Primrose Road

Was thinking today about how contemporary Jewish atheists call themselves humanists, as do many of the (nonetheless brilliant) people involved in the "new" atheism and skeptical movements.

Humanism's too much of a throwback to Enlightenment for me. Not the "scientifically study the natural, reject the supernatural" Enlightenment, but the "only (certain privileged) humans can shed light on what's been kept in the dark" humanism.

"This breaks with the whole philosophical tradition which placed light on the side of spirit and made consciousness a beam of light which drew things out of their native darkness. Phenomenology was still squarely within this ancient tradition; but, instead of making light an internal light, it simply opened it on to the exterior, rather as if the intentionality of consciousness was the ray of an electric lamp ... Things are luminous by themselves without anything illuminating them: all consciousness is something, it is indistinguishable from the thing, that is from the image of light."

-- Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1

Or, enlightenment without human or supernatural involvement:

"Artworks participate in enlightenment because they do not lie: They do not feign the literalness of what speaks out of them."

-- Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory

So "things" are always-already enlightened, minus God, minus anything supernatural, minus privileged human enlighteners.

Progress on the dissertation so far: Thinking = easier; Writing = hard. (Blogging = somewhere in between?)