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Introduction

Lawrence Danson

in Wilde's Intentions: The Artist in his Criticism

This introductory chapter explains the theme of this book, which is about Oscar Wilde's essays on aesthetics contained in his book enentitled Intentions, which was published in London, England in May ... More

This introductory chapter explains the theme of this book, which is about Oscar Wilde's essays on aesthetics contained in his book enentitled Intentions, which was published in London, England in May 1891. These essays include ‘The Decay of Lying’, ‘The Truth of Masks’, and ‘Pen, Pencil, Poison’. This book treats Intentions as a complex of personal attitudes, social affiliations, and cultural effects through which we can locate where Wilde tried to locate himself in the tumultuous world of late Victorian England. It provides facts about the essays' composition, publication, and reception.Less

Intentions

Lawrence Danson

in Wilde's Intentions: The Artist in his Criticism

This chapter analyses the contents and message of Oscar Wilde's Intentions, which it considers an indicator of cultural positions and attitudes. It compares what Wilde and the reviewers said about ... More

This chapter analyses the contents and message of Oscar Wilde's Intentions, which it considers an indicator of cultural positions and attitudes. It compares what Wilde and the reviewers said about the book. The chapter attempts to locate the essays' place in Wilde's social strategies and suggests that the fractured structure of the book is comparable to the discontinuities Wilde's work explores at the level of individual personality.Less

Directing Intentions

John Perry

in The Philosophy of David Kaplan

Kaplan finds demonstratives puzzling. He offers only one theory of indexicals; once the right distinctions are made, the facts about the semantics of indexicals are “obvious and incontrovertible.” ... More

Kaplan finds demonstratives puzzling. He offers only one theory of indexicals; once the right distinctions are made, the facts about the semantics of indexicals are “obvious and incontrovertible.” The case is otherwise with demonstratives. He says at the end of his discussion in “Afterthoughts”: “There is something I'm not understanding here, and it may be something very fundamental about the subject matter of logic.” This chapter develops a version of Kaplan's Directing Intentions Theory and argues in its favor, and indicates how this version might help with the logical problems that vex Kaplan.Less

Origins: Myth and History

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter examines the origins of the Gathering of Intentions, both historical and mythical. It includes discussions of the authorship of the tantra and the system of transmissions (brgyud pa ... More

This chapter examines the origins of the Gathering of Intentions, both historical and mythical. It includes discussions of the authorship of the tantra and the system of transmissions (brgyud pa gsum) within which the work’s myths are understood.Less

The Gathering of Intentions in Early Tibetan Tantra

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter looks at the place of the Gathering of Intentions within the larger development of tantric Buddhism and Nupchen Sangyé Yeshé’s late ninth-century Tibetan commentary, the Armor against ... More

This chapter looks at the place of the Gathering of Intentions within the larger development of tantric Buddhism and Nupchen Sangyé Yeshé’s late ninth-century Tibetan commentary, the Armor against Darkness.Less

The Spoken Teachings

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter looks at the early Zur tradition, the twelfth-century founding of Katok monastery by Dampa Deshek, and the consolidation of the Spoken Teachings (bka’ ma) canon of the Nyingma School.

The Rise of the Sutra Initiation

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter traces the development of the Sutra Initiation (Mdo dbang) tradition through a series of increasingly elaborate ritual manuals dating from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.

Dorjé Drak and the Formation of a New Lineage

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter reveals the political motivations behind the construction of a new lineage for the Sutra Initiation tradition by the seventeenth-century master Dorjé Drak Rikdzin Pema Trinlé. Central to ... More

This chapter reveals the political motivations behind the construction of a new lineage for the Sutra Initiation tradition by the seventeenth-century master Dorjé Drak Rikdzin Pema Trinlé. Central to the chapter are the political involvements of the Northern Treasures (byang gter) tradition and the Fifth Dalai Lama’s rise to power.Less

The Mindröling Tradition

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter examines the rise of the Mindröling tradition, with a particular focus on the ritual systems of the Spoken Teachings and how the brothers, Terdak Lingpa and Lochen Dharmaśrī, worked to ... More

This chapter examines the rise of the Mindröling tradition, with a particular focus on the ritual systems of the Spoken Teachings and how the brothers, Terdak Lingpa and Lochen Dharmaśrī, worked to consolidate the Nyingma School around their new monastic tradition.Less

Returns to the Origin

Jacob P. Dalton

in The Gathering of Intentions: A History of a Tibetan Tantra

This chapter looks at the development of the Gathered Great Assembly (Tshogs chen ’dus pa) in eastern Tibet and its role in several twentieth-century attempts to revive and preserve the ritual ... More

