Reprising this worth-reading piece on the Maoism of Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault and other fellow-travelers: Alan Schrift’s critical discussion, in Philosophy in Review, of Richard Wolin’s The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s, which is now out in a second edition. Excerpt: “For young leftists—and this […]
The flowchart is from the end of Chapter 5 of Stephen Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy Publishing, 2004, 2011), summarizing the argument developed in that chapter. Click the image to enlarge. See also Professor Hicks’s discussions of the philosophers’ primary texts, in his Philosophers, Explained series:
The Evolution of Socialist Strategies Read More »
In his open letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), Galileo offered a defense of science against the prevailing heavy hand of religious orthodoxy: “But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended to forgo their use and by some other
Galileo’s modern compromise: Letting science work *with* religion Read More »
Literature should be a source of wonder, insight, delight, and sublime experience. And yet … the profession is sickly, jaded—and for a generation has repelled aspiring writers, teachers, and scholars. A diagnosis from “When Nothing Is Cool,” by Lisa Ruddick (thanks to Michael Strong for the recommendation). Ruddick quotes writing coach Gina Hiatt on clients
What happened to English Literature departments? Read More »
Reprising these reflections from reading Eric Axelson’s Congo to Cape: Early Portuguese Explorers. Always an interesting question to ask how great ventures begin: Why did they start when and where they did? Why were they initiated by those individuals or groups and not others? The circumnavigation of Africa was a great achievement over many decades.
Why did Portugal become a great exploring nation? Read More »
Anti-Liberals in Canada are now controlling home purchases: Foreigners not allowed. Their hope is that this will force demand and thereby prices down. Dwell on that for a moment. The Canadian government is telling Canadian home owners: We want to make your homes less valuable. Or this: Suppose that 1,000 foreigners want to buy million-dollar
Canada’s gov’t to foreign home buyers: “Keep out!” Read More »
Jeffrey van Davis’s documentary on Martin Heidegger’s life and thought, with interviews of leading scholars of Heidegger. See also the episode on Martin Heidegger’s “What Is Metaphysics?”, in the *Philosophers, Explained* series:
“Only a God Can Save Us” — Heidegger documentary Read More »
When I teach Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, my focus in class is philosophical, but I point out along the way how her fiction-writer’s methods concretize, dramatize, and foreshadow her abstract themes. One of my favorite examples is based on the premise that first meetings matter in life and literature. Here are our first meetings of
80th Anniversary of *The Fountainhead* Read More »