some excellent tracks. Number three sounds quite like Satie. Being received well in the ‘classical community’ apparently.

•

Philip Goodchild – The Exceptional Political Theology of St. Paul – PDF here
Fine article, if a bit rough around the edges, arguing for the exceptionality of Paul’s political theology, in conversation with recent atheist treatment from the likes of Badiou, Žižek and Agamben.

Philip Goodchild – What Is Wrong With The Global Financial System – PDF here
Another good one, Goodchild giving his diagnosis of our ongoing economic troubles, and arguing that a more radical solution than simply “better regulation” is required to fix them. Actually offers quite a bleak outlook.

•

The Radical Orthodoxy Reader (Oliver & Milbank)

Details here

Love it or hate it, and people do, this is an absolutely stunning introduction to all things radically orthodox. Articles by Milbank, Pickstock, Ward and Cavanaugh. Lucid introductions to each section by Simon Oliver.

.

Democracy & Tradition – Jeffrey Stout
Details here / Preview here
Interesting discussion of the place of traditioned communities in liberal democracies, contra Rawls et al on one side, and Macintyre et al on the other. Interprets democracy as itself a tradition, and suggests a mode of genuine ‘conversation’ is achievable in liberal discourse without any notion of ‘public reason’. Not entirely convinced, but an interesting read.

AND FINALLY

Dr. Samuel Johnson’s fabulous Twitter Feed

link here

I’m not a fan of Twitter, but this alone has made me glad it exists. Witty 18th Century commentary on 21st Century news and culture from writer of renowned dictionary. Here are a few gems from the last few days:

“In England, Snowfall & Society do proceed in Lock-Step: one Inch of Snowfall does equate to one Day of SOCIAL COLLAPSE”

“He who wishes to brush the Cloak of Mortality should brake in Herr AUDI’s Prussian Carriage ‘pon an icy Highway”

“Mister JOBS descends from Cupertino brandishing a TABLET unto the same Adulation as MOSES descending from Mt. SINAI”

The Year In Lists…

The Guardian is running a feature where they sum the year up through various lists. By far the best is this one “by” Dr. Samuel Johnson, the 18th Century English writer and critic, famous as the author of the finest dictionary of his day. Dr. Johnson has done a wonderful job with this little summary of the year, made-up of pithy olde Englishe one-liners from his Twitter feed. My favourites include:

✒ Tis the Fashion for the Dandy to stride around dress’d as a Hudson Bay Lumber-Jack, wielding a Man-Bag in place of an AXE

✒ Celebrated Trollop Miss JORDAN and unremarkable Hellenic Troubadour Mister ANDRE separate in Publick, just as they met, lived and FORNICAT’D

✒ The League of Champions is ‘pon us: has Almighty GOD carv’d Mister Wayne ROONEY’s Face from a POTATO?

✒ After the Appt. of Sir Alan SUGAR as Govt. Emissary, I beseech that militaristick Actor Ross KEMP should be Secretary for WAR

✒ Glastonbury (n.) Farmer’s Field wherein OAFS enact the Battle of Marston Moor accompany’d by Musick & OPIATES

✒ Great Alarmum greets the Govt’s Swinish-Flu Hotline, whereby Hystericks can procure Patent-Medicine thro’ BESEECHING & LYING

✒ X Factor: another Saturday ruin’d by Tear-stain’d Orphan-Protector Mister Louis WALSH & his Retinue of singing URCHINS

Charlie Brooker on Cultural Drought

I enjoy most of what Guardian TV critic Charlie Brooker writes, mainly because he’s able, with the ease of a fish in water, to make a complete mockery of the banal and empty-headed nonsense frequently thrust on the general public by ratings-hungry, money-grabbing television executives under the rubric of “entertainment”. He is also very witty. Very witty indeed. The article below is worth reading, though, for anyone who lives in Britain and owns a television, because I think, underneath the jokiness, Brooker’s actually made quite a serious point about our cultural impoverishment, as exemplified in prime-time TV shows like the X Factor:

<CLICK HERE>

(Sadly I cannot say that I don’t watch the X Factor – I often do, though not every week. Indeed, I sometimes even enjoy it. But if I enjoy it, I enjoy it like one enjoys picking one’s nose and eating it, or scratching oneself and having a sniff – you know, in a kind of debased way. Usually after “enjoying” the X Factor, I want to go and sit in a cellar and drink cheap wine for fifty years until my liver gives out and I slowly, painfully slip into death. It is the kind of vicarious, voyeuristic enjoyment that makes actual lived life seem pointless and empty; that rather than filling life up, kills it, and leads one to live as if already dead. Well, I suppose that’s an exaggeration, but only just).

On Righteous Anger – or, The Internet As Seventh Circle Of Hell

It still irritates the heck out of me when I hear someone say something, seemingly from a place of authority, which is either quite patently false, or with which I utterly disagree. This irritation tips over into mild fury when it concerns a topic in which I fancy myself (sometimes in error, I admit) to be reasonably well versed. The mitigating factor when face-to-face, is that one can look the person in the eye and remember that they, like oneself, are just finite flesh and blood, with a family, and bodily functions, and probably some measure of decency.

This mitigating factor dissolves when such interactions occur on the internet, when one finds oneself in the presence of nothing but letters on a screen – and often quite stupid letters, forming even more stupid words, forming idiotic sentences. On these occasions, there is little chance of calming the fires of one’s righteous anger; indeed, if a picture of the individual in question accompanies these sentences, in light of the nonsense they have just spouted, the picture will take on an overall resonance of ignorant smugness… the general result being a profound impulse to want to punch the picture in the face.

Just such an occasion presented itself this morning while I was perusing Facebook, and it ruined my breakfast. I learnt a while ago that the internet is awash with idiocy, and have elected not to hang around on sites or blogs that represent perspectives on life that I deem to be obviously stupid for too long. Facebook is different, however, insofar as one’s “friends” views (whether on statuses, notes or whatever else) rather invade one’s personal (albeit virtual) space (that is, one’s “news feed”). When those views are disagreeable, they reveal themselves as an army of marauding barbarians who wish to rape and pillage the righteous townspeople of one’s mind. It seems plain wrong to let such things lie.

I have, however, learnt that it usually makes things worse to enter into a dialogue, and so I am getting into the habit of refraining, mainly for my own sanity and mood. I have learnt that I become a bad husband when I do otherwise. Nonetheless, I tried and failed to refrain from commenting this morning. As expected, my comments only made matters worse, and I have again learnt my lesson. This a formal withdrawal on my part, therefore, from frontline combat-against-internet-related-idiocy. The job of policing such intellectual crimes will have to be left to someone with more patience. I have retired.

(I am aware that my own views probably irritate people too. The difference, of course, is that I’m right).

Music, Books, Beverages (3rd Edition)

I haven’t done one of these lists for a while (since March 8th apparently), so here’s a new, slightly longer one.

What I’ve Been Listening To:

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
REM – Accelerate
U2 – Zooropa
Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Jeff Buckley – Grace

What I’ve Been Reading:

Kierkegaard – Repetition & Either/Or
Ivan Illich – The Right To Useful Unemployment
George MacDonald – Fairy Stories
Michel Henry – I Am The Truth
David Held – Introduction To Critical Theory

What I’ve Been Drinking:

An unusual amount of tea, often with a few ginger biscuits
Bodegas Salado Fina Blanca Paloma – a dry white sherry (well, technically a fortified wine ‘cos of the region, but that’s being fussy), which my sister & brother-in-law brought back for me from Spain
Dry ginger ale, again in unusual quantity
Rock Mild – the best mild I’ve ever had, brewed locally in Nottingham
Courvoisier VS – a standard, but very nice, cognac

“The God Delusion made me ashamed to be an atheist”

It’s quite often noted that Dawkins and the rest of the fanatical “New Atheists” are not very highly thought of by more ‘reasonable’ atheists. Given that Dawkins has never come across to me as anything other than a complete idiot, however, I still find it fun to read what they have to say about him… if simply as evidence that my own opinion of him is not solely due to my theistic bias, but may actually be because he is – ontologically – an idiot.

