Tag: philosophy

On Jonathan Strassfeld’s “Inventing Philosophy’s Other”

Erik Hmiel SOMETIME IN THE MID-1950s, the American philosopher Stanley Cavell, a new professor at the University of California, Berkeley, encountered an elderly colleague given over to resignation. The senior scholar, having recently retired from teaching, recalled to Cavell the moment when he realized the seeming limitations of his philosophical prowess. The occasion was the… Read More On Jonathan Strassfeld’s “Inventing Philosophy’s Other”

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A culture of truth denial is wilting US democracy and Britain is following fast

The Rush Limbaugh Show, the ultra-rightwing talkshow platform, was syndicated as the scourge of the liberal elite – anti-immigrant, anti-tax, anti-feminist, anti-LGBT, anti climate change and later denying Covid vaccines – and always rejecting the evidence that smoking caused cancer. No need any longer for countervailing views. A lifelong smoker, Limbaugh died in 2021 of the very… Read More A culture of truth denial is wilting US democracy and Britain is following fast

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Robert Urquhart: Capital accumulation as eternal recurrence: theology of the bad infinity

The uneasy cohabitation of science and theology in neoclassical economics is an indication of its ideological character If the lion had consciousness, his rage at the antelope he wants to eat would be ideology: Theodor Adorno; Negative Dialectics. Extract: Neoclassical economics — most notably in the model of general equilibrium — gives an exhaustive quantitative… Read More Robert Urquhart: Capital accumulation as eternal recurrence: theology of the bad infinity

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Liberal Commitments

An interview with Michael Walzer on The Struggle for a Decent Politics Timothy Shenk From democratic socialists to right-wing populists, with plenty of anxious centrists in between, it seems like everyone agrees that liberalism is in trouble. But what about the qualities that liberals have shown at their best? In his latest book, The Struggle for a… Read More Liberal Commitments

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The trouble with patriotism

Can patriotism be virtuous? Although philosophy has increasingly struggled to justify it on moral grounds in recent decades, patriotism remains a powerful source of self-identification and political participation. Simon Keller and Mitja Sardoč Mitja Sardoč: Despite its centrality in the pantheon of political ideals, patriotism remains a contested concept that continues to divide its advocates and… Read More The trouble with patriotism

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Rhapsody of emancipation: the interventions of Gáspár Miklós Tamás

Ferenc Laczó An anarchist philosopher turned right-leaning libertarian and anti-capitalist critic of the illiberal order, Gáspár Miklós Tamás (1948–2023) embodied what east European thinkers have tended to be best at: making paradoxes intelligible. Democracy is ‘an odd thing to be glad about all on one’s own,’ Gáspár Miklós Tamás quipped in the late 1990s, and… Read More Rhapsody of emancipation: the interventions of Gáspár Miklós Tamás

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The Figure of Socrates and its Significance for Liberal Education in Asia

NB: An interesting essay. However, Heyking seems to conflate China and ‘Asia’. DS John von Heyking In order to cut through the two false alternatives – “catch up” and “social harmony” – I appeal to the original figure of Western liberal education, Socrates. Socrates indeed embodies the individual as it has been transmitted throughout the… Read More The Figure of Socrates and its Significance for Liberal Education in Asia

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Periagoge: Liberal Education in the Modern University

John von Heyking Conversation and the “Turning Around of the Soul” One of the common criticisms of the contemporary university is that it lacks individuals unwilling or incapable of conversing. Critics such as Anthony Kronman and Stephen Miller rightly observe that there’s something about contemporary culture and the contemporary university hostile to the arts or… Read More Periagoge: Liberal Education in the Modern University

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