Renée, protagonist of Le Herisson, or The Hedgehog (2009), reads in her hidden research. “Renée is a mannequin of the mental life as I perceive it”
*
On this installment of Starting Out in Philosophy, I considered chatting with Zena Hitz. I learn her guide Lost in Thought earlier than I left for faculty final summer time. Her writing helped me to grasp why schooling felt like an inalienable a part of my life that excited me and confirmed the way in which to new worlds. However on the time, I didn’t understand how a lot her pondering ran in opposition to the tradition of many studying establishments, equivalent to my very own.
*
Katherine: Thanks Zena for doing this interview with me. I’m excited.
I first need to ask, What drew you to studying? I additionally know you left educational work for a time to affix a non secular group. What made you come back?
Zena: In a manner I used to be born into studying. Studying was simply what we did. I used to learn on the bus and hold studying as I walked down the road. My household favored to speak about large questions, typically in a foolish manner, however typically significantly. That stated, it by no means occurred to me to enter a “studying career”, so to talk. I favored theatre, music, pictures, and politics. These have been the sort of issues I dreamt about doing as I grew older.
By probability I ended up attending a summer time program for highschool college students at St. John’s College in Annapolis. I fell in love with the place and utilized in the summertime to attend within the fall. My freshman yr I wrote an essay on Oedipus Rex, and it turned out to be a tremendously thrilling expertise. At that time I found a deeper stage, the place studying rigorously might be a manner to consider the deepest questions. From then on, I believe, I used to be fairly properly hooked on the lifetime of the thoughts.
I believe there’s a deep want for the sort of studying in practically everybody. It’s a part of being a human being. However individuals have to be uncovered to others who be taught and take into consideration the deep questions, to these practices and habits. That isn’t computerized, and over time it has develop into increasingly more tough.
After I got here to Madonna House, the non secular group the place I lived for 3 years, I knew that I might be disadvantaged of mental exercise in sure methods. However I by no means conceived of giving it up for good — I knew I couldn’t try this. I saved in search of methods to combine studying, studying, and research into the group’s mode of life. That integration was onerous, as a result of in precept it was potential, however the realities of the group at the moment made it not potential, at any charge, not on the extent I needed.
I went there after a time of actual alienation from skilled educational life. I used to be a philosophy professor, however it wasn’t the lifetime of the thoughts I had found as a freshman. I knew that I wanted a change, however couldn’t see what it was. And group life because it was lived at Madonna Home was very enticing to me. After a number of years, I noticed that I couldn’t keep in the neighborhood beneath the situation of long-term mental deprivation. On the similar time, I noticed that if I went again to St. John’s, to my outdated school, I may escape the alienation I had suffered beforehand and reside a life that was extra targeted on the basics of educating. I may go on the habits that I realized there as a youngster. In order that’s what I did, and what I nonetheless do.
Katherine: Thanks for that reply, Zena. It’s great to listen to extra about your curiosity as a youngster—and it’s one thing that I can relate to, attempting to be taught a little bit of philosophy.
St. John's Faculty ca. 1994, when Zena was a junior; Katherine’s highschool commencement in Cleveland’s Severance Hall
Zena: I need to ask you a query! Did you first study philosophy in center or highschool? In that case, your story of discovering and practising philosophy early on is encouraging. Did you first study it whereas in school? In that case, it is extremely discouraging! Philosophy just isn’t a interest — it is part of a human life. Extra of a component for some, much less for others, in fact. However think about if somebody instructed you, “I by no means knew there was such a factor as music, however it turned up on my Instagram feed, and now I actually prefer it!” Or artwork. Or sports activities. Or being outdoor. There are human actions that we assume each younger particular person ought to have publicity to. However today, mental life — studying, pondering, considering — just isn’t certainly one of them.
Katherine: I used to be fortunate. I had brilliant buddies and a few academics who had the time and care to discipline questions unrelated to our programs, unrelated to something, actually. That cultivated an surroundings of studying and of fascinated about the world that I used to be glad to be part of. I assume I had some concept that I used to be enthusiastic about philosophy, so I started to study it from studying articles on-line. A lot later I might be a part of digital dialogue teams.
