Being is nothing. “Nothing,” wrote Martin Heidegger, “not merely provides the conceptual opposite of what-is but is also an original part of essence.” That may not make sense logically, but: “Authentic speaking about nothing always remains extraordinary. It cannot be vulgarized. It dissolves if it is placed in the cheap acid of merely logical intelligence.” […]
Martin Heidegger in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn argues for metaphysical subjective relativism: “the proponents of competing paradigms practice their trades in different worlds.” In part, this is because scientists are not educated so much as brainwashed: “the member of a mature scientific community is, like the typical character in Orwell’s 1984, the victim of
Thomas Kuhn in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
The poet Thomas de Quincey said: “Here I pause for one moment to exhort the reader never to pay any attention to his understanding when it stands in opposition to any other faculty of his mind. The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind, and the most to
Thomas de Quincey in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Historian Thomas Nipperdey on one reason why German philosophy came to prominence