A few excerpts from Rudolf Wittkower‘s important essay “Individualism in Art,” published in Journal of the History of Ideas 22 (1961), 291-302. From guild monopolies to individual entrepreneurism: “It would seem that with the breaking of the guild monopoly in the course of the XVth century the artist’s attitude to his work changed. Instead of […]
“Individualism in Art” — Wittkower essay Read More »
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born into a highly musical family. His father was was a skilled violinist and his older sister played the clavier excellently, so from his infancy he was surrounded by music. Yet, as he wrote in a letter to a friend, that was supplemented by deep study. “it is a mistake to
How Great Artists become Great: Mozart version Read More »
Word play: “Beware of swallowing Postmodernism ― it will give you Theorrhea.” ― Stephen R. C. Hicks, author of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault.
Postmodernism and verbal theorrhoea Read More »
“This is not a book review but a flat-out endorsement. Stephen R. C. Hicks’s Explaining Postmodernism is a great but very scary read.”
Professor Tibor Machan’s review of *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »
This week in the Atlas Intellectuals course on Capitalism we consider Ayn Rand´s controversial “What is Capitalism?” In this 1965 essay, first published in The Objectivist Newsletter and later in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Rand presents her philosophical and especially moral argument for capitalism. The full course: https://www.atlassociety.org/course/capitalism. Other Atlas Intellectuals courses on Socialism, Objectivity, Money, Robotics, and
Ayn Rand, “What is Capitalism?” [Atlas Intellectuals] Read More »
Leighton Woodhouse wrote this perceptive piece focused on Foucault’s History of Sexuality, Volume I. Woodhouse is right that sometimes Foucault offers only descriptive accounts of constitutive power relations. (Like in HS, though even in HS he does not consistently stick to that.) But that’s not the only Foucauldian text. Foucault also describes himself as a
Woodhouse’s good article on Foucault Read More »
Via Ars Europa: “In 1826, the sculptor John Graham Lough returned to London and took up residence in Burleigh Street, above a greengrocer’s shop was he started his Milo of Croton, inspired by Michelangelo’s masterpieces. Lough became obsessed with his work, living on only bread and water. Soon the piece became too big for the
Artistic creation and destruction, Lough edition Read More »
Professor Fletcher on Lacan’s anti-humanism: “What you’re doing is like a spider: you’re making a very delicate web without any human reality in it … All this metaphysics is not necessary. The diagram was very interesting, but it doesn’t seem to have any connection with the reality of our actions, with eating, sexual intercourse, and
Lacan’s anti-humanism and Derrida’s intellectual terrorism Read More »