You may have noticed that music has been sounding more chilled out recently, with softer voices, slower tempos, and fewer instruments. From famous artists like Taylor Swift to background music for working and studying to, chill vibes are all around us. But Robin James argues that chill isn’t just a style, it also has political implications. Chill music creates a mood that helps us be more effective at work, allowing us to manage our state of mind for maximum productivity even as our working lives become ever more precarious.
Tag: philosophy
Life experiences can transform us in many ways, and Laurie Paul wants us to appreciate how experiencing works of art can be powerfully transformative too. Works of fiction can change how we understand our own lives going forwards, or experiences we’ve already had. But art doesn’t always transform us for the better – when we truly open ourselves up to transformation, we can’t know in advance, or ultimately control, what the results will be.
We tend to think of literature as something that’s written down. But Martin Puchner is interested in cases where the spoken word precedes, coexists with or even comes after the written word. From Ancient Greece to medieval Mali to Stalinist Russia, he explores why certain literary artists have preferred speech to writing. By understanding why and when these artists relied on speech, Martin argues that we can better appreciate their written works too.
You might not think writing style matters in philosophy. But Kwame Anthony Appiah – a professor of philosophy who’s also a literary scholar – argues that style is crucial for understanding almost all the great philosophers. He shows how a single strange sentence from the American philosopher Quine unsettles our familiar sense of the world. In contrast, French philosopher Montaigne’s humble style underpins his open-minded thinking. Anthony guides us through the rewards of reading philosophy as a kind of literature.