by Mark English The foreign, defense and trade policies of the United States and the overt and covert operations designed to implement and support them have, over the last 80 years or so, had profound effects on the world. I used to think those effects were positive on the whole. Like so many other foreign consumers of American popular culture, […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ Recent exchanges with Robert Gressis and Spencer Case have led me to think a lot about obligation and objectivity. My focus thus far has been on the question of force, and my main goal has been to show that accounting for it is not made easier – or facilitated in any way, really – by […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Now that we find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic, I trust that it is clear why Donald Trump must not be re-elected. The lack of curiosity; the tic-like self-promotion; the persecution complex; the weird logorrhea; the juvenile baiting and pissing contests; the fundamental lack of any substantial conviction… One might have thought it […]
by Mark English In a recent piece, I referred to a dispute between Hannah Arendt and Jules Monnerot that brought into sharp relief some perennially important – and contentious – questions about the nature of politics and political commitment. In the late 1940’s, Monnerot had written a book which characterized communism as a secular religion, and in quite negative terms. […]
by E. John Winner There have been now several efforts to realize a cinema narrative with living actors in performance, concerning the comic book hero Batman. The first, in the 1940’s, developed as a serial or series of interconnected narrative episodes released to theaters weekly. There was a highly respected, well-budgeted feature length film in the 1980’s, directed by the […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ For those readers who recognized that beneath my humorous essay on “Jewish” Philosophy was a serious point regarding our attitudes not just towards the professional discipline of philosophy but the subject itself, I want to add a substantial postscript. It is inspired, in part, by Robert Gressis’s reply to my piece, which I quote in […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ According to Robert Gressis’s most recent essay, a “Protestant” philosopher is one who thinks that professional philosophy today is crap, while a “Catholic” philosopher is one who think it’s terrific. He alleges that the balance within the discipline is somewhere around 80% (Protestant) 20% (Catholic). By my calculations this adds up to 100%, and I […]
by Robert Gressis Most philosophers of my acquaintance have said something of this sort: “most of the published philosophy I read is terrible.”[i] I don’t know what they mean by “most of”, but if you accept the Pareto principle (80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes), then let’s say that typical philosophers of my acquaintance think that […]
by Mark English Jules Monnerot [1909–1995] was born and spent his early years in Martinique where his father (also Jules) was a lawyer and left-wing activist. Jules Monnerot, fils went from being a Marxist in his youth to being a cold warrior after World War 2, subsequently moving further to the Right. Some see him as having been a fascist […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ My recent dialogue with Spencer Case has gotten me thinking more about where I stand metaethically speaking. I think the discussion annoyed him, which upsets me, because I love having Spencer as a new interlocutor and friend, and I know I can be somewhat of a pit-bull in live debate – once I sink my […]
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