Dr. Seuss and Philosophy
Page 34
17. Ian Maitland, “The Great Non-debate over International Sweatshops,” Ethical Theory and Business, 6th ed., ed. Tom Beauchamp and Norman Bowie (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001), 593–605.
18. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics III.1, trans. W. D. Ross, classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.3.i.html (May 20, 2010).
19. For a further discussion of the relation between business and the environment see Johann A. Klaassen and Mari-Gretta G. Klaassen, “Speaking for Business, Speaking for Trees: Business and Environment in The Lorax,” in the present volume.
20. For example, W. Michael Hoffman, “Business and Environmental Ethics,” Business Ethics Quarterly 1 (1991), 169–84.
21. Norman Bowie, “Morality, Money, and Motor Cars,” in Business, Ethics, and the Environment: The Public Policy Debate, ed. W. Michael Hoffman, Robert Frederick, and Edward S. Petry Jr. (Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, 1990), 93.
Chapter 17
1. “Every once in a while I get mad. The Lorax . . . came out of my being angry. The ecology books I’d read were dull. . . . I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might.” Jonathan Cott, “The Good Dr. Seuss,” in Of Sneetches and Whos and the Good Dr. Seuss: Essays on the Writings and Life of Theodor Geisel, ed. Thomas Fensch (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997), 118.
2. Joseph R. DesJardins, Business, Ethics, and the Environment: Imagining a Sustainable Future (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2007), 125.
3. See DesJardins, Business, Ethics, and the Environment, 125–29.
4. DesJardins, Business, Ethics, and the Environment, 124–25.
5. DesJardins, Business, Ethics, and the Environment, 124.
6. Mark Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law, and the Environment, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 110–36.
7. Sagoff, The Economy of the Earth, 113.
8. One of the downsides to having a philosopher father is that such seemingly simple questions can prompt long answers . . . or long conversations. One of the upsides of being a philosopher father is that such long answers can, when applied carefully and at the proper moment, shorten the bedtime book-reading obligation considerably.
9. Herman Daly, Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), 28.
10. Adam Jaffe, Steven Peterson, Paul Portney, and Robert Stavins, “Environmental Regulation and the Competitiveness of U.S. Manufacturing: What Does the Evidence Tell Us?” Journal of Economic Literature 33 (March 1995), 133.
11. DesJardins, Business, Ethics, and the Environment, 10.
12. Much of this section is based on the discussion of sustainability from Johann A. Klaassen, “Sustainability and Social Justice,” forthcoming in Responsible Investment in Times of Turmoil, ed. Wim Vandekerckhove, et al. (Springer Verlag).
13. Gro Harlem Brundtland and the World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987). “Development” in this context means economic and social growth: increasing economic activity, to be sure, but also thereby reducing unemployment, poverty, and social inequalities as well.
14. Frank Figge, “Capital Substitutability and Weak Sustainability Revisited: The Conditions for Capital Substitution in the Presence of Risk,” Environmental Values 14, 186. Notice the resemblance between this formulation and the “Lockean” proviso: the requirement that we leave “as much and as good” available for others, if our appropriation of property is to be justifiable. See John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Mark Goldie (London: Everyman, 1689/1924), 128.
15. Herman E. Daly, “Toward Some Operational Principles of Sustainable Development,” in Ecological Economics, Vol. 2, No. 1 (April 1990), 1–6.
16. See, for example, discussions of “social capital” in Donella Meadows, Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development: A Report to the Balaton Group (Hartland Four Corners, Vt.: The Sustainability Institute, 1998), and Joseph Lewandowski and Gregory Streich, “Democratizing Social Capital: In Pursuit of Liberal Egalitarianism,” Journal of Social Philosophy 38 (2007), 588–604.
17. Christopher D. Stone, “Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects,” Southern California Law Review 45(2) (1972), 450–501. Citations here will be made to the latest reprinting, in Christopher D. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality, and the Environment, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
18. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing?, 3.
19. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing?, 8.
20. There is a remarkable coincidence in timing between Stone’s influential article and Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax. Dr. Seuss’s book first hit bookstore shelves on August 12, 1971, according to the official website of Random House and Dr. Seuss Enterprises (www.seussville.com/lorax/). In the introduction to his book, Stone says he had the initial idea for his article in a class in the fall of 1971, had planned out the bulk of the article by October 1971, and published it in the spring of 1972 (Should Trees Have Standing, xiii). Now, we certainly can’t say that Stone got his idea from Dr. Seuss, but it seems odd to find that he has never addressed the similarities, as far as we can tell. In fact, Stone seems to find it strange, even inexplicable, that some of the responses to his article in the academic and public press were written in rhyme. We can’t decide whether Stone’s expressions of perplexity, and his steadfast refusal to talk about Seuss, are meaningful or merely disingenuous.
Chapter 18
1. Jon Agee, “The 500 Cats of Theodor Geisel,” Los Angeles Times Book Review, Book Review Holiday Special Section (December 3, 1995), 22.
2. Monroe C. Beardsley, “Monroe C. Beardsley: An Aesthetic Definition of Art,” in The Nature of Art: An Anthology, 2nd ed., ed. Thomas E. Wartenberg (Belmont, Calif.: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007), 232.