This chapter looks at the development of the Gathered Great Assembly (Tshogs chen ’dus pa) in eastern Tibet and its role in several twentieth-century attempts to revive and preserve the ritual traditions of the Gathering of Intentions.Less

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies and of Remaking Aestheticism

Michèle Mendelssohn

in Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Aesthetic Culture

Widely perceived to be an aesthete-for-hire, Oscar Wilde's purpose in the late 1880s and early 1890s was to shed this image and develop his own aesthetic ideals. One of the ways he did this was quite ... More

Widely perceived to be an aesthete-for-hire, Oscar Wilde's purpose in the late 1880s and early 1890s was to shed this image and develop his own aesthetic ideals. One of the ways he did this was quite literally by putting things between boards. As a result, Wilde transformed himself into a real artist and a professional man of letters. He also reinvented Aestheticism in the process. This metamorphosis was due in no small part to his clashes with the painter James McNeill Whistler, as well as with Henry James. Wilde's systematic assimilation and reformulation of their views suggests that plagiarism and appropriation were integral to Aestheticism's evolution. This chapter explores how Wilde redeveloped Aestheticism through a programmatic assault on Whistler and James. Examined through the lens of his evolving artistic philosophy, Intentions and The Picture of Dorian Gray unequivocally testify to his intention to remodel Aestheticism and to make it over in his own image.Less

The School of the Future as well as the Present: Wilde’s Impressions of James in Intentions and The Picture of Dorian Gray

Michèle Mendelssohn

in Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Aesthetic Culture

From the mid-1880s to the early 1890s, Oscar Wilde transformed himself into a ‘real artist’ and reinvented Aestheticism in the process by developing an artistic method that was strongly informed by ... More

From the mid-1880s to the early 1890s, Oscar Wilde transformed himself into a ‘real artist’ and reinvented Aestheticism in the process by developing an artistic method that was strongly informed by his debate with James McNeill Whistler. This chapter reveals that at the same time as Wilde was combatting Whistler, he was also energetically engaged with Henry James. Wilde undervalues the degree to which he and James both adhere to a fictional interpretation of the impressionism Walter Pater advocates in The Renaissance. By repeatedly refining and reforming his impression of James and Whistler, Wilde developed a stronger sense of his own artistic ethos and, by the time he came to write The Picture of Dorian Gray in the autumn of 1889, he had successfully defined an aesthetic approach that incorporated and aimed to supersede that of both James and Whistler. This chapter also discusses Wilde's impressions of James in Intentions.Less

Introduction

Sebastian Rosato

in Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict

This chapter begins by explaining that the question of whether or not great powers can be confident that their peers have benign intentions is of enormous importance in both the real world and in ... More

This chapter begins by explaining that the question of whether or not great powers can be confident that their peers have benign intentions is of enormous importance in both the real world and in international relations theory. In a nutshell, confidence causes peace and uncertainty causes security competition with the potential for war. The chapter then addresses the intentions question in three ways. First, it briefly describes a theory—intentions pessimism—that says great powers can rarely if ever be confident that their peers have benign intentions, because it is extraordinarily difficult for them to obtain the requisite information. Second, it argues that intentions pessimism matches up well with the historical record, and specifically, that it offers a compelling explanation of how great powers have actually thought about each other’s intentions over the past 150 years. Third, it applies intentions pessimism to the future of great power politics, predicting that the United States and China will each be uncertain about the other’s intentions, which will, in turn, cause them to compete for security and perhaps go to war.Less

Intentions Pessimism

Sebastian Rosato

in Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict

This chapter outlines a theory called intentions pessimism. It begins by describing the information problems that confront states seeking to divine each other’s intentions. The first problem is that ... More

This chapter outlines a theory called intentions pessimism. It begins by describing the information problems that confront states seeking to divine each other’s intentions. The first problem is that it is particularly difficult for a great power to access firsthand information about another state’s current intentions, that state’s actual ideas about how it intends to behave. The second problem is that although great powers can acquire information about each other’s declarations, interests, and actions, all of which are related to its intentions, this secondhand information is unreliable, which is to say that it is consistent with both benign and malign intent. The third problem is that states cannot access firsthand information about each other’s future intentions, while secondhand information on the matter is especially unreliable. The chapter then argues that given the inextricable link between information, on the one hand, and certainty and uncertainty on the other, these problems of access, reliability, and the future virtually preclude great powers from being confident that their peers have benign intentions, or more simply, from trusting them. Indeed, they typically cause states to be acutely uncertain about each other’s intentions. The chapter concludes by exploring the effects of uncertainty on great power politics.Less

