In his notebooks, Walt Whitman wrote: “I never yet knew how it felt to think I stood in the presence of my superior.—If the presence of God were made visible immediately before me, I could not abase myself.” In his Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote: “The real test of being in the presence of
Self-esteem in Walt Whitman and C. S. Lewis Read More »
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, I sat down and responded to 22 questions from Charlie Zagoren and Maria Marty. The questions range over ethics, art, politics, religion, and autobiography. Related: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, for my views on other philosophers:
Introduction to My Thinking Read More »
Nietzsche is usually labelled an individualist. One of the more controversy-generating claims of my Nietzsche and the Nazis appears in Section 34, where I argue that Nietzsche is more collectivist than individualist.[1] Re-reading Zarathustra I came across two more relevant quotations. In both cases, Zarathustra is speaking: “A thousand goals there have been until now,
Zarathustra’s predatory collectivism Read More »
Mostly with students in mind — who often have limited budgets — we produced this free online edition of Explaining Postmodernism. I’m happy to see that it has passed the 200,000 views mark. Related: My *Philosophers, Explained* series, launched in late 2022:
Update on the free edition of Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Is philosophy pointless? With Carter Loren of Unsafe Spaces, Stephen Hicks takes up those and other questions. Related: Professor Hicks’s Philosophers, Explained series on the great thinkers and classic texts.
Do we have an innate need to believe in something bigger than ourselves? Read More »
Earlier I asked this question: How should a layperson process constant doomsday claims that don’t materialize? I’m not a climate-change expert. Yet I’m an intelligent man who’s read the news for about 40 years. I’ve seen this headline in various publications about once a week—i.e., about 2,000 times. So the question: How should a layperson
On the constant doom-saying Read More »
“In broad outlines, ancient, feudal, and modern bourgeois modes of production can be designated as progressive epochs in the economic formation of society.” Karl Marx, preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Emphasis added. For fuller explanation: My close reading of Marx and Engels’ The Communist Manifesto:
Remember: Marx was a big fan of capitalism Read More »
Traditional sex roles have it that the woman looks after the family hearth, tending the cooking and raising the children, while the man goes off to hunt and fight. Many explanations can be offered for these assigned roles, but to my knowledge Sigmund Freud has the most, uummmm, interesting explanation for why men are not
The best footnote ever: Freud on putting out fires Read More »