[lbo-talk] singer: darwinian left

ravi gadfly at exitleft.org
Thu Nov 25 15:19:17 PST 2004


Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> Thomas and ravi apparently think Singer has something to say; that he
> has an important message and that his expression of it is persuasive. If
> only people would read him.
>
> Well now, there are only so many hours in the day, you know, and there
> are _so_ many books out there by so many mute, inglorious Miltons, and
> Singer will just have to wait his turn, I'm afraid, unless Thomas and
> ravi can do a better job of making him visible than they have so far.
>
> <...>
>
> But a few weeks ago I "discovered" (scare quotes because I had read the
> poem half a dozen times in the past) Wordsworth's _Prelude_ -- that is,
> I discovered it in the sense that reading it became exciting and
> compelling. I can't imagine Singer having anything to say that would
> make it worthwhile to take time away form mere loafing, from browsing in
> e-mail, or reading and rereading the 1805 Prelude. You've got to make
> Singer more visible ravi than you have so far (and not by quoting from
> him -- I'll skip those).
>

you lost me somewhere around the mention of wordsworth and milton... apologies for my lack of interest in the canon ;-). kidding aside, you are absolutely right: if i want to convince all of LBO, including you, that singer is worth reading, i have to do a better job than i have done thus far. in truth, i may be incapable of doing justice to singer (after all he is prof of philosophy at princeton!). but i would be happy to chip away at the margins of LBO, perhaps get some of the more idle or curious to follow through on my link/suggestion, especially on animal rights (not directly related to this thread). i am assuming it has worked for senor pugliese ;-).

--ravi



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