Against Optimism

Sebastian Rosato

in Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict

This chapter evaluates intentions optimism, the view that great powers can, under certain conditions, obtain the kind of information that would allow them to estimate the intentions of their peers ... More

This chapter evaluates intentions optimism, the view that great powers can, under certain conditions, obtain the kind of information that would allow them to estimate the intentions of their peers with confidence. The first argument holds that there are some situations in which states can access firsthand information about each other’s intentions. The next three arguments contend that secondhand information about state’s intentions—evidence of their declarations, interests, and actions—can, on occasion, be a reliable guide to how they intend to behave. The fifth argument maintains that even if single clues are only marginally informative, multiple clues can, in combination, be a dependable indicator of a state’s intentions. The final argument deals with the future and contends that knowledge of how a great power intends to behave today can serve as reliable secondhand information about how it will intend to behave in the future. An evaluation of these arguments reveals that they are logically and empirically flawed. Intentions optimists have greatly exaggerated the odds that states can access firsthand information or acquire reliable secondhand information about each other’s current and future intentions. Hence, it is almost impossible for great powers to trust each other.Less

The Bismarck Era

Sebastian Rosato

in Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict

This chapter examines German-Russian relations during the Bismarck era (1871-90). The bulk of the chapter draws on the primary and secondary historical record to evaluate how key German and Russian ... More

This chapter examines German-Russian relations during the Bismarck era (1871-90). The bulk of the chapter draws on the primary and secondary historical record to evaluate how key German and Russian decision makers thought about each other’s intentions in the periods before and after the formation of the First Dreikaiserbund, the Congress of Berlin, the creation of the Second Dreikaiserbund, and the making of the Reinsurance Treaty. Were they confident that their counterparts had benign intentions—that is, did they trust each other—as asserted by intentions optimists? Or were they uncertain about each other’s intentions, which is to say that they mistrusted each other, as suggested by intentions pessimism? Having shown that Berlin and St. Petersburg were far from confident that the other side had benign intentions throughout the Bismarck era, the chapter concludes by describing the shape of the resulting German-Russian security competition.Less

The Great Rapprochement

Sebastian Rosato

in Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict

This chapter examines Anglo-American relations during the great rapprochement (1895-1906). The bulk of the chapter draws on the primary and secondary historical record to evaluate how key British and ... More

This chapter examines Anglo-American relations during the great rapprochement (1895-1906). The bulk of the chapter draws on the primary and secondary historical record to evaluate how key British and American decision makers thought about each other’s intentions in five episodes: the onset and aftermath of the crisis over Venezuela; the events surrounding the Spanish-American War; the negotiations regarding a trans-isthmian canal; the inception and resolution of a dispute over the Canada-Alaska boundary; and Anglo-American relations in the Far East between the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese Wars. Were they confident that their counterparts had benign intentions—that is, did they trust each other—as asserted by intentions optimists? Or were they uncertain about each other’s intentions, which is to say that they mistrusted each other, as suggested by intentions pessimism? Having shown that London and Washington were acutely uncertain about each other’s intentions in each episode, the chapter concludes by describing the shape of the resulting Anglo-American security competition in the Western Hemisphere, before examining Britain’s decision to quit that contest in 1904-6.Less

The Early Interwar Period

Sebastian Rosato

in Intentions in Great Power Politics: Uncertainty and the Roots of Conflict

This chapter examines Franco-German and U.S.-Japanese relations in the early interwar period (1919-30). The chapter begins by drawing on the primary and secondary historical record to evaluate how ... More

This chapter examines Franco-German and U.S.-Japanese relations in the early interwar period (1919-30). The chapter begins by drawing on the primary and secondary historical record to evaluate how key French and German decision makers thought about each other’s intentions, focusing on these episodes: the negotiation, signature, and aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles; the onset, development, and resolution of the Ruhr Crisis; and the Locarno era. Were they confident that their counterparts had benign intentions—that is, did they trust each other—as asserted by intentions optimists? Or were they uncertain about each other’s intentions, which is to say that they mistrusted each other, as suggested by intentions pessimism? Having shown that Paris and Berlin were far from confident that the other side had benign intentions throughout the early interwar period, the chapter then describes the shape of the resulting Franco-German security competition. The second half of the chapter repeats the analysis performed in the first half, this time with respect to the United States and Japan, focusing on the following episodes: the aftermath of World War I; the creation and operation of the Washington Treaty system; and the three years between the Geneva and London Naval conferences.Less