Philosophy

Portugal’s Ricardo Lopes interview with me

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

My discussion with the well-prepared Ricardo Lopes. Our topics: * What made the moderns revolutionary epistemologically * The broader transformations of the world by exploration, science, religion, trade, and the arts * The postmodernism reaction to/against modernism * Why Kant is important as inheritor of failing empiricist and rationalist traditions * Rousseau’s collectivism and egalitarianism […]

Portugal’s Ricardo Lopes interview with me Read More »

“The Philosophers and the Birth of National Socialism” — Gdańsk lecture

Leave a Comment / History, Philosophy /

I gave a talk in Gdańsk, Poland, on “The Philosophers and the Birth of National Socialism.” Along the way we discuss Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt, Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, and others. The video of the lecture and question period is here (or at YouTube): Thanks to Dr. Marek Szymaniak of the Museum of the Second

“The Philosophers and the Birth of National Socialism” — Gdańsk lecture Read More »

Martin Heidegger in *Explaining Postmodernism*

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

Martin Heidegger claimed that reason is the “most stiff-necked adversary of thought” and an obstacle to be discarded. For more on the context for Heidegger’s claim and his contributions to postmodernism, see p. 69 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. See also: Heidegger and postmodernism: Includes “Heidegger’s synthesis of the Continental tradition,” “Setting

Martin Heidegger in *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »

William Wordsworth in Explaining Postmodernism

2 Comments / Philosophy, Poetry /

The poet William Wordsworth said: “Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things; –We murder to dissect.” For more on the meaning and implications of Wordsworth’s claim, see p. 68 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. Information about other editions and translations is available at this dedicated page.

William Wordsworth in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »

Gdańsk talk: “The Philosophers and the Rise of National Socialism”

2 Comments / Philosophy /

I’ll be giving a talk in Gdańsk, Poland, on Thursday May 24 at 5.30 p.m. My title is “The Philosophers and the Rise of National Socialism.” Thanks to Dr. Marek Szymaniak of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk for the invitation to speak. My thoughts on one philosopher’s relationship to the Nazis

Gdańsk talk: “The Philosophers and the Rise of National Socialism” Read More »

Pillars of Modernist and Post-Modernist Philosophy — lecture excerpt

2 Comments / Philosophy /

The following 15-minute video excerpts my five-point philosophical contrast between modernism and postmodernism, with illustrating quotations from leading pomo intellectuals Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard, and others. For more, here is the full 2018 lecture at the University of British Columbia.

Pillars of Modernist and Post-Modernist Philosophy — lecture excerpt Read More »