Month: August 2018
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Experientialism and Reality
by Mark English Daniel Kaufman has written on a number of occasions of certain unfortunate trends in contemporary culture, some involving a disconnect between self-perceptions and social reality. In the past he has highlighted the moral vacuousness and hypocrisy associated with ‘the cult of the self’ as well as the distortions and dangers of identity […]
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Hedonism
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Civilization has…no need of nobility or heroism. These things are symptoms of political inefficiency. In a properly organized society like ours, nobody has any opportunities for being noble or heroic. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. —Mustapha Mond (1) 1. […]
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Supertramp, Egg Salad and Darwin
by Daniel A. Kaufman A terrific takedown of the current, narcissistic “self-improvement” madness. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/08/why-are-modern-men-obsessed-with-self-improvement/ High quality video of Supertramp playing live in 1979. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD4cpwKaS5c My dialogue with Justin Weinberg of the Daily Nous on the current state of Philosophy. http://meaningoflife.tv/videos/40774 A deliciously vicious dustup between Patricia Churchland and Colin McGinn. Plus more from Marcia Cavell […]
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Wittgenstein, Russell, and Lawrence
by Mark English I recently wrote a piece in which I looked at the views of some 20th-century thinkers on language, metaphysics, science and philosophy. My main focus was on the logical empiricists and Ludwig Wittgenstein. In his youth, Wittgenstein worked with Bertrand Russell and then subsequently with the Vienna Circle before taking a rather […]
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Shifting Focus
Daniel Tippens How will you look for it … when you do not know at all what it is? How will you aim to search for something you do not know at all? If you should meet with it, how will you know that this is the thing that you did not know? Plato, Meno […]
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To Philosophize is to Learn How to Solve a Murder Mystery
E. John Winner I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn’t have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you’re guilty you’ll get it in the neck and if […]
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Classical Marxism, the Frankfurt School, and Contemporary Identity Politics
by Daniel A. Kaufman My dialogue with Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago, on classical Marxism, the Frankfurt School, and contemporary Identity Politics. Originally aired on MeaningofLife.TV, July 31. https://youtu.be/PyQDKOrmQpI