D.D. Raphael

[Philosophy Now]

The moral and political philosopher D.D. (David Daiches) Raphael died just before Christmas – a month short of his 100th birthday. Shortly before his death, he spoke to Gideon Calder about what more than eighty years in philosophy involves.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/112/DD_Raphael

[Ansiktsburk]

Reading of the education and working life of Dr. Raphael i just feel so JEALOUS.
Had a friend in school who went to some college in Oxford, so he went there too.
Read humanistic stuff for four years. *drool*
Spent a working life basically as an esteemed Philosophy professor.

Ok, he might have beaten at home, bullied at school, have had all kinds of depression and illnesses. Whatever. But to have a career like that is for me, who was born with that kind of interests, and excelled in school in humanistic subjects, but still took a path that was supposed to lead to a "steady job" - a wet dream!
My parents didn't even have to convince me. Everyone around me took steady jobs, either directly after scool, or possibly iafter an education that lead to, as Elton John sad, "Lawyer or a Doctor or a Civil Engineer".

Ok, I might have been born as a christian in central Iraq, or as a child somewhere in Africa where no rain falls. I have done much better. But still, I wish I could have fine tuned the choice of parents a little more. Working and later lower middle class background is not what sets you up for a career like that...

Is that the same everywhere? I grew up in a tough suburb to a town that is considered big in this barren part of the world, I now live in a university town, where a lot of my neighbours have careers like Dr. Rapahaels. And there is only ONE of my friends who have done the trip from working class to become a doctor in a humanistic institution at the university. The kids around here, including mine, are wondering "what to do with their lives", and well, we didn't do that where I grew up (Even when the family moved from the block-of-flats to a semi-detached house in a nearby area). We were going to get a job and earn money and that was it.

People around here say that "classes don't exist anymore". I say they do. The guys living in the block-of-flats I can see from my bedroom window would die for a working life like mine. And I would die for a career like that of Dr. Raphael.

[Arising_uk]

Class is back stronger than ever in the UK but instead of breeding it's about wealth and education. Take a snapshot of the Arts and you will see only the privileged there now and boo-hoo they have it so hard,

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... ey-freeman

No more working-class 'heroes'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU

[tbieter]

Class is back stronger than ever in the UK but instead of breeding it's about wealth and education. Take a snapshot of the Arts and you will see only the privileged there now and boo-hoo they have it so hard,

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... ey-freeman

No more working-class 'heroes'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU

Downton Abbey ended last Sunday evening. I watched every episode. My favorite character was http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Phyllis_Baxter Baxter, a maid, played by Raquel Cassidy. I thought that the moral character that she portrayed was that of the natural aristocrat.
The natural aristocrat exists in every society and in every class.
Obviously I disagree with your opinion on class.

[Arising_uk]

Downton Abbey ended last Sunday evening. I watched every episode. My favorite character was http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Phyllis_Baxter Baxter, a maid, played by Raquel Cassidy. I thought that the moral character that she portrayed was that of the natural aristocrat.
The natural aristocrat exists in every society and in every class.

What does the phrase even mean?

The American has long been the largest audience for such guff, Downtown Abbey was very clever but basically a soap dressed-up in period costume.

Obviously I disagree with your opinion on class.

Did I give an opinion? Or is it that you think there are no classes in your's or mine's society? If the latter then I think you in error and my opinion about it is not that it's bad per se but that the inequalities are becoming unbearable. Have you read Stiglitz's report upon your society? Not pretty reading and by-and-large applies to mine as well. Did you know that for the past three to four decades the pay of the working-class has not risen at all and that the middle-class are being beggared even though productivity has gone up, whereas the rich have made themselves vastly better-off by making sure all the profit has gone to them. Ronnie Raygun and the Chicago economic school have been thoroughly discredited as the rich have not trickled-down the benefits at all, in fact they have made sure that the wealth flows upward ever faster. All this bodes ill for society as you can tread on people for just so long until they turn to extremist solutions and currently that appears to be fascism and fundamentalist religion at present.

[Ansiktsburk]

Class is back stronger than ever in the UK but instead of breeding it's about wealth and education. Take a snapshot of the Arts and you will see only the privileged there now and boo-hoo they have it so hard,

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... ey-freeman

No more working-class 'heroes'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU

Downton Abbey ended last Sunday evening. I watched every episode. My favorite character was http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Phyllis_Baxter Baxter, a maid, played by Raquel Cassidy. I thought that the moral character that she portrayed was that of the natural aristocrat.
The natural aristocrat exists in every society and in every class.
Obviously I disagree with your opinion on class.

What then is your opinion on class? That classes don't exist?

[tbieter]

Class is back stronger than ever in the UK but instead of breeding it's about wealth and education. Take a snapshot of the Arts and you will see only the privileged there now and boo-hoo they have it so hard,

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... ey-freeman

No more working-class 'heroes'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU

Downton Abbey ended last Sunday evening. I watched every episode. My favorite character was http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Phyllis_Baxter Baxter, a maid, played by Raquel Cassidy. I thought that the moral character that she portrayed was that of the natural aristocrat.
The natural aristocrat exists in every society and in every class.
Obviously I disagree with your opinion on class.

What then is your opinion on class? That classes don't exist?

No, classes do exist and always will because people differ in their motivations and capacities. Dalrynple's book describes the underclass in the U.S. and in the U.K. A fascinating book. Interestingly, Rish Limbaugh claims that the Democratic Party needs an underclass and the Party's policies facilitate the satisfaction of this need.

[tbieter]

Downton Abbey ended last Sunday evening. I watched every episode. My favorite character was http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Phyllis_Baxter Baxter, a maid, played by Raquel Cassidy. I thought that the moral character that she portrayed was that of the natural aristocrat.
The natural aristocrat exists in every society and in every class.

What does the phrase even mean?
Abraham Lincoln was a "natural aristocrat." This article explains the concept:
http://www.firstthings.com/article/1990 ... ristocracy

The American has long been the largest audience for such guff, Downtown Abbey was very clever but basically a soap dressed-up in period costume.

Obviously I disagree with your opinion on class.

Did I give an opinion? Or is it that you think there are no classes in your's or mine's society? If the latter then I think you in error and my opinion about it is not that it's bad per se but that the inequalities are becoming unbearable. Have you read Stiglitz's report upon your society? Not pretty reading and by-and-large applies to mine as well. Did you know that for the past three to four decades the pay of the working-class has not risen at all and that the middle-class are being beggared even though productivity has gone up, whereas the rich have made themselves vastly better-off by making sure all the profit has gone to them. Ronnie Raygun and the Chicago economic school have been thoroughly discredited as the rich have not trickled-down the benefits at all, in fact they have made sure that the wealth flows upward ever faster. All this bodes ill for society as you can tread on people for just so long until they turn to extremist solutions and currently that appears to be fascism and fundamentalist religion at present.

[/b]

[Arising_uk]

... Interestingly, Rish Limbaugh claims that the Democratic Party needs an underclass and the Party's policies facilitate the satisfaction of this need.[/color]

Then he's a republican idiot as it's Capitalism per se that needs an underclass, so both your parties require such a thing.

You want to read about the English working class then "The Making of the English Working Class" by E. P. Thompson is the book.

Your 'natural aristo' is and was produced over here by wealth and education, nothing natural about them. That people have differing capabilities I don't disagree but it needs circumstance to shine.

[Arising_uk]

No, classes do exist and always will because people differ in their motivations and capacities. ...

But do they need to be antagonistic or is that the result of the particular economic system and scarce resources?