Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Sancho Stanza, Don Quipolis, and Lady Dulcisophia

If we take the three branches of thought that the school offers: Philosophy, Literature, and Politics and compare their uses and functions, what relation can we find between them? It seems Literature is the worldly wise servant to both, the Sancho Panza or Samuel Weller to Pickwick Politics and Lady Philosophy, for literature makes efficacious the will of these, and though they may make pronouncements in their own straightforward style, it is Literature that is trusted to play diplomat to the masses. Politics is a chambered lord, forever concerned with wills; the will of the people, the will of the government, will the crops fail? will there be riots? will there be justice? will there be war? Lady Philosophy turns politics head of course, deciding who the people are, what a government is, why there are crops, the horror of riots, the necessity of justice, and the reasons for war. It is Lady Philosophy who knows the truth of things, and keeps this truth holy;Lord Politics must see how best to apply these truths.
Each of the three is impotent or infertile with out the others. So are you a diplomat, a law giver, or ...what? cleric?