A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. —Carl Jung
This may not be the most appropriate first post (perhaps an introduction would be in order), but this has been on my mind and I think this will serve as a fair overview of some of the guiding philosophy to Spiritus cum Spiritu.
The Oxonian Review recently conducted an interview with Marx scholar Terry Eagleton. In it, he laments the state of Academia and gives a bit of advice to young critics:
It’s not a good time to be in the universities… I only have an oblique relationship to academia, as you know, now that I’m semi-retired, but even when I did, when I was thoroughly in the belly of the beast, I did try to hold the role of public intellectual. That is very important. Not that everybody can be an Edward Said, or Habermas. But that’s what we need, and even more deeply and rigorously given the almost utter assimilation of academia into capitalism.
Emphasis mine. Spiritus cum Spiritu could serve as a public space outside of academia for deep thinking. Perhaps as a ‘salon’ or metaphysical club where big ideas are discussed and debated. Perhaps as a refuge outside of the mainstream capitalist academy for critics and philosophers. Ideally these thoughts would not be cloistered in academic journals but shared with and used by the demos. Over a glass of whiskey, of course.
