Leibnizians in Harvard, Illinois
I spotted this in a storefront window yesterday. Gottfried Leibniz’s argument is still packing a punch, three centuries later.
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Religion
Egypt then and now
The image is Raphael’s version of Hypatia, the astronomer, mathematician, and neoplatonic philosopher who was murdered by a religious mob in 415. Hypatia lived and died in Alexandria, Egypt, then a clashing hotbed of philosophical schools and rising radical religion. The rising radical religion of the time was Christianity. Hypatia’s nemesis was Cyril, Bishop of
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Three more anti-free-market arguments (UFM seminar)
In this third Socratic seminar on the Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism, we take up three arguments: a) the paternalist argument that human beings are incapable of living freely, b) the collectivist argument that wealth is a social creation (at 11 minutes), and c) the religious argument that value is not of this world (at
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What is the best philosophical approach to religion? (Spring 2011 edition)
For my Introduction to Philosophy course, a question on the final exam [pdf] was: “Religion was a theme for all of our authors this semester: * Socrates was put on trial and found guilty of impiety; * Galileo was silenced despite arguing for a compromise between science and religion; * Descartes tried to prove with
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Warby reviews Nietzsche and the Nazis
Australia’s Lorenzo Warby’s review of my Nietzsche and the Nazis. Intriguing sideways connection to Heidegger and militarism: Warby also reviews Brian Daizen Victoria’s Zen at War, “a study of how Zen Buddhism became deeply complicit in Japanese militarism,” just as Heidegger’s mystically-charged writings became complicit in German militarism. Warby there points to this piece by
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The most dangerous philosophy book (Fall 2010 edition)
For my Introduction to Philosophy course, an optional question on the final exam was: In your judgment, what is the most dangerous book we read this semester? First give a clear and sympathetic presentation of the book’s most important themes, and then explain why you think the book is dangerous. We read six major works
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John Calvin’s Geneva
Those who questioned his theology he called “pigs,” “asses,” “riffraff,” “dogs,” “idiots,” and “stinking beasts.”
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“Morality without God?” discussion
Two student groups at Rockford College are producing a discussing of a perennially important topic: Morality without God? * Is life purposeless or meaningless without belief in a particular God or religion? * Without God, does that mean “anything goes”? * Does belief in a particular God or religion incline one to morality? Does it
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