For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Frédéric Bastiat, The Law (1850). Charles Darwin, “On Evolution” (1859). Darwin summarizes the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Carl Hempel, “Semmelweis and Childbed Fever” (1966). How Dr. Semmelweis discovered the cause of childbed fever. Murdoch Pencil, “Salt Passage Research: The State of […]
Texts in Philosophy — mid-2018 additions Read More »
“Why is it that skeptical and relativistic arguments have the cultural power that they now do? Why do they have that power in the humanities but not in the sciences? Why have themes of exhaustion, nihilism, and cynicism come to have the cultural dominance they do? And how can those intellectual themes coexist with a
The puzzling prominence of postmodernism [Explaining Postmodernism] Read More »
I passed through Trier, Germany, mostly to see the Porta Nigra. But Trier is also the birthplace of one K. Marx, and this year is the 200th anniversary of his birth. The city is full of celebratory signage and knick-knacks, but for me one item captured the event best. I give you me and mini
Michel Foucault said: “All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence.” And philosopher Todd May summarizes Foucault’s conclusion this way: “It is meaningless to speak in the name of—or against—Reason, Truth, or Knowledge.” For more on Foucault’s contributions to postmodernism, see p. 11 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau
Michel Foucault in *Explaining Postmodernism* Read More »
I will be giving a lecture at Jagiellonian University. 1364 was Jagiellonian’s founding year, making it one of the ancient universities of Europe. Nicholas Copernicus was a student there, back when the university was less than two centuries old. My lecture is on postmodern philosophy and its challenge to liberal education, drawing upon themes from
Lecture at Jagiellonian University in Kraków Read More »
Counter-Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau claimed that in moral society, one “coalesces with all, in this each of us puts in common his person and his whole power under the supreme direction of society’s leaders.” And: A “citizen should render to the state all the services he can as soon as the sovereign demands them.” Further:
I will be a keynote speaker at the first TRAC conference to be held in Europe. Related video: Comments on Odd Nerdrum and Roger Scruton. From Modern to Postmodern Art and Beyond.
TRAC Netherlands art conference Read More »
When he became an American citizen in 1943, Sergei Rachmaninoff said: “This is the only place on earth where a human being is respected for what he is and what he does, and it does not matter who he is and where he came from.” Related: “How Rachmaninoff’s composing was hurt by the Soviet Union.”
Rachmaninoff upon becoming an American citizen Read More »