The Enlightenment

The French Revolution and the ending of slavery

When did slavery end? Intellectual historian Zeev Sternhell makes the following observation: “But it is above all the French Revolution that is overlooked. Slavery was in fact abolished by the French Revolution. The slaves, like the Jews, were liberated, and for the first time in history, all men living within the frontiers of a single […]

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Canada Strong and Free Network interview — Troy Lanigan

1. Why does reason even matter? 2. What’s important about the Enlightenment? 3. Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” — a counter-Enlightenment subjectivism? 4. Canada and the USA as importers of ideas from Europe? 5. Common themes in Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche? 6. Subjective passionism contra liberal democracy? 7. Which groups will dominate in the conflict? 8. Why are

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A difference with Jordan Peterson on Enlightenment foundations

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

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Interview on Hegel for *Culture Today* magazine, Iran

In your book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, you portrayed Hegel as a great force of irrationalism, whose philosophy has contributed immensely to deteriorating rather than improving the human condition. The philosophy of Hegel has been on the rise in Iran in recent years. The idea behind this rising wave has

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Audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism

I’m happy to announce the audiobook version of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. We’re releasing one chapter a week here and at YouTube. Thanks to Christopher Vaughan for his editing and production work. To begin, here is the first chapter. Chapter One: What Postmodernism Is [mp3] [YouTube] [38 minutes] The

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