Being is nothing. “Nothing,” wrote Martin Heidegger, “not merely provides the conceptual opposite of what-is but is also an original part of essence.” That may not make sense logically, but: “Authentic speaking about nothing always remains extraordinary. It cannot be vulgarized. It dissolves if it is placed in the cheap acid of merely logical intelligence.” […]
Martin Heidegger in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
The American Philosophical Association’s Central Division meets in Chicago this year at the Palmer House Hilton. On February 23, the American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society has a panel based on my two journal articles (here and here) arguing for and against liberalism: Topic: Arguments For and Against Liberalism Chair: Shawn Klein (Arizona
APA talk on liberalism, Feb 23 Read More »
Romance is in the air, thus my annual reposting of my round-up of philosophers talking to their sweethearts – collected from conversations overheard at smoky cafés, college libraries, mountain caves, and seminar rooms the world over. The Aristotelian: “I wish to marry you, for I know that my happiness, both of body and soul, is
“Should I marry you?” How philosophers answer the big question Read More »
She was skeptical, but Mariana went with a friend to a multi-denominational religious convention. A Christian healer laid his hands on her and exclaimed, “In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, you will walk today!” “But I’m not paralyzed,” Mariana said politely, turning away. Then a rabbi laid his hands on her head and
A skeptic goes to a religious convention … Read More »
René Girard on bringing Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida to the USA in 1966: “When Freud came to the USA, he said, as he approached New York: ‘I’m bringing the plague to them’; but he was wrong. Americans digested and Americanized psychoanalysis easily and quickly. But in 1966 we really brought the plague with Lacan
On Derrida: “We really brought the plague” Read More »
Immanuel Kant died on February 12 in 1804. In preparation for that anniversary, here are links to nine liberal/libertarian philosophers who argue whether Kant is or is not classically liberal. Mark D. White, “Defending Kant’s Classical Liberalism.” Professor White argues that Kant’s politics gives individuals the liberty to act on the products of their deliberation
Kant and Liberalism: Nine Perspectives Read More »
In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn argues for metaphysical subjective relativism: “the proponents of competing paradigms practice their trades in different worlds.” In part, this is because scientists are not educated so much as brainwashed: “the member of a mature scientific community is, like the typical character in Orwell’s 1984, the victim of
Thomas Kuhn in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Mark Michael Lewis interviewed me on a variety of philosophical topics. Below is an excerpted transcription, from 26:55 to 36:05, on the evolution of postmodernism. The transcription is by Walter Evans-Wenz. PDF here. Mark Michael Lewis interviews Stephen Hicks Hicks: Right now we are with respect to that phenomenon—that’s third generation postmodernism. What you have
Three Stages of Postmodernism–From Foucault and Rorty to Now [transcript] Read More »