Wishtank
A message from Dan Briggs, Philosopher
by: Dan Briggs
We recently received this mail from our friend Dan Briggs (philosophy author). We wanted to share his ideas and encourage you to write us with any feedback you may have. He poses some important questions that we think you could help us answer. We appreciate interaction of this sort with our readers and authors — consider this an open invitation for dialogue. We will continue to publish your mail through the Editor’s Blog, so know that your voice will be heard.
in love.
Garrett Heaney
e:
••••
hello friend,
nice work on the fromm piece! i recently learned that fromm taught at bennington.
i think this work is very important, and i appreciate you putting the time into tackling fromm’s view. i am in basic agreement with fromm - it is definitely important to call into question the increasingly technological appropriation of human being. however i am skeptical of approaching the problem in terms of ‘systems.’ i’m skeptical not because of the common complaint that the idea of a ‘system’ is too abstract, but rather because it does not seem to be abstract enough.
when the question is about the dehumanization of humanity, or the dominance of calculation over possibilities, we are not dealing with ‘a’ system, but rather with many different prejudices, institutions, and ways of life that, while similar among themselves in many ways, in fact most often DO NOT cohere into a singular, unified system. i do not think that there is a system (or a set of systems) from which we can move outside to attain freedom. for similar reasons i also do not think that we are cogs trapped in a machine. we often talk of ‘the system’ in an apocalyptic manner as a threat or virus that must be contained and wiped away, and we often couple this idea with a method for fixing the problem (i.e. attaining freedom, whether through art, revolution, new humanisms, spending more time outdoors, creating a journal like wishtank, etc.). while i am certainly in favor of all these alternatives and of fromm’s notion of hope, i don’t think that we can reduce these questions to a binary of being free for the future vs. being controlled by the past, or being inside the system vs. being outside it. it is beginning from this suspicion that i pursue my work in philosophy.
i’d like to write about some of this for my next piece for wishtank. given the nature of what wishtank is, i think it would be interesting to bring in Heidegger’s “Letter on Humanism” where he calls into question humanism and humanisms as such, not because Heidegger is some sort of misanthrope, but because these theories do not set the bar high enough for what counts as ‘humanity.’ this piece would be interesting in dialogue with you and Fromm.
i was just spending some time on the website for the first time in a little while, and once again i’d like to say wonderful job to everyone involved. however, one thing that strikes me is that the various headings (philosophy, education, human rights, culture wise, etc.) seem somewhat arbitrary. i don’t mean this as a criticism - i think this is a difficulty involved with all taxonomies and disciplines - but i just wonder whether there is a way for the appearance of the website to reflect its unified mission. then again, as i write this i wonder in what sense we can say that we are unified in our writings, so maybe it’s fine the way it is.
also, after re-reading the mission statement at the top of the page, i agree with every single part of it with only this exception: the idea that “We seek knowledge and beauty everyday because it makes us happier human beings; we share it with you because your happiness is important to us.” Maybe I’ve simply become disillusioned by the American “pursuit of happiness” and this idea that happiness should override everything else, but I wonder whether happiness is the right word here. Does knowledge make us happier? Are we writing to make people happy? Sometimes, but not always. i guess it depends on what we mean by happiness.
also, here’s an updated version of my bio:
Dan Briggs hails from the Northeast Kingdom and currently lives in Bar Harbor, Maine. He is a recent graduate of Bennington College, where he completed a philosophy thesis on Heidegger and the body. “Dan Briggs Live” is a stage production that incorporates poetry, dance, nudity, and tragedy.
much love,
dan
All materials published on wishtank.org are under the shared copyright protection of Wishtank magazine and the original authors, photographers and artists who created them. For contractual reprint or copy permission, contact Garrett Heaney at editor@wishtank.org. Wishtank likes to share, but looks out for our contributors. ©2007 and beyond