History of Philosophy

Tyler Ashby discussion: Pomo, Perception, and Reason

1 Comment / Fruits of the Enlightenment, History of Philosophy, Objectivism, Philosophy /

Our discussion is embedded below or at YouTube. Topics discussed: 1:00: The various uses of “postmodern” 3:30: The epistemology of reason in early modern philosophy 4:30: Pomo as a skepticism about reason by mid-1900s 5:00: Individualism in early modern philosophy 7:00: Pomo as a reaction to individualism 7:30: Social-psychological-linguistic determinisms of mid-1900s 10:10: Perception and […]

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Immanual Kant versus Liberalism — my three Cato articles collected

Leave a Comment / History of Philosophy, Politics /

Here are my three collected posts in the Cato Unbound series:   Does Kant Have a Place in Classical Liberalism? How Kant’s political views are a mix of liberal and anti-liberal claims, but, more importantly, how his fundamental distinction between noumenal and phenomenal selves means that philosophically he has no defense of practical liberalism.  

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New printing of *Explaining Postmodernism* — the fifteenth

3 Comments / History of Philosophy, News /

A new printing of the expanded edition was published this month in a snazzy hardcover. Its theme: “The failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible. The failure of socialism made postmodernism necessary.” This is the fifteenth printing since its first publication in 2004. Samples from the scholarly reviewers of the first edition: “By the end of Explaining

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Johann Herder as prophet of the contemporary university

3 Comments / History of Philosophy, Philosophy of History /

[Herder (1744-1802) was an early Counter-Enlightenment voice calling for group identity politics and value relativism, along with a rejection of cultural appropriation and an embrace of zero-sum cultural conflict. The following is excerpted from Explaining Postmodernism.] Herder on multicultural relativism Sometimes called the “German Rousseau,”[1] Johann Herder had studied philosophy and theology at Königsberg University. Kant was

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