One of the major, major pessimists in history. I quoted him earlier in the context of contemporary anti-humanism and those calling for human extinction. But lest we think of Arthur as always grim and cranky, here’s a delightful zinger. Schopenhauer, assessing Kant’s moral philosophy: “I should liken Kant to a man at a ball, who […]
Schopenhauer’s sense of humor Read More »
Kleist was widely traveled, energetic, a brilliant writer — and a suicide at age 34. Why? In reviewing Selected Prose of Heinrich von Kleist, Ian Brunskill writes: “Kleist in his youth had espoused with enthusiasm all the optimism of the Enlightenment. Reason would conquer all; happiness would come with experience and understanding. In March 1801,
Kleist: How Kant ruined my life Read More »
Refreshing these two strikingly similar passages from Georg Hegel and Søren Kierkegaard, philosophers I generally think of as stylistically opposed. At issue are two key questions:1. What is the origin of the universe?2. What is the self? Hegel on the beginning of the universe: “So far, there is nothing: something is to become. The beginning
Philosophical style: Hegel and Kierkegaard Read More »
Foucault’s response to an interview question: “Heidegger has always been for me the essential philosopher. I started by reading Hegel, then Marx, and I began to read Heidegger in 1951 or 1952; then in 1952 or 1953, I no longer remember, I read Nietzsche. I still have the notes I took while reading Heidegger –
Is Foucault a Neo-Marxist? Heidegger as the “essential” philosopher Read More »
On the priority of character: “Wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the State” (Apology, 30b). On the dangers of democracy: “No man on earth who conscientiously opposes you or any other organized democracy, and flatly prevents a great many wrongs and illegalities
In class: Socrates in Plato’s *Apology* Read More »
Friedrich Nietzsche has a reputation for being an individualist. But note this from his Thus Spoke Zarathustra: “The overman is the sense of the earth … . I love those who sacrifice themselves for the earth, that the earth may some day become the overman’s.” (Z I.P.3). So: Contrary to individualism, your life is not
Was Nietzsche individualist? Zarathustra-overman version Read More »
Plato on Censorship and “the Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry” Excerpt from Book 10 of The Republic. Written 360 B.C.E. [Socrates and Glaucon in conversation] [Speakers: Socrates and Glaucon in conversation] [Socrates:] Of the many excellences which I perceive in the order of our State, there is none which upon reflection pleases me better
WHAT FOUCAULT LIKED TO DO TO ARAB BOYS. Excerpt from Douglas Murray’s The War on the West (2022): It is always unpleasant—as well as unwise—for thinkers to lambaste each other because of the habits of their personal lives. The personal is not always political and is certainly not always philosophical. Yet in March 2021, a
What Foucault liked to do with Arab boys — excerpt from Murray’s book Read More »