Epitaph on a Tyrant 4 Aug 2009 Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets. W. H. Auden Philosophy Quotes Quotes
Biology Legal metaphysics of genes 13 Apr 2010 The recent decision in the NY district court against the breast cancer gene patent held by Myriad has many interesting aspects, but one that was brought to my attention by John Lunstroth is that the court engaged in a metaphysical dispute: are genes physical things or information? Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Evolution quotes 25 Apr 2010 A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of a future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest… Read More
Creationism and Intelligent Design The tautology problem 20 Aug 2009 A long time ago I wrote a not particularly good piece on the tautology problem: that natural selection is merely circular definition. I was just out of being an undergraduate when it was published, so it was at best an undergraduate piece. I have been unsatisfied with it ever since…. Read More
Does any Auden specialist out there know this one? My two cents (from memory of unsystematic reading): “Poetry he invented” – Mao was a poet, while Hitler and Stalin were not. Auden visited China with Isherwood in the 30s, well before Mao was in power; but otherwise Auden didn’t pay too much attention to Asia. Auden flirted with authoritarianism at times – the poem in the late 30s mentioning “necessary murder” reflected leftish influence, though Auden was never much of a political animal. I gather Auden eventually disowned that poem, having been heavily attacked about it, by Orwell inter alia. I suspect that in the poem above, Auden was covering his tracks and not referring directly to any tyrant. Neither Mao, Stalin not Hitler had many “senators” to worry about – the poem might just as easily refer to Tiberius (though he too was no poet).
That’s way more than I knew. I just thought it was a metonymous tyrant. But if pushed I would have gone for Julius Caesar. I merely thought it worth bringing up now, for obvious reasons.