Interview with the author of "why We are in Need of Tails." Iguana Books, Toronto, Canad

Eckstrand, Nathan

Tillmanns, Maria daVenza

English

PhilPapers

5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 1 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/ Recently Published Book Spotlight   How to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza TillmannsRecently Published Book SpotlightHow to do ‘Jazzy Philosophy’: AnInterview with Maria daVenzaTillmannsby Nathan Eckstrand and Maria daVenza TillmannsMay 7, 2020 0!APABlack Issues in PhilosophyBlog AnnouncementsCOVID-19Diversity and InclusivenessGraduate Student Council (GSC)Issues in PhilosophyMember InterviewsPhilosophy in the Contemporary WorldPublic PhilosophyRecently Published Book SpotlightResearchServiceTeachingTeaching and Learning Video SeriesWomen in PhilosophyWork/Life BalancePOSTS YOU MAY ENJOYAbout Topics  Submissions Newsletter Journal Surveys APA APA Connect5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 2 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/Maria daVenza Tillmanns does philosophy with children in an underserved school inSan Diego. She says of her work, “Doing philosophy with young children is like paintingwith ideas, giving us a fuller and richer sense of their world. Philosophy is no longer grey,but bursting with color.” This interview focuses on her most recent work, Why We Are inNeed of Tails (which was illustrated by the award-winning Blair Thornley). The bookdiscusses how to build meaningful relationships; you can learn more about it here.What is Why We Are in Need of Tails about? Why did you decide to write it?The story is about the need to reconnect to others, the world around us, and ourselves.We have become too susceptible to empty rhetoric and others telling us what to thinkand do. The influence of advertising is overwhelming in ways we might not even beaware of.  Increasingly, we have more reasons to distrust rather than trust each other.49 Days: Thinking Creatively,Living Creatively COVID 19 is closing down so much of the world'sactivities. I teach at Montclair State University. Ourdoors are shut and most classes...COVID-19Christopher Parker - May 6, 2020A Neurophilosophy ofLegitimacy in Nationaland Global PoliticsResearchCall for Nominations:2020 Prize for Excellencein Philosophy TeachingAPA  APA Member Interview:Avi AppelMember Interviews5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 3 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/And if we trust, it often takes on the form of blind trust. We want to have blind trust andbecome cynical if we feel betrayed. How can we learn to trust again but with our eyeswide open instead of closed? How can we feel we belong to the world trustingly yetwisely? Huk and Tuk show how we can find ways to reconnect and develop meaningfulrelationships.  Relationships we can build on in a constructive and creative way, opento change and integrating the wonders of being alive.I had been writing articles based on my work doing philosophy with children in anunderserved school in San Diego, when out of the blue, this whimsical story emerged,as if to take a break from all the heady stuff. This short story presents philosophicalideas in a playful, uncomplicated way. It is my way of painting with ideas, and aninvitation for others to do the same. Philosophy is about life and cannot be purelytheoretical, which it became when it became an ivory tower discipline. Apart fromNietzsche being a fascinating philosopher, he is also a literary genius. His writing isinspirational, it’s provocative and puzzling; it makes you think and rethink. He hastremendous insight into the human condition and human psychology. This insight isbest conveyed through creative writing. It develops a deeper understanding.  It issimilar to zen koans which by creating doubt and perplexity force you to think atdeeper levels in order to create a sense of aha!  Understanding exists on a level thatgoes beyond knowing. My hope is that more philosophers will engage in philosophizingon paper. There really is no method to this kind of writing. Just as in art, artists developtheir own style. And philosophers should also be able to develop their own style ofphilosophizing.Your book is categorized as fiction. While philosophers (Sartre, Kierkegaard) havewritten fiction in the past as a way to convey philosophical ideas, it is rarely used.What led you to choose it?I think fiction is more accessible to people of all walks of life and can be more fun toread.  My short story is meant as a picture book for adults and young adults. And as inthe case of picture books although meant for children – I am thinking of authors suchas Arnold Lobel and Leo Leonni – picture books are metaphorical and can beinterpreted and understood in many ways by all ages. They are a great resource forengaging in dialogue. I plan to write a next picture book with Blair Thornley in which Iwill give a short summary of one of Lobel’s or Leonni’s stories and have the charactersHuk and Tuk discuss them in a way to promote philosophical dialogue. I hope thiswould give parents and teachers new ways of discussing complex life issues such aswhat it means to be brave, or why is being different considered with apprehensionand distrust?5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 4 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/I like to think of my style of writing as jazzy philosophy, in that it is improvisational. As injazz there are themes running across the story, but these themes are improvised on.And I’m not quite sure myself what direction it will go in until I’m actually writing it. In thisway, it has a way of writing itself.  This is stark contrast to academic writing, which isresearch-based. My writing has never been strictly academic, but still found enoughinterest among several academic journals and professional magazines to bepublished. My guess is because my writing is philosophical and not strictly academic.Philosophical issues focus on questions regarding the human condition, regardingreality, how we know things, morality. While many academics do focus on these topicsas well, I rarely see anyone among my colleagues philosophizing on these topics andjust giving a stab at what they think about these topics. The research is very impressiveand certainly indicates their focus and interest in what they are writing about. But whatdo they think? How is climate change influencing their thinking? How does the presenthuman condition worry them or not? Do trans people change their thinking aboutwhat it is to be a human being?5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 5 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/Maria daVenza TillmannsWhat is the audience for the book?The book is mostly for adults and inviting them to play along with me while thinkingabout complex issues around the difference between knowing and understanding orbetween monologue and dialogue or what it means to truly listen to another personand being able to hear them the way they hear themselves. It’s about polyphoniclistening. It’s about feeling at home in the world we are already a part of. So oftenpeople see the meaning of life originating in the after-life or in reincarnation or in lifebeing predetermined. The meaning of life, for me, comes from being alive. I’m amazedwhat it means to be alive and breathing, period.  