A Brief History of Philosophy — social-media version

1. Socrates deletes his account. 2. Plato posts screenshots of Socrates. 3. Aristotle unfollows Plato. 4. Aquinas retweets Jesus. 5. Descartes mutes Aquinas. 6. Locke mutes Descartes. 7. Kant unfollows Locke and Descartes. 8. Hegel subtweets Kant. 9. Schopenhauer blocks Hegel. 10. Marx likes Hegel. 11. Nietzsche gets hacked. 12. Heidegger DMs Arendt. 13. Adorno […]

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Texts in Philosophy — Fall 2018 additions

For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Ruth Benedict, excerpts from Patterns of Culture (1934) on moral relativism. Richard P. Feynman, “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (1985). Sigmund Freud, “Man is a wolf to man”. Excerpt from Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). Stephen Jay Gould, “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the

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Polish translation of “Is Republishing Hitler’s Mein Kampf the Correct Decision?”

[The following is a translation into Polish of my “Is Republishing Hitler’s *Mein Kampf* the Correct Decision?” Thanks to Professor Piotr Kostyło for making this translation possible.] Czy ponowna publikacja książki Adolfa Hitlera Mein Kampf jest słuszną decyzją? Po długich dekadach obowiązywania zakazu, niemieckie władze wyrażają zgodę na ponowną publikację książki Adolfa Hitlera Mein Kampf.

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Defining Pre-modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism [Explaining Postmodernism]

Chart 1.3: Defining Pre-modernism, Modernism, and Post-modernism     Pre-modernism Modernism Post-modernism Metaphysics Realism: Super-naturalism Realism: Naturalism Anti-realism Epistemology Mysticism and/or faith Objectivism: Experience and reason Social subjectivism Human Nature Original Sin; Subject to God’s will Tabula rasa and autonomy Social construction and conflict Ethics Collectivism: altruism Individualism Collectivism: egalitarianism Politics & Economics Feudalism Liberal

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Professor Mehta’s firing: four quick hypotheses

Acadia University fired a tenured professor. Still not much hard information to go on. But from the public documents, those of us to don’t know the professor or the university atmosphere personally can glean four hypotheses. He was fired because: 1. His positions are ideologically wrong, according to his campus enemies. 2. His manner of

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