Syphilis is thought to have been brought back from America by Christopher Columbus’s fellow travelers. In Europe, it first manifested in Naples and so came to be called “the disease of Naples,” though most Italians came to call it the “French Pox.” As it made its way across Europe and then Asia, syphilis acquired a […]
Syphilis and friendly ethnic relations Read More »
How some political ideologies depend on the self-induced selflessness of their members. Here is Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism speaking of both Nazism and Communism: “How little the masses were driven by the famous instinct for self-preservation … . The fanaticism of members of totalitarian movements, so clearly different in quality from the greatest
Is everyone selfish? Hannah Arendt quotation Read More »
In 1959, Leo Strauss said: “the only great thinker in our time is Heidegger.” The full, disturbing context for that statement: “All rational liberal philosophic positions have lost their significance and power. One may deplore this, but I for one cannot bring myself to clinging to philosophical positions which have been shown to be inadequate.
“The only great thinker in our time”: Leo Strauss on Martin Heidegger Read More »
Times for the main sections of Jeffrey Van Davis’s documentary on Martin Heidegger’s life and thought: 01:41 Memorial and recollections 07:00 Messkirch 10:55 Early life 14:04 World War I 23:12 Being and Time 36:10 The Rectorship 45:37 Kristallnacht 51:55 Edith Stein 56:18 Hiding from the French 1:01:26 Denazification 1:11:23 Hannah Arendt 1:13:38 Paul Celan 1:19:00
*Only a God Can Save Us* now with Timestamps Read More »
For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Derrick Bell, “Racial Realism,” Connecticut Law Review 24:2 (1992). Auguste Comte, Catechism of Positive Religion, Conversations I-V, (1852) John Locke, Book 4 of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Karl Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations” (1962). Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality
Texts in Philosophy — early 2024 additions Read More »
I did not know that in 1818 a younger Arthur Schopenhauer, aged 30, made a trip to Florence, Italy, where he pursued love. Unfortunately for Arthur, it didn’t go well. “After a number of rejections, he decided that ‘only the male intellect, clouded by the sexual impulse, could call the undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged
Schopenhauer in and out of love Read More »
“To emulate a worthy man is not to re-live his individual life, but to utilize the principle of worthy living, exemplified by him, toward the qualitative improvement of our individual life.” Source: David L. Norton, Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (Princeton University Press, 1976), 13. Quoted in Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas
David L. Norton on emulating worthy men Read More »
Stephen Hicks, Professor of Philosophy (USA) and John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister (Australia) discuss what the National Socialists of Germany adapted, controversially, from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Related: Professor Hicks’s full book treatment of the topic:
What the Nazis took from Nietzsche — 5-minute clip from Australia Read More »