Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Karl Popper

  • Philosopher Kings and Queens

    by Miroslav Imbrišević ___ At the age of sixteen, I found the idea of being a philosopher very attractive. Much later in life, I asked myself why that was and decided that my chaotic family was to blame. Philosophy allowed me to shut out the world, but at the same time I could figure out…

  • further thoughts on kafkatraps

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ I’ve written about Kafkatraps before, but there is so much more to say about these deceptively powerful rhetorical devices. In my previous article, I proposed a new way to think about Kafkatraps and what they do. Here, I want to think about how Kafkatraps are often used in groups that seek…

  • Liberalism and the Question of “Cancel Culture”

    by Kevin Currie-Knight Cancel culture – the idea that it is increasingly hard to voice unpopular ideas without risking serious consequence – is illiberal. At least that seems to be an increasingly (and maybe ironically) prevalent view. But, in important way, it is arguably quite liberal. Maybe cancel culture is both liberal and illiberal depending…

  • More Thoughts on Knowledge and Higher Education

    by Mark English Last month I wrote a short piece on what I see as a rapidly developing crisis in the education sector and beyond. Open-ended and exploratory, my observations were part of an ongoing attempt to articulate and defend a basically knowledge-centred view of learning and culture. I referred briefly to the arts, but…

  • 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…

  • Degrees of Assimilation

    by Mark English In a recent essay, Daniel Kaufman recalled the days when he and a couple of friends used to climb through a hole in the perimeter fence of their junior high school on Long Island and have lunch at Andel’s Kosher Delicatessen – “Hebrew National hot dogs, potato knishes, and half-sour pickles, washing…