Zena: It’s so attention-grabbing that you simply say that the introduction to studying got here outdoors of your programs! It looks like all of us have to know that studying is absolutely gratuitous, off the crushed path, to fall in love with it.
One factor I fear about in our technological surroundings is the flip facet of certainly one of its virtues. It’s very straightforward — unimaginably straightforward — to get data: historic details, vocabulary, names and dates, fundamental accounts of scientific phenomena. Now, I like data as a lot as anybody does. However it isn’t actually studying. At finest, it’s a begin to studying, or a complement to it.
The core of studying is seeing the place data comes from, and making one’s personal judgement about it. For instance: We learn the Iliad at St. John’s; it’s the primary guide in our curriculum. The freshmen usually usher in or ask about “details” concerning the historical past of the interval. They don’t appear to appreciate that texts are one of many main assets for data concerning the previous. There aren’t unsourced determinate details concerning the previous floating on the market in house. Sources must be interpreted. Typically, we interpret the archaeological file, however for essentially the most half, individuals determine what Homeric Greece was like from Homer’s poems! Actually they’re the very best place to begin studying about it.
One other instance: the dictionary. It’s a traditional student-paper transfer to start with a dictionary definition. However the place do dictionary definitions come from? They arrive from individuals all of the other ways a selected phrase is used, in print and in speech, and making a judgement about which meanings are major. It’s a very good train simply to suppose by means of the methods you use a selected phrase– or go searching and pay attention for different makes use of — and make a judgement for your self. It gained’t have the authority of the dictionary definition– once more, the sources are restricted — however it’ll prepare you to consider how phrases imply.
Understanding the place data comes from is rather more necessary than any given piece of data. Most of all: we’ve got to grasp the function of judgement. We’re terrified today of exercising judgement on issues of truth. However it’s needed in each discipline of human data. If we need to truly perceive what we’re doing, we’ve got to discover ways to train judgement ourselves and observe others making judgements and seeing what their choices have been.
Worry of creating judgements and passive reliance on pre-fabricated data leaves us susceptible to manipulation. Whichever facet of the American political spectrum you’re on, you suppose the opposite facet is manipulating data or being manipulated by it. Have you ever thought-about that each side is perhaps proper? Terrifying, eh?
A St. John’s Annapolis classroom, the sort Zena teaches in; St. John's former college widespread room
Katherine: After I realized about philosophy in early highschool, not often was it by means of philosophical texts! I used to be sixteen after I first picked up certainly one of Plato’s dialogues, the Crito, which I discovered within the library of my college. That was the primary textual content of philosophy that I actually tried to interpret. However already by then, I believed I knew all about Kant and Spinoza and Marx, simply because I had learn articles on-line about them. Maybe I wasn’t exercising my judgement very a lot, so I wasn’t pondering all that deeply or actually studying, within the full and delightful manner that’s potential. I believe I might’ve been receptive to that kind of inquiry—after I expertise it in school, I run towards it.
Zena: I believe that the reality is that tons and plenty of individuals like to learn and take into consideration large questions, only for its personal sake. The sense during which the follow is marginalized isn’t precisely lack of curiosity. The issue is lack of institutional help. Since Okay-12 colleges train to requirements today, they don’t have the leisure to let a guide be a guide. The guide has to develop into speaking factors. So I believe it’s actually fairly widespread to complete even a reasonably good secondary schooling with out having truly learn a complete guide, and definitely with out having learn for pleasure or at leisure. Come school, most individuals really feel beneath strain to begin careers. If a scholar occurs to not really feel that strain, the truth is, their school will think about it necessary to make them really feel it. Even St. John’s employees and college are beneath strain to place our college students beneath extra strain to arrange for careers! It’s potential that that is responding to an actual want, however I believe that a part of it’s simply groupthink and administrator-think.
Katherine: I’ve been in awe of the Catherine Project you started, which gives small tutorials and studying teams with instructors to individuals from all walks of life, freed from cost. How does this determine in?
Zena: Studying and finding out and studying require group. All of us need assistance to learn all however the easiest books or to check all however the easiest matters. So the Catherine Mission is supposed to fill the hole, within the easiest way potential, between what all these individuals need to do and what our establishments are prepared to supply for them.
