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Decidedly lacking in LJ-style angst
"I am bigger and meaner and louder than any other kike in this town."
Created on 2005-11-29 23:51:18 (#8917718), last updated 2009-09-11
627 comments received, 828 comments posted
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278 Journal Entries, 35 Tags, 0 Memories, 20+ ScrapBook Files, 0 Virtual Gifts, 15 Userpics
Basic Info| Name: | Rob Mills |
|---|---|
| Location: | Caerphilly, South Wales, United Kingdom |
BioThis LJ is my personal one, I have placed my more intellectual musings on another blog. Here will be the garbage parts that are left after that is gone. ~You probably won't want to add me if you are after my argumentative side.
I study aesthetics, mainly the ontology of art and am studying towards my Ph.D. at UCL (though I am taking a year out 08-09 to decide whether I want to continue or move into the civil service). I graduated with a First Class Honours degree (eqv. Summa Cum Laude) from Southampton University, specialising in Aesthetics. My undergrad thesis is titled, "The Ontology of Art: A Defence of Platonism" and sought to defend the view that the objects of art are, in fact, Platonic objects similar to mathematical objects in that respect. My Masters thesis is entitled "The Importance of Ontology to Art" and defends the usefulness of ontology to aestheics.
My study will defend the idea that the realist phenomenology of Roman Ingarden can delineate and answer serious questions about the ontology of art. In this sense, I am trying to take some of the methods of Kurt Godel in philosophy of mathematics and reapply them to the ontology of art. I am also interested in metamathematics (I'm a Platonist, obviously), metaphysics (realist), ethics (virtue theorist with a mixture of Utilitarian, rights theorist and deontological concerns in action-based morality) and metaethics (moral realist) as secondary interests in philosophy.
My ultimate aim to is create a fusion of my Platonism with the aesthetics of Roman Ingarden and to delineate the complete structure of art's objects as a means to refuting both subjectivism and, more importantly, postmodernism. I also seek to use this to defend a moderate autonomist/aestheticist position that renders the value of art seperate from moral considerations.
I have an interest in anything that pertains to High European art, especially. All my interests would be too numerous to list here. I find the dramatic and tragic forms stir me to the heights of emotion, Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony makes me weep every time I hear it. I am fond of the films of Tarkovsky, Kubrick, the Coen Brothers, Bergman and Jeunet among countless others. I love the visual form from the Great Masters to the Surrealist works of Kahlo or Giger. Each time I see the wonderful gothic form in the buildings of cities like Oxford, Wincester or London, I am filled with a sense of joy and I enjoy performances from the plays of Shakespeare of Buchner, the operas of Berg or Wagner or the ballets of Prokofiev or Tchaikovsky. The written word stirs my soul, from the literary form of the Iliad or the King James Bible to Goethe, to Proust, to Eliot, to Orwell. Art is the apex and centre of my soul and I wish to devote my life to it. The only thing that trumps the forms of Beautiful, the Tragic and the Sublime is the form of the Good.
(isn't that good, by the by).
My LJ Friends adding policy: Lots of people seem to have this little caution on their pages, so I thought it would be a wise investment to add it to mine. Generally put, if anyone adds me, I will look at their LJ page and their user info and decide whether to add them. I probably will add most people since the sort of people who are going to be interested in me are the sort of people I'd probably be interested in. I'm not paranoid about meeting new people online since I see it as merely another medium of socialising with no inherent risks over more traditional forms (possibly with less, in fact).
Other bits about me: I play roleplaying games and should admit to myself that I'm quite geeky; I drink lots of tea; I love wine and ale; vegetarianism; Aristotelian virtue theory; I'm 70% Apollonian, 30% Dionysian; very big on Italian food and Persian food; I'm atheistic; I was polytheistic, though my belief was somewhat weak in strength and I had a lot of doubts, but I'm a firm supporter of religious realism (the belief that "Apollo" refers to an actual spiritual entity, existent or not, rather than an abstract concept or psychological archetype). I like black comedies; I'm a member of Amnesty International and a former member of Greenpeace (my views on nuclear power and use of genetics differed with theirs). I support a form of libertarianism with some culturally conservative and a few leftist elements, but with emphasis on the libertarianism, rejecting modern liberalism on the grounds offered by conservatives like Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind or Roger Scruton in the last chapter of The Aesthetics of Music.
My central and most important political belief is European federalism, I would say I am actively patriotic towards Europe as a whole (I believe the term "europatriotism" is sometimes used here to describe people like myself) and actively support Britain's adoption of the Euro (as well as any other EU nations), the expansion of the EU to other culturally European nations (i.e. I would support Armenia joining, but not Turkey) and the adoption of more commonly held political structures (the first ones being a constitution and a common foreign policy).
Languages: Welsh, English, Latin and German. I want to learn either Georgian or Maltese next. I want to learn 15 languages by the time I leave this mortal realm. :) I also want to learn French, Italian, Classical Greek, Russian and Czech.
Be well,
Rob.
I study aesthetics, mainly the ontology of art and am studying towards my Ph.D. at UCL (though I am taking a year out 08-09 to decide whether I want to continue or move into the civil service). I graduated with a First Class Honours degree (eqv. Summa Cum Laude) from Southampton University, specialising in Aesthetics. My undergrad thesis is titled, "The Ontology of Art: A Defence of Platonism" and sought to defend the view that the objects of art are, in fact, Platonic objects similar to mathematical objects in that respect. My Masters thesis is entitled "The Importance of Ontology to Art" and defends the usefulness of ontology to aestheics.
