Taught by Arnold Perey
Spring 2008
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
January 23 • The Scientific Concept of Contempt
The difference between what a thing deserves and what a person gives it, explained Eli Siegel, is one definition of contempt. The contempt principle is new to the social sciences and necessary in order to understand anthropology & oneself.
February 6 • Liking the World: The Evidence from Anthropology
The thing that makes human selves different from other life forms is seeing and caring for the world’s structure of opposites, and showing this in art, science, and in language itself.
Saturday February 23 • Selves and World in a Great Museum
Anthropology class joins THE VISUAL ARTS AND THE OPPOSITES class at the Museum of Natural History (Central Park West @ 79 th - 81 st Street) at 11 AM.
March 5 • Equality, What Is It?
Looking at tribal cultures in Africa, America, and elsewhere—& wealth inequities in the U.S. today—we ask, “What is equality, really?”
March 19 • Good and Apparent Good
When Hamlet questioned the apparent good of avenging his father, did he stand for the best in a human self—in Africa, Asia, Oceania, or Manhattan?
April 2 • Selfishness: the One Thing Seen As Evil in Cultures Worldwide
From the Wall Street Journal: “Trader Made Billions on Subprime. John Paulson Bet Big on Drop in Housing Values” (1.15.08).
April 16 • The Organizing Principle Is Always Aesthetic
Students in the class speak on instances of anthropology, explained by Eli Siegel's Theory of Opposites.
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Resources by Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism. Important, powerful instances of her writing in the fields of literature and the social sciences
- Ellen Reiss on poet Robert Burns: 'I comment on two poems of Robert Burns that are a means of asking, How should jobs and work be in this land?'
- Ellen Reiss commenting on eight poems by Eli Siegel. The collection is titled "The Persistence of Fabric."
- Aesthetic Realism Can End Racism Writing by Ellen Reiss and others : Includes links to not-to-be-missed articles and websites countering racism
- Description by two New York City elementary school teachers of a class conducted by Ellen Reiss, discussing how a child deserves to be seen.
- Ellen Reiss writes on J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, & the Romanticism movement in English literature. How are the ordinariness and strangeness of reality seen by Ms. Rowling?
- Ellen Reiss describes the motive behind unjustly "criticizing" John Keats in 1818 and illuminates why Aesthetic Realism has been seen untruly in our time.