I don’t need any other explanations togive meaning and value to this life. So often people, who are close to death, value lifefor its own sake. This story invites people to enjoy life for its own sake. To live a full life, alife rich in meaning, which really means taking little for granted. Sure, we need to take5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 6 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/certain things for granted to get through the day, but we also seem to take much forgranted by not questioning things more. Children question everything; they are curiousabout everything and bombard you with questions to engage you in this mysteriousworld. They are not necessarily looking for answers, as much as they want to explorethe world with you. And children are quite alive. They live a life of curiosity andengagement.  And so should we.Explain the purpose of your “Philosophy with Children” program. How did your workwith that program influence this book?Doing philosophy with children showed me how entrenched children are in life, if notmore so than most adults. It also shows me that they have deeply insightful ideasabout people and the world they live in simply because they are alive. Life itself informsthem of what matters in life. We may think of morality as learned but I strongly believeit is an aspect of being alive. Children not only have ideas about the world, but alsohave a knack for connecting the dots, so to speak, in a way many adults have lost.Children’s imagination should be fostered not tamed. We become very knowledgeableabout the world, but often at the expense of our deeper understanding of the world.Doing philosophy with children enables them to further develop their imagination andinnate understanding of the world.Why We are in Need of Tails aspires to our imaginary world and hopes to createdeeper understanding and with it a greater sense of emotional intelligence. We havecreated a world where knowledge is often gained at the expense of emotionalintelligence or spiritual intelligence. Intelligence requires deep thinking and deepquestioning which starts with creative imagination. Your bio on the publisher’s website makes a notable claim, that philosophy for youis an “art form.” Describe what you see as the aesthetics dimension of philosophy.Philosophy as an art form is related to philosophy as a way of life. Just as artistsdevelop their particular styles, people should also be free to develop their own thinking.Just as being an artist requires much practice and training, so does developing yourthinking.  But in school we are mostly taught not just what to think but also how to thinkrather than how to develop our own thinking. We advocate for independent thinking,but much of independent thinking amounts to conforming to the thinking we weretaught in school, at universities, in the communities, country and culture we grew up inand end up making our own. When children try to branch out on their own, familiesand society at large often try to reel them back in. Eventually society “wins.” Once5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 7 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/settled into a steady job, money issues a level of conformity that washes out the thrilland excitement that inspired so many people during their younger years. Philosophyshould be the discipline through which young people learn to develop their ownthinking. Just as we have an art academy, we should have a philosophy academy.Because just as being an art historian does not an artist make, so does being a scholarin the history of philosophy not make a philosopher. The question here could be: whatmade Socrates a philosopher?     Your bio also makes clear that philosophy is a way of life, inasmuch as it helps towrestle with complexity. What advice do you have for people interested in usingphilosophy in this way?I think life lived demands that you connect and re-connect the dots constantly.Conformist behavior comes from connecting the dots once and then imposing thatframework upon everything else. That does not work. When we live our lives that way,we end up in conflict with people who do not conform to our way of thinking. If ourthinking lacks flexibility, it cannot accommodate and appreciate how others think. It willexclude them from their fixed mind-set.  Novel thinkers end up crashing against theirconformist thinking. When doing philosophy with children it is so refreshing to see howflexible they are in their thinking, how easily they can change their minds when theyhear something a peer said that somehow makes more sense to them. We lose ourability to connect to people, when we end up seeing them only through the fixed lenswe have created for ourselves to give us a sense of certainty and purpose. If wedisagree with someone’s thinking, it stifles our ability to relate and connect to him. Ourinflexible thinking gets in the way. So we need to learn to constantly see things fromdifferent angles, to constantly look for the bigger picture, to constantly reconnect thedots of what matters to us. Philosophy should be about flexible thinking, the aerobics ofthinking, if you will.So with this short picture book story, I would like to invite others to philosophize usingcreative writing as a means to express their thoughts and ideas. Fictional writing orpoetry lends itself well for letting thoughts wander as they wonder.     5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 8 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/Maria daVenza TillmannsMaria daVenza Tillmanns does philosophy with children in anunderserved school in San Diego. In 2020 she published Why We Are inNeed of Tails, a book that discusses how to build meaningfulrelationships.TAGS aesthetics Blair Thornley Friedrich Nietzsche jazzy philosophy Maria daVenza Tillmannsphilosophical fiction Philosophy as a Way of Life Philosophy for Children Recently Published Book SpotlightWhy We Are In Need of TailsPREVIOUS ARTICLEPresidential Powers and CaptiveMaternals: Sally, Michelle, and DeborahNEXT ARTICLETalia Mae Bettcher: What’s it like to bea philosopher?RELATED ARTICLES5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 9 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/RELATED ARTICLESRecently Published BookSpotlight: An IntersectionalFeminist Theory of MoralResponsibilityRecently Published BookSpotlight: The Metaphysics ofTruthRecently Published BookSpotlight: Philosophy in theIslamic WorldRecently Published BookSpotlight: Overdoing DemocracyRecently Published BookSpotlight: The I in TeamRecently Published BookSpotlight: The Idea of the WorldRecently Published Book Spotlight Recently Published Book SpotlightRecently Published Book Spotlight Recently Published Book SpotlightRecently Published Book Spotlight Recently Published Book Spotlight5/8/20, 8(37 PMHow to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns | Blog of the APAPage 10 of 10https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/05/07/how-to-do-jazzy-philosophy-an-interview-with-maria-tillmans/

How to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns

https://philpapers.org/archive/TILHTD-2.pdf

How to do 'Jazzy Philosophy': An Interview with Maria daVenza Tillmanns

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

PhilPapers