The audiobook edition of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault at YouTube, now with timestamps for easy navigation. This audiobook edition of Explaining Postmodernism is read by the author. To listen to a specific chapter of the audiobook, visit its YouTube site. To download MP3s of the audiobook or for more information, […]
Audiobook timestamps for *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »
Where on the spectrum are you? Heidegger joined the National Socialist Party and was an active and gung-ho supporter. But why this “basically” claim about Nietzsche? Because he said this, along with dozens of other forerunner-to-Nazi things: “mankind in the mass sacrificed to the prosperity of a single stronger species of man — that would
The *politics* of philosophers — graphic Read More »
Noticing some social-media discussion by opponents of compulsory vaccinations, noting that even Adolph Hitler opposed them. A pair of quick nuance-y corrections, one on extent and one on motivation. Extent: AH favored compulsory vaccinations—but only for Germans. Motivation: He opposed them for non-Germans because he didn’t want to extend their benefits to people he didn’t
Compulsory vaccination and the National Socialists Read More »
Reprising this series of quotations, collected over the years, on the theme of pessimism about the present in relation to the past: Plato, 360 BCE: “In that country [Egypt] arithmetical games have been invented for the use of mere children, which they learn as pleasure and amusement. I have late in life heard with amazement
The constant decline of civilization? Read More »
Kleist was widely traveled, energetic, a brilliant writer — and a suicide at age 34. Why? In reviewing Selected Prose of Heinrich von Kleist, Ian Brunskill writes: “Kleist in his youth had espoused with enthusiasm all the optimism of the Enlightenment. Reason would conquer all; happiness would come with experience and understanding. In March 1801,
Kleist: How Kant ruined my life Read More »
Seven categories. Five only in each. Works that I love or learned from or influenced me or that I return to regularly. Biography and AutobiographyAnthony Holden, TchaikovskyRobert Massie, Peter the GreatAdrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented EvolutionistJames Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small [a veterinarian in Yorkshire]Walt Whitman, Song of
Great Books — My Recommended Reading List Read More »
Foucault’s response to an interview question: “Heidegger has always been for me the essential philosopher. I started by reading Hegel, then Marx, and I began to read Heidegger in 1951 or 1952; then in 1952 or 1953, I no longer remember, I read Nietzsche. I still have the notes I took while reading Heidegger –
Is Foucault a Neo-Marxist? Heidegger as the “essential” philosopher Read More »
My Liberalism: Pro and Con has been translated into Spanish by Fermin Elizalde. We will be serially publishing here each part prior to the publication of the book as a whole. Find the English version here: Amazon. From the blurb for the English edition: In this primer, we take up the best arguments for and
Liberalism: Pro & Con* en Español coming soon Read More »
One-minute introduction to the series: Full Series playlist. Philosophers in the first series: Immanuel Kant Plato Galileo Galilei Ayn Rand Jean-Jacques Rousseau René Descartes Jean-Paul Sartre Socrates Martin Heidegger Thomas Aquinas Arachne and Athena Aristotle Albert Camus Friedrich Nietzsche John Dewey Sigmund Freud G.W.F. Hegel William James Søren Kierkegaard John Locke Karl Marx John Stuart
Trailer for *Philosophers, Explained* Read More »
I read the book in manuscript and wrote this blurb for it: “Max Reynolds’ eye for the telling details works well with his strategic judgment in tracing ideological evolutions—from their roots in Hegel and Marx—to their 20th- and 21st-century transmutations. Read this book to understand our current cultural battles.”—Stephen R.C. Hicks, Professor of Philosophy, author
Max Reynolds’s new book on the evolution of totalitarian thought Read More »