As such, I offer the following article at The Guardian, by atheist philosopher of biology, Michael Ruse:

“Dawkins et al bring us into disrepute“

Enjoy!

Wild Beasts

Another music tip. Saw this northern band for the first time on Later w/ Jools Holland on Friday night; then watched their performances back a couple times on the iPlayer; then looked for their album on iTunes and found it for £4 (astonishingly cheap), and snapped it up. They won’t be everyone’s “cup of tea” (whatever the heck that means… surely an old colonial English phrase, as it kind of presumes the “cup of tea” is universally adored and represents heaven-come-to-earth for absolutely everyone. Anyway…), but once you click into what they’re doing, their stuff becomes pretty interesting. So far (about 6 tracks through the album), I like them.

This is one of the tracks they did on Later. The best part is where one of the other artists on the show, Maxwell, is briefly shown doing a little jig, with a rather funny smile on his face. Enjoy.

Antony & The Johnsons @ Abbey Road

To my shame, even though he won the Mercury Prize all the way back in 2005, I’ve only just got round to listening to Antony & The Johnsons. Even that happened purely by chance when he and his current band turned up on the Channel 4 show Live at Abbey Road last Friday. Within a few days of being blown away while watching that, however, I had familiarised myself with most of his back catalogue, and decided that he was a musical genius – a modern day Bach.

Now, I’m pretty fussy about my music. There are a lot acts I like, but only about four or five that I truly love. The members of this prestigious latter category are distinguishable by the fact that, in spite of hours and hours of listening, I have never grown bored or indifferent to their music (or lyrics) and, even after the hundredth or so listen to a particular track, in it still hear something new and fresh and interesting. I have a sneaking suspicion that Antony & The Johnsons may eventually sneak into this category, as his music has a transcendental quality and a melodic and harmonic richness that seems unlikely to get old. This is only a hunch, though, as I could hate him in a few weeks.

Here’s one of the tracks from Abbey Road:

Sartre: Phenomenology as Re-enchantment

To know is to burst toward…

To be is to fly out into the world, to spring from the nothingness of the world and of consciousness in order suddenly to burst out as consciousness-in-the-world. When consciousness tries to recoup itself… it destroys itself. This necessity from consciousness to exist as consciousness of something other than itself Husserl calls “intentionality”.

Knowledge, or pure representation, is only one of the possible forms of my consciousness “of” this tree; I can also love it, fear it, hate it, and this surpassing of consciousness by itself that is called “intentionality” finds itself again in fear, hatred, and love. Hating another is just a way of bursting forth toward him; it is finding oneself suddenly confronted by a stranger in whom one lives, in whom one suffers from the very first, the objective quality “hateful”.

So it is that all at once hatred, love, sympathy – all these famous “subjective” reactions which were floating in the maladrous brine of the mind – are pulled out. They are merely ways of discovering the world. It is things which unveil themselves to us as hateful, sympathetic, horrible, loveable. Being dreadful is a property of this Japanese mask, an inexhaustible and irreducible property which constitutes its very nature – and not the sum of our subjective reactions to a piece of sculptured wood.

Husserl has restored to things their horror and their charm. He has restored to us the world of artists and prophets: frightening, hostile, dangerous, with its havens of mercy and love. He has cleared the way for a new treatise on the passions which would be inspired by this simple truth, so utterly ignored by the refined among us: if we love a woman, it is because she is loveable […] We are… delivered from the “internal life”: in vain we would seek the caress and fondlings of our intimate selves… like a child who kisses his own shoulder, since everything is finally outside, everything, even ourselves. Outside, in the world, among others. It is not in some hiding-place that we will discover ourselves: it is on the road, in the town, in the midst of the crowd, a thing among things, a man among men.

_{“Intentionality: A Fundamental Idea Of Husserl’s Phenomenology”
In: The Phenomenology Reader, pp.382-384}