3. Paul Guyer, “The Origins of Modern Aesthetics,” in Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics, ed. Peter Kivy (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004), 20.
4. Beardsley, “Aesthetic Definition,” 232.
5. See Monroe C. Beardsley, Aesthetics: Problems in the Philosophy of Criticism, 2nd ed. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981), 470.
6. Theodor Seuss Geisel, The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss, with an introduction by Maurice Sendak (New York: Random House, 1995), 60.
7. Gary D. Schmidt, “Playing to the Audience: A Critical Look at Dr. Seuss,” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 16.1 (Spring 1991), 41.
8. See Philip Nel, Dr. Seuss: American Icon (New York: Continuum, 2004), 206, note 17.
9. See Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press), esp. chapters 2 and 7.
10. See Danto, After the End of Art, chapter 11.
11. Judith Morgan and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel: A Biography (New York: Da Capo, 1995), 81.
12. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, 82.
13. Quoted in Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, 84.
14. See Arthur C. Danto, The Abuse of Beauty: Aesthetics and the Concept of Art (Chicago: Open Court, 2003), chapter 1.
15. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, 81.
16. Nel, Dr. Seuss: American Icon, 38. Nel reminds us that Seuss believed that his nonsensical verse helped children develop a much-needed sense of humor. Surely, developing a sense of humor might help children develop into moral adults. But Seuss seemed to think developing their moral character was secondary to developing their imaginations, which would enable them to make sense of what Seuss called “this sordid world.”
17. Nel, Dr. Seuss: American Icon, 14.
18. For discussions of the relation between business and the environment and the responsibility of businesses to interests outside of themselves see Johann A. Klaassen and Mari-Gretta G. Klaassen, “Speaking for Business, Speaking for Trees: Business and Environment in The Lorax,” and Matthew F. Pierlott, “It’s Not Personal . . . It’s Just Bi
zzyneuss: Business Ethics, the Company, and Its Stakeholders,” respectively, in the present volume.
19. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, 223.
20. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, 249.
21. If none of the aesthetic theories covered in this chapter appeal to you, I recommend: Noël Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) or Denis Dutton, The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009).
The Menagerie: Author Biographies
Thomas M. Alexander is a professor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is mainly known as a Dewey scholar, but he also teaches classical philosophy and has an active interest in Buddhism and Native American culture. He grew up in New Mexico. His father was also a professor of philosophy, as was his father.
Randall E. Auxier teaches philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He lives with four very creative but temperamental cats and one similarly talented spouse. Only Dr. Seuss could possibly come up with a suitable rhyme for his last name, but he enjoys thinking about what sort of creature might bear the name of a Snauxier.
Henry Cribbs serves on the editorial board for Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry at the University of Tulsa, pens a monthly column for Redstone Science Fiction, and in his spare time publishes poetry about Schrödinger’s cat. He taught logic, ethics, rhetoric, and poetics for several years at the University of South Carolina before deciding he could better corrupt the youth if he taught those subjects to actual youths. Now he masquerades as a high school English teacher somewhere in Oklahoma not very far from Flobbertown, where he forces his students to read Seuss alongside Shakespeare and Sophocles and strives to make every day a Diffendoofer Day.
Anthony Cunningham is professor of philosophy at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He is the author of The Heart of What Matters: The Role for Literature in Moral Philosophy. He works in ethics, with a special interest in literature, and has published in the American Philosophical Quarterly, the Journal of Value Inquiry, Mind, and Ethics. Fortunately, he has never even thought about stealing Christmas, not a bit, not a sliver.
Jacob M. Held is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Central Arkansas. He has written extensively at the intersection of philosophy and popular culture, having coedited (with James South) James Bond and Philosophy: Questions Are Forever (Open Court, 2006) and contributed to volumes on the Beatles, South Park, and Watchmen, to name a few. He has also written more “respectable” academic pieces on topics such as Kant, Marx, obscenity law and free speech, and applied ethics. He currently spends the majority of his time avoiding Hakken-Kraks and Poozers and trying to ignore that there is a 1 and ¼ percent chance he won’t succeed.
Tanya Jeffcoat is an instructor of philosophy at the University of Central Arkansas, where she teaches courses on American pragmatism, feminism, and world philosophies. Her recent writing has focused on John Dewey, ecological individualism, sustainability, and issues in diversity—all of which are currently looking for academic homes. When she’s not dreaming of Truffula Trees, Brown Bar-ba-loots, and Swomee-Swans, she’s trying to convince her students that nothing will get better unless we start caring a whole awful lot.
Johann A. Klaassen is vice president of Managed Account Solutions for, and a member of the Investment Committee of, First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC. He earned a BA in liberal arts (the Great Books Program) from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a PhD in ethics and social philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarly articles have appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Literature, Journal of Social Philosophy, and Journal of Value Inquiry; he has presented papers to international conferences in Helsinki, Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., among others. He is particularly fond of Scrambled Eggs Super-dee-Dooper-dee-Booper, Special de luxe a-la-Peter T. Hooper—but will happily accept a plate of green eggs and ham.
