The absurdist Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1969. He’s most famous for Waiting for Godot (a play in which pretty much nothing happens in the first act, only to be repeated in the second), was also the author of a novel entitled Molloy. Here is the main character, Molloy, reminiscing […]
The anti-Romantics — Samuel Beckett edition Read More »
[This column is a part of the Theist vs. Atheist series debate between Stephen Hicks and John C. Wright. This is Hicks’s response to Wright’s column. Here are the links to other columns in the series.] To evaluate religion’s track record we need to specify our evaluative benchmarks and identify whether we are evaluating religion generically
Religion and the Verdict of History [Theist vs. Atheist series] Read More »
I have only two questions: 1. Would Shakespeare feel the need to shoot a portrait of Burroughs? 2. Would he find it amusing? Defacing others’ work is a recurring theme in modern and postmodern art: “Picasso took one of Matisse’s portraits of his daughter—and used it as a dartboard, encouraging his friends to do the
Shooting Shakespeare–novelist William Burroughs Read More »
Part 5 of the audiobook version of my Nietzsche and the Nazis: A Personal View. Part 5. Nietzsche’s Life and Influence [mp3] [YouTube] [46 minutes] 21. Who was Friedrich Nietzsche? [mp3] [YouTube] 22. God is dead [mp3] [YouTube] 23. Nihilism’s symptoms [mp3] [YouTube] 24. Masters and slaves [mp3] [YouTube] 25. The origin of slave morality
Nietzsche’s Life and Influence [N&N audiobook] Read More »
In the history of ethics, the debate over the meaning of life has generated four broad positions: 1. The meaning of life is to flourish by creating value both materially and psychologically through one’s career, friendships, loves, and avocations. Examples here include Aristotelian eudaimonism, some sub-types of utilitarianism, and Objectivism.The good life should be a
Genghis Khan on joy and the meaning of life Read More »