My study will defend the idea that the realist phenomenology of Roman Ingarden can delineate and answer serious questions about the ontology of art. In this sense, I am trying to take some of the methods of Kurt Godel in philosophy of mathematics and reapply them to the ontology of art. I am also interested in metamathematics (I'm a Platonist, obviously), metaphysics (realist), ethics (virtue theorist with a mixture of Utilitarian, rights theorist and deontological concerns in action-based morality) and metaethics (moral realist) as secondary interests in philosophy.
My ultimate aim to is create a fusion of my Platonism with the aesthetics of Roman Ingarden and to delineate the complete structure of art's objects as a means to refuting both subjectivism and, more importantly, postmodernism. I also seek to use this to defend a moderate autonomist/aestheticist position that renders the value of art seperate from moral considerations.
I have an interest in anything that pertains to High European art, especially. All my interests would be too numerous to list here. I find the dramatic and tragic forms stir me to the heights of emotion, Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony makes me weep every time I hear it. I am fond of the films of Tarkovsky, Kubrick, the Coen Brothers, Bergman and Jeunet among countless others. I love the visual form from the Great Masters to the Surrealist works of Kahlo or Giger. Each time I see the wonderful gothic form in the buildings of cities like Oxford, Wincester or London, I am filled with a sense of joy and I enjoy performances from the plays of Shakespeare of Buchner, the operas of Berg or Wagner or the ballets of Prokofiev or Tchaikovsky. The written word stirs my soul, from the literary form of the Iliad or the King James Bible to Goethe, to Proust, to Eliot, to Orwell. Art is the apex and centre of my soul and I wish to devote my life to it. The only thing that trumps the forms of Beautiful, the Tragic and the Sublime is the form of the Good.
My LJ Friends adding policy: Lots of people seem to have this little caution on their pages, so I thought it would be a wise investment to add it to mine. Generally put, if anyone adds me, I will look at their LJ page and their user info and decide whether to add them. I probably will add most people since the sort of people who are going to be interested in me are the sort of people I'd probably be interested in. I'm not paranoid about meeting new people online since I see it as merely another medium of socialising with no inherent risks over more traditional forms (possibly with less, in fact).
Other bits about me: I play roleplaying games and should admit to myself that I'm quite geeky; I drink lots of tea; I love wine and ale; vegetarianism; Aristotelian virtue theory; I'm 70% Apollonian, 30% Dionysian; very big on Italian food and Persian food; I'm atheistic; I was polytheistic, though my belief was somewhat weak in strength and I had a lot of doubts, but I'm a firm supporter of religious realism (the belief that "Apollo" refers to an actual spiritual entity, existent or not, rather than an abstract concept or psychological archetype). I like black comedies; I'm a member of Amnesty International and a former member of Greenpeace (my views on nuclear power and use of genetics differed with theirs). I support a form of libertarianism with some culturally conservative and a few leftist elements, but with emphasis on the libertarianism, rejecting modern liberalism on the grounds offered by conservatives like Allan Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind or Roger Scruton in the last chapter of The Aesthetics of Music.
My central and most important political belief is European federalism, I would say I am actively patriotic towards Europe as a whole (I believe the term "europatriotism" is sometimes used here to describe people like myself) and actively support Britain's adoption of the Euro (as well as any other EU nations), the expansion of the EU to other culturally European nations (i.e. I would support Armenia joining, but not Turkey) and the adoption of more commonly held political structures (the first ones being a constitution and a common foreign policy).
Languages: Welsh, English, Latin and German. I want to learn either Georgian or Maltese next. I want to learn 15 languages by the time I leave this mortal realm. :) I also want to learn French, Italian, Classical Greek, Russian and Czech.
Be well,
Rob.
ConnectInterests (150):
adolf wölfli, aeschylus, aestheticism, aesthetics, alban berg, ale, algernon charles swinburne, allan bloom, anais nin, andrei tarkovsky, anna akhmatova, anne sexton, apollonian, architecture, aristotle, arnold bax, art criticism, art history, ballet, baudelaire, benjamin britten, berlioz, bizet, brahms, bruckner, c++, call of cthulhu, cezanne, chekhov, chocolate, chopin, christina rossetti, classical architecture, classical music, confessional poetry, confucius, cubism, cult of beauty, culture, czech folk music, dante gabriel rossetti, decadents, dionysian, dvorak, elitism, emily dickinson, ethical hedonism, ethics, eugene o'neill, euripides, europe, european cinema, film, frederick delius, freedom of expression, frida kahlo, georg büchner, giordano bruno, goethe, gothic architecture, harp, hedonism, hegel, hesiod, hieronymus bosch, high art, hilda doolittle, homer, humanism, ice cream, ingmar bergman, italian food, jean-pierre jeunet, john ruskin, joris-karl huysmans, keats, korngold, linguistics, linux, literary criticism, literary theory, london, louis macneice, mahler, marcel proust, max ernst, metamathematics, modernism, modest mussorgsky, monet, moral realism, musicology, omar khayyam, ontology, open software, open source, opera, orpheus, oscar wilde, ovid, paul dukas, persian food, peter warlock, phenomenology, platonism, poetry, prague, prokofiev, pushkin, ralph waldo emerson, religious art, richard dadd, robert lowell, roleplaying games, romanticism, sappho, schopenhauer, schubert, secularism, sensuality, sexuality, shadowrun, shakespeare, slavic folk music, sophocles, surrealism, sylvia plath, symbolism, synaesthesia, t.s. eliot, tchaikovsky, thomas hardy, unix, van gogh, vaughan williams, vegetarianism, victor hugo, virgil, virginia woolf, virtue theory, voltaire, w.d. snodgrass, wagner, walt whitman, walter pater, werner herzog, william empson, william morris, wine, world of darkness
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