Mari-Gretta G. Klaassen is a student at Palmer Ridge High School in Monument, Colorado, where she focuses her studies on literature and drama. She is coauthor, with Johann A. Klaassen, of “Humiliation and Discrimination: The Role of Shame in the Politics of Difference among the Sneetches of Dr. Seuss.” She does not own, nor does she want, a Thneed.
Dean A. Kowalski is currently an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha. He is the author of Classic Questions and Contemporary Film: An Introduction to Philosophy (2005) and has edited and contributed essays to three popular culture and philosophy books: The Philosophy of The X-Files (2007, paperback 2009), Steven Spielberg and Philosophy (2008), and The Philosophy of Joss Whedon (2011). He has also contributed essays to James Bond and Philosophy, The Philosophy of Martin Scorsese, and Homer Simpson Goes to Washington.
Ron Novy is lecturer in philosophy and the humanities in the University College at the University of Central Arkansas. He has contributed to volumes on Batman, supervillains, Iron Man, Green Lantern, and the forthcoming Spider-Man and Philosophy. Ron teaches a number of seminar courses that begin with the letter “M” and spends much of his time reminding freshmen that philosophy begins with imagination. He grew up on Mulberry Street.
Matthew F. Pierlott is assistant professor of philosophy at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. His research interests center on moral agency, ethical theory, and applied ethics, specifically business ethics. He has become active in philosophy and pop culture literature, contributing to Stephen Colbert and Philosophy (Open Court, 2009) and Fashion and Philosophy (Wiley, 2011). For his contributions to this book he shamelessly employed his young children as research assistants, paying them nothing and keeping them up way past their bedtime.
Benjamin A. Rider is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Central Arkansas. He has written about Plato’s views about moral and philosophical education as well as on other topics in ancient philosophy and applied ethics. He probably spends more time than is healthy examining his life and trying to get others to do the same.
Aeon J. Skoble is professor of philosophy and chair of the Philosophy Department at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts. He is the coeditor of Political Philosophy: Essential Selections (Prentice Hall, 1999), author of Deleting the State: An Argument about Government (Open Court, 2008), and editor of Reading Rasmussen and Den Uyl: Critical Essays on Norms of Liberty (Lexington Books, 2008), and has written many essays in both scholarly and popular journals. In addition, he writes widely on the intersection of philosophy and popular culture, including such subjects as Seinfeld, Forrest Gump, The Lord of the Rings, superheroes, film noir, Hitchcock, Scorsese, science fiction, and baseball, and is coeditor of Woody Allen and Philosophy (Open Court, 2004), The Philosophy of TV Noir (University Press of Kentucky, 2008), and the best-selling The Simpsons and Philosophy (Open Court, 2000). He cannot read with his eyes shut.
Dwayne Tunstall is assistant professor of philosophy at Grand Valley State University. He is the author of Yes, But Not Quite: Encountering Josiah Royce’s Ethico-Religious Insight (Fordham University Press). His academic publications have covered a wide range of topics, including
Africana educational theory, African American philosophy, Gabriel Marcel’s religious existentialism, social and political philosophy, twentieth-century American idealism, transcendental pragmatism, and the teleological suspension of philosophy. Writing about Dr. Seuss is just his current side gig.
Eric N. Wilson is a recent graduate of philosophy and linguistics at the University of Central Arkansas. Prior to working with Jacob M. Held he acted as an assistant editor for STANCE: International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal, deciding to test the waters of academic philosophy firsthand. Most of his time there was spent mulling over papers in epistemology and philosophy of mind. Currently Eric is enjoying a stay in the Waiting Place, but he won’t be there long. He’s just that type of guy.
Table of Contents
Preface
&n
bsp; Acknowledgments
Editor’s Note
Unsettled Meddling: An Introduction in Verse
Chapter One
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The Examined, Happy Life
Chapter Two
My Troubles Are Going to Have Troubles with Me: Schopenhauer, Pessimism, and Nietzsche
Chapter Three
Gertrude McFuzz Should’ve Read Marx, or Sneetches of the World Unite
Chapter Four
Socratic Seuss: Intellectual Integrity and Truth-Orientation
Chapter Five
Neither Here, nor There, nor Anywhere?
Chapter Six
McElligot’s Pool: Epistemology (with Fish!)
Chapter Seven
On Beyond Modernity, or Conrad and a Postmodern Alphabet
Chapter Eight
From There to Here, from Here to There, Diversity Is Everywhere
Chapter Nine
What Would You Do If Your Mother Asked You? A Brief Introduction to Ethics
Chapter Ten
Horton Hears You, Too! Seuss and Kant on Respecting Persons
Chapter Eleven
Pragmatist Ethics with John Dewey, Horton, and the Lorax
Chapter Twelve
The Grinch’s Change of Heart: Whodunit?
Chapter Thirteen
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Bearer of Property Rights
Chapter Fourteen
Rebellion in Sala-ma-Sond: The Social Contract and a Turtle Named Mack
Chapter Fifteen
Whose Egg Is It, Really? Property Rights and Distributive Justice
Chapter Sixteen