What is the largest conflict in every person? Is there an authentic, satisfying answer to it? And what do the conflict and the answer have to do with philosophy—and with one of the most popular songs in the world? Find out in “Philosophy, a Famous Song, & You,” the surprising and great current issue of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.

The commentary by Ellen Reiss begins:

Dear Unknown Friends:

We are serializing the great lecture Philosophy Consists of Instincts, which Eli Siegel gave in 1965. And we publish here too part of a paper by sportswriter Michael Palmer, from a recent Aesthetic Realism public seminar titled “The Mix-up in Men about Coldness & Warmth.”

In his lecture Mr. Siegel explains what no other philosopher has: the biggest conflict in every person, he says, the turmoil that goes on in people every day, corresponds to the largest matter in philosophy:

There is an instinct on the part of everyone to see or be honest; there is also an instinct to be comfortable….Perhaps the best way to see what this conflict is, is to see how it is present in the history of…American philosophy.

The fight between our desire to see, know, give things justice, and our desire to be comfortable, has many forms in everyone’s life. And then, there is what Aesthetic Realism is the philosophy to show—the only way we will be proud, at ease, happy, is to see these opposed desires as deeply the same, as one: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” To comment on that landmark principle and the fight Mr. Siegel speaks about, I’m going to look at a poem which is also an ever so famous song.

On New Year’s Eve

This issue of TRO will appear on the last day of 2014. And that night, men and women throughout the English-speaking world will again sing words Robert Burns wrote in 1788. His poem “Auld Lang Syne” is beautiful. But people have been puzzled; they haven’t really known what it’s about, though they’ve felt it has to do with the past. The Scottish title literally means old long since, and can be translated “Old Times Past.” The poem, sung to an old Scottish melody, begins:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

This is a poem passionately, tearfully, firmly, joyfully against one of the biggest ways people have gone after comfort: the putting of things aside, the making them not matter. The poem is for knowing, seeing meaning. It says, If something of the past had value, you should want to see that value; you should want it to stay with you, be part of you. Read more