Katherine: I’m glad you identified that we’d like others to assist us get by means of onerous texts. I’ve been drawn to group life currently, which appears to be a manner to withstand pre-professional pressures and a tradition of ambition that corrodes people. We convey our studying and our experiences, and collectively we work by means of the issues and questions that matter to us. That is what I anticipated college life to be like, truly.
“I took the primary photograph throughout my job at Widener Library. Most days, I'm given an inventory of books to seize that folks have requested, and there’s usually greater than sufficient time for me to learn a number of pages of every one. I additionally benefit from the feeling of being surrounded by texts, typically deep underground. Different components of the job embody sorting books to be put again on the cabinets or ensuring that folks have the “correct” kind of college ID to enter the stacks. The second picture is of my good friend’s dorm room window. On Thursdays, a bunch of us would collect for ”Philosophy Evening" right here. We would chat about what we have been studying or questions we've got, and other people would usually stand on the window and draw diagrams on it with erasable markers.” - Katherine
However I need to ask a query about studying in solitude, one thing you explored in Misplaced in Thought. How can solitude, and maybe even withdrawal from the world, assist us be part of a human group? What sort of group is that this?
Zena: I to start with need to say that I don’t need to be too fastidious about how individuals discover their manner into studying, philosophically or in any other case. Typically (for me, a minimum of!) it’s pretension or needed to win at one thing whenever you’re unhealthy at sports activities! The necessary factor is that there be a manner into the true factor — choosing up the Crito out of your college library is ideal. That’s why group and establishments matter a lot — to ensure that there’s a manner ahead for individuals who begin, in order that they don’t simply skate round on social media with out actually fascinated about one thing.
As for solitude and withdrawal: I believe in some traditions these are ends in themselves. I, the person, stand alone within the face of God or the reality or who I actually am or my core values or what have you ever. What I’m alone, in these traditions, is who I actually am. I put my emphasis in a different way. Solitude does matter for its personal sake, however it’s in the end for the sake of engagement, for group.
The essential a part of withdrawing from the world is withdrawing from the house of social competitors. We are likely to outline ourselves by our place on the social ladder. That may be a job in my household: the favourite, or the black sheep. Or it may be a job in the highschool cafeteria: the jock, the nerd, the wealthy child, the poor child. Or it may be our job, our social function. Everyone knows that jobs are implicitly ranked: nobody aspires to be a taxi driver or to work the register at McDonalds. But, the low-ranked jobs usually matter extra– much more– to different individuals than the high-ranked ones! Feeding individuals or serving to them get to locations is rather more necessary than creating demand for a ineffective shopper product. However you get cash and status from the latter factor — typically rather a lot!
"For me, pictures of the Virgin Mary on the Annunciation are essentially the most lovely expressions of solitude. She at all times has a guide -- typically many books. Her considerate and reflective thoughts is the sacred focus of the pictures." Masolino, ca. 1425 (source); Merode Altarpiece, ca. 1425 (source); Filippino Lippi (source).
To get in contact with actual items, with issues that basically assist others and nourish our personal flourishing, we have to draw back from the nexus of social competitors. Now I used to be very hooked on status, as a youngster. I couldn’t think about my life with out it, regardless that I knew intellectually it couldn’t be that necessary. I did all the things I may to interrupt myself from it: volunteering in jail, dwelling in a boardinghouse, praying rather a lot. Nothing labored. That’s why I needed to stop my job (on the time) and reside in a monastery. Now I used to be trying to reside within the monastery for good — I wasn’t pondering of it as a short lived change. However because it occurred, what I actually wanted was a number of years away from my status behavior, a number of years of dwelling as a easy human being amongst different easy human beings. I wanted to make use of my freedom to stop my job and make a radical selection, in order that I may really feel in my bones that I used to be at all times free to stroll away. And that’s how I’ve been ever since. I discerned out of the group, and got here again to show at St. John’s. And naturally, sarcastically sufficient, I’ve additionally launched a profitable profession as a author. However I do know now in my bones that if I see it isn’t serving to, if I see it’s not healthful anymore for myself and others, I can stroll away. I can do one thing else.
