Reith Lectures

[DracoM]

Anybody listening?

[doversoul1]

The philosopher and cultural theorist Kwame Anthony Appiah says the idea of "Western civilization" or "Western culture" is a mistaken one and that we should abandon it.
He uncovers the history of the idea from its roots at the time of the Crusades to its modern incarnation in the second half of the 20th century. However, we have very little culturally in common with our forebears in say the England of Chaucer's time. And indeed much of the knowledge supposedly at the heart of Western civilisation was actually transmitted via Islamic scholarship. No-one, he argues, can claim exclusive ownership of culture. "The values European humanists like to espouse belong just as easily to an African or an Asian who takes them up with enthusiasm as to a European," he says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081lkkj

I didn’t listen (I’ll try later) but is the speaker suggesting that we should also abandon the ideas of say, Islamic civilisation or Eastern civilisation? Or is it just Western one he has an issue with?

However, we have very little culturally in common with our forebears in say the England of Chaucer's time

This I suppose depends on what culture he is talking about.

No-one, he argues, can claim exclusive ownership of culture

.
Does anyone?

[Serial_Apologist]

I've tried listening, I really have, not making it beyond the first ten minutes of any lecture. This series is all just too dry, full of commonplaces and heavy going, leaving no impression (on me) of attempting to engage on a subject which should be gripping in these disturbed times.

[DracoM]

Thank Goodness, S-A, it's not just me.
Today's felt like 'my 20 best Google Conclusions.'
And the tone of voice - sublime self-assured - 'this is the way it is, so wise up, dimboes.'

[teamsaint]

the assumption of certainty where doubt clearly remains is really not a very good thing.

Way too prevalent in TV documentaries, IMO.

[Tony Halstead]

the assumption of certainty where doubt clearly remains is really not a very good thing.

Way too prevalent in TV documentaries, IMO.

Agreed.
Did any boarders hear and remember the 1987 and 2006 Reith Lectures, by Alexander Goehr and Daniel Barenboim repectively?

Both of them were, IMV, models of their kind.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Did any boarders hear and remember the 1987 and 2006 Reith Lectures, by Alexander Goehr and Daniel Barenboim repectively?
Both of them were, IMV, models of their kind.

The Goehr talks are available on the radio i-Player in six half-hour episodes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h196j

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h194k

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h193q

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h192k

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h191k

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h18yf

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Ooh! As are the Barenboim talks (five three-quarter-hour episodes, each recorded at a different goegraphical location with audience Q&A sessions):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gm361

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gm37g

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gm38k

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gm39y

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gqwcp

[Beef Oven!]

Can’t wait to get my ears on the Goehr talks - many thanks Tony & ferney

[Serial_Apologist]

I missed the Goehr lectures, so am most grateful for your posting, ferney.

[doversoul1]

It may be my prejudice but I couldn’t help feeling that the speaker was feeding into consensus and enjoying an act of giving a lecture rather than trying to communicate something that mattered to him . I thought this after listening to a Goehr’s talk. With Goehr, you could almost hear his brain working as he talked, which made you/me listen every word very carefully.

[kernelbogey]

I've tried listening, I really have, not making it beyond the first ten minutes of any lecture. This series is all just too dry, full of commonplaces and heavy going, leaving no impression (on me) of attempting to engage on a subject which should be gripping in these disturbed times.

Those who may be interested in his ideas may find his Long Read article in The Guardian more accessible (I haven't yet read it so can't promise).

[Serial_Apologist]

It may be my prejudice but I couldn’t help feeling that the speaker was feeding into consensus and enjoying an act of giving a lecture rather than trying to communicate something that mattered to him . I thought this after listening to a Goehr’s talk. With Goehr, you could almost hear his brain working as he talked, which made you/me listen every word very carefully.

In another talk he gave Goehr spoke of the "density of information" being one of the key characteristics that made Bach, Beethoven and Schoenberg the great composers that they were; and "density of information" certainly constituted the contents of his texts in those wonderful lectures from 1987. In listening I found myself marvelling at the ease with which he lays out the complex interleaving of the issues in his subject matter, often needing to stop the narrative to go back and catch precisely what it was he'd just then said.

[Serial_Apologist]

Those who may be interested in his ideas may find his Long Read article in The Guardian more accessible (I haven't yet read it so can't promise).

Hmmm - I still find there's something opaque and impenetrable about the guy's way of thinking or presenting what he has to say; but thanks anyways, KB.

[doversoul1]

Hmmm - I still find there's something opaque and impenetrable about the guy's way of thinking or presenting what he has to say; but thanks anyways, KB.

Well, if someone spends all these words talking about something he says doesn’t exist…. What are we supposed to understand?

(seriously)
The values of liberty, tolerance and rational inquiry are not the birthright of a single culture. In fact, the very notion of something called ‘western culture’ is a modern invention
by Kwame Anthony Appiah

These two sentences only make connection (sense) by assuming that liberty etc. are monopoly (or original inventions)of western culture. He obviously does (assume), and I assume that he assumes that everybody else does (assume). Phew...