Index and Bibliography for Explaining Postmodernism
At the Explaining Postmodernism page, the Index, Bibliography, and Acknowledgments are now online.
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Philosophy
The Ancient Olympics
Today being a significant day for the modern Olympics, I have some pictures about the ancient Olympics — and a question. Opening parade . . . . . Running . . . . . Wrestling . . . . . Chariot racing . . . . . The winner . . . . . I
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Before philosophy: Homer’s world
Following up on the question of why philosophy begins with Thales, we are stepping back to the pre-philosophical world of Homer. Homer is thought to have lived 800s-700s BCE, a century or two before Thales (born around 624 BCE). Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey are magnificent expressions of archaic Greek culture and of incalculable
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Philosophy begins: Why Thales?
The standard claim is that philosophy begins with Thales. When I teach this to my students, it’s a hard sell, for here are the founding texts in philosophy — ascribed to Thales by Aristotle: “The first principle and basic nature of all things is water.” and “All things are full of gods.” You can imagine
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The center of the universe
From a favorite novel, set in Paris in the world of mid-nineteenth century theatre, a time and place of revolutionary art and politics. The protagonist, Jeanne Sorel, a young woman of wonderful intensity and resilience, remembers a key lesson from her mentor, Nandou, an actor. “She walked to the place du Calvaire and stood for
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Facial hair and philosophers
“In Athens haircuts and hairstyles had social and political implications. Aristocratic horsemen still wore long braids and gold hairpins. The common man (and the politicians who spoke for him) preferred a short cut, though not quite a crew cut. The customer sat on a low stool, his body draped in a sheet to catch the shorn locks. The barber then cropped and curled the hair, anointed the head with scented oil, and trimmed the beard to a neat point. (At Athens any man with a long unkempt bead ran the risk of being mistaken for a philosopher).”
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The Counter-Enlightenment Attack on Reason
Chapter Two of my book is now available online. This chapter traces the decline of epistemology from Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” to the dominance in the nineteenth-century of speculation and irrationalism, setting the stage for the collapse of reason in the twentieth century, which is the subject of Chapter Three.
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In class: “Every building is like a person. Single and unrepeatable.”
“Every building is like a person. Single and unrepeatable.”
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