It’s true that this type of freedom is a privilege that not everybody can take. If I’d had little youngsters at house, or ageing mother and father that wanted help, I might have had to consider my duties earlier than strolling away from a very good wage or advantages. However I consider that essentially the most essential sorts of freedom are inner and can be found to anybody. I may need needed to keep in my job, after which I might have had the extra daunting problem of detaching its actual worth from its superficial rewards whereas nonetheless inside it. I might have needed to discover one other lifestyle with out having time away from all the things. However it may have been finished, and it may be finished. We don’t at all times have a selection, however we at all times have extra selections than we predict we do.
That’s what withdrawal or solitude imply to me: they’re areas the place one can suppose clearly, face oneself, take inventory of 1’s life. You’ll be able to carve out a little bit of time to do nothing every single day; or take lengthy walks, for those who can; or spend a while in a group, which I extremely advocate to anybody who has the chance to do it.
Now you requested about group, and right here I’ve gone on and on about withdrawal. One facet of group I’ve touched on is figure. Work — actual work, work that results in flourishing — serves others. The perfect sorts of service are person-to-person. That’s what makes us blissful: seeing that our work advantages others and realizing the individuals whom it advantages. If our work is on too massive a scale, as most educational and educating work is, it gained’t make us blissful.
One other facet of withdrawal and solitude is dignity. My social function just isn’t my actual worth, whether or not it’s excessive or whether or not it’s low. My actual worth is unconditional, based mostly on my capability to suppose and to like. If I don’t know my very own dignity, I can’t see it in others both. So actual friendship and actual love, in addition to actual work, require attending to know one’s actual self. That requires solitude, withdrawal, areas which are free from promoting, competitors, distraction, diminishment, and drudgery. These solitary areas aren’t at all times comfy. They make us antsy and even depressed. But when we don’t sit by means of it, little by little, we’ll by no means know our personal dignity or what we actually care about most.
The farm at Madonna Home, Combermere, Ontario; the cemetery at Chapel Level, Maryland, a view that Zena loves; Philosophy Evening in Harvard Yard
*
The final instances I’ve written to you, reader, I expressed anger on the injustice current in my college. I’ve additionally talked concerning the pressures to supply work and to succeed that forestall significant engagement with our communities—and with our personal lives. Alongside many others, I’m eager for the world and my college to be in any other case.
I’ve reached towards the follow of chores and labor on one other’s behalf as a solution to navigate my college life. However the resolution doesn’t appear to be sufficient but, maybe as a result of it’s such a minor resistance within the face of one thing so massive. With my buddies, I’m nonetheless looking for a solution to navigate Harvard, as individuals who try to be justice-minded and who search knowledge. Typically, we take into consideration what it means to navigate this place in any respect.
I’m meaning to take day off from college to offer extra time to those questions. Perhaps I’ll discover the beginnings of a solution.
Now, I’m in the midst of last exams, having fun with (most) moments of exhilarating studying earlier than I return to Ohio. Regardless of the issues of the college, there are scintillations of one thing that can make it onerous to depart this summer time and subsequent yr. Zena helped to offer me phrases to precise what that one thing is perhaps, and the way I could lean into it throughout my day off.
~
That is an installment of Into Philosophy.
Katherine Cassese
Katherine Cassese research at Harvard Faculty. Katherine has taught philosophy courses to center college college students, and her philosophical writing seems in Questions: Philosophy for Younger Individuals, the Cleveland Review of Books and Environmental Ethics, with Jeremy Bendik-Keymer, and in a forthcoming edited quantity for pre-college philosophy college students with Royal Fireworks Press. Katherine is grateful that, for her highschool years, she was capable of finding and develop up in close-knit, self-critical communities at Laurel College in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and on the College for Ethics and International Management in Washington, D.C. At the moment, Katherine sees a deep relationship between her philosophical pondering and the political work she engages in, and she or he intends that her pursuits may contribute to resistance in opposition to colonial, racial and different types of violence and oppression that she sees in these United States and elsewhere.
