Etcetera: scale and indifference. Issue 7 (9th August 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Etcetera: scale and indifference. Issue 7 (9th August 2019)
- Main Title:
- Etcetera: scale and indifference
- Authors:
- Aquilina, Aaron
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: Starting from a NASA infographic which inadvertently highlights how we often understand cosmic objects solely in comparison to Earth and its occupants, this essay foregrounds the idea of human insignificance as one often associated with thoughts about the scale of the universe. Indeed, when looking up, scale seems to go on forever: planet, solar system, galaxy, and on eternally, etcetera. In order to examine this issue, the present argument takes the seemingly oblique route of looking at poetry, specifically Don Paterson's 'Scale of Intensity', so as to expound three issues: (i) whether 'scale' and its hierarchies are best understood epistemologically or ontologically; (ii) how certain literary and philosophical works (particularly in terms of nihilism and eliminative ontologies) address the conjoint problems of scale and insignificance, this mostly through a rumination of the philosophical term ' sub specie aeternitatis '; (iii) and, finally, whether feelings of insignificance necessarily entail ones of indifference. In its concluding movement, this essay looks to Sextus Empiricus's particular reading of indifference, ultimately turning also to Albert Camus's 'The Myth of Sisyphus', which is here understood as offering a rejoinder to the seemingly incommensurable arguments on whether the human race ultimately matters, or not.
- Is Part Of:
- Textual practice. Volume 33:Issue 7(2019)
- Journal:
- Textual practice
- Issue:
- Volume 33:Issue 7(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 33, Issue 7 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 7
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0033-0007-0000
- Page Start:
- 1087
- Page End:
- 1105
- Publication Date:
- 2019-08-09
- Subjects:
- Scale -- indifference -- insignificance -- universe -- Don Paterson -- sub specie aeternitatis -- Sisyphus
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Criticism -- Periodicals
Criticism, Textual -- Periodicals
Semiotics -- Periodicals
801.95 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtpr20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0950236X.asp ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/0950236X.2017.1422795 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0950-236X
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 8813.780460
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 11350.xml