We’re now posting serially at thinkspot the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the fourth: OC: “The Dim Ruins of the Enlightenment”? Who said this? ““We live today amid the dim ruins of the Enlightenment project, which was the ruling project of the modern period.” And this: What to do—“now that both the Age […]
“The Dim Ruins of the Enlightenment”? [Open College transcript] Read More »
A new episode of my podcast series, produced by Possibly Correct out of Toronto. Conservative nationalist Yoram Hazony makes eight claims about the Enlightenment. One is mostly true, and seven are badly false or are grains of truth badly exaggerated. Audio: Youtube. Soundcloud. Transcription: Will be available soon. Sources: Yoram Hazony, “What Was the Enlightenment?” Prager
Hazony Attacks the Enlightenment [Open College] Read More »
My Explaining Postmodernism book is negative on the major developments in German philosophy, tracing a devolution from Kant through Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Heidegger to the postmodernists. Lots of room in that story for nuances and exceptions, and I’ve received much criticism for being harsh on the German thinkers. I have two forthcoming Open College
Is German philosophy really Counter-Enlightenment? Nietzsche’s assessment Read More »
During a fun (and long) question-and-answer session after a lecture at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania — some of us were still going strong after three hours — I was asked my view on the origins of the Enlightenment. The first questioner noted that Jordan Peterson had spoken at Lafayette the year before and had argued
A difference with Jordan Peterson on Enlightenment foundations Read More »
Episode 4 in my Open College with Dr. Stephen Hicks podcast series. Audio links: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics: Our contemporary pessimists and cynics // Gray, Rorty, and Foucault // The Enlightenment and its promises // How to assess the Enlightenment era // Data // Postmodernism // Real concerns and trade-offs versus pessimism Transcription: Forthcoming Sources: Michel
“The Dim Ruins of the Enlightenment” [Open College series] Read More »
[Reposting from its first publication at EveryJoe.] Is a seismic change rumbling through Left-wing circles? In the hard-Left Jacobin magazine, two young philosophers bemoan their discovery that postmodern strategies have now been captured by the hateful and hated Alt-Right — and so in reaction they propose that socialists embrace the philosophy of the Enlightenment.[1] President Donald
Will the Alt-Right make the Left embrace the Enlightenment? Read More »
My “Will the Alt-Right Make the Left embrace the Enlightenment?” is now republished at Britain’s Church and State site: “Criticizing Enlightenment thought has become fashionable across the political spectrum. For the past several decades, more and more academics have called reason into question, especially the sort of rationalist worldview that emerged in the seventeenth and
“Will the Alt-Right Make the Left embrace the Enlightenment?” [Church and State] Read More »
Where does art go after postmodernism? My lecture in Hong Kong — in which I discuss the historical examples of Classical Athens, Renaissance Florence, the Dutch Golden Age, and nineteenth-century Paris — is at YouTube. Here also are the text in English (with images) and the condensed translation into Cantonese. Part 1: Part 2: Thanks
Hong Kong lecture: “NEO-ENLIGHTENMENT ART AFTER POSTMODERNISM” Read More »
Alt-Right philosopher Jason Reza Jorjani is taken on by hard-left philosophers at Jacobin magazine. My commentary article begins this way: Is a seismic change rumbling through Left-wing circles? In the hard-Left Jacobin magazine, two young philosophers bemoan their discovery that postmodern strategies have now been captured by the hateful and hated Alt-Right — and so in
Alt-Right versus Hard Left — Forcing a Return to the Enlightenment? Read More »
On December 6, 2014, I’ll be giving a three-hour seminar for graduate students at the Catholic University of Portugal. My topic is “Two Narratives of Modernity: Enlightenment and Postmodern.” The seminar is hosted by the Institute for Political Studies and is part of its “Governance, Leadership and Democracy Studies” series. Many thanks to Professor João
Upcoming seminar in Lisbon, Portugal: “The Enlightenment versus Postmodernism” Read More »