For our ongoing contest, alert reader George King sent me this libido-sapper from Jean-François Lyotard’s 1974 Libidinal Economy. 355 words: “We should not continue to confuse the closure of representation, that sarcastic discovery, that sham dropping of the scales from our eyes, by those thinkers who come and tell us: what is outside is really […]
Philosophy’s Longest Sentences Contest — Lyotard edition Read More »
I’m giving a talk next week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In English, but with Spanish subtitles for the art slides. Hosted at ESEADE University and organized by ARCLA. I understand that admission is free, but an RSVP at Eventbrite is necessary.
Talk in Buenos Aires: Why Art became Ugly Read More »
A reminder: to defeat alt-rightists, neo-fascists, and neo-Nazis we need to get our philosophical game on. That’s the implication of my 2010 Nietzsche and the Nazis. Support for that thesis from a new book by philosopher Susan Neiman: “Outside Germany, many still think the Nazis’ strength depended on illiterate mobs, a view unfortunately reinforced by
How nazi-types are manufactured Read More »
Here are ten questions I took up from my subscribers during last week’s livestream session at thinkspot: 1. “What are the three most related and worrisome things that have happened since writing, Explaining Postmodernism? 2. “What are your thoughts on Nassim Taleb’s notion that democratic socialism is most effective at the local scale?” 3. “What
10 Questions from my thinkspot Live Q&A Read More »
The graph is at Facebook, based on Gapminder data. Let us give thanks to science, technology, reason, freedom, entrepreneurship, humanism, and the belief in progress — i.e., the Enlightenment vision made real. Here also is a longer-timeline static chart. Click to enlarge. Source.
Child mortality’s wonderful decline: 13-second graph Read More »
My subscribers at thinkspot can join me on Wednesday, December 4th at 7:30 Central Time for my first premium livestream Q&A session. Ask me anything about philosophy and my related areas of expertise, or any follow-up questions from my November livestream lecture. (If you’re not already on thinkspot, sign up to join the site and
My first livestream Q&A at thinkspot, Dec. 4 Read More »
“Go back to the ovens!” shouted at Jews at a university in Canada, in the Toronto borough in which I was born. Quick thoughts: 1. Most Canadians are great people and will be appalled at this sub-human display. 2. The hostility was so bad that politicians from *both* sides of the major divide in Canadian
“Go back to the ovens!” shouted at Jews at a university in Canada Read More »
* An angry atheist shows up at a Catholic hospital needing treatment. * A sexist says he prefers not to have a woman doctor. * A surgeon realizes that his patient is a suspected pedophile. Medical ethics for professionals: Does one treat even blasphemers, misogynists, and perverts to the best of one’s abilities? And the
Should racists get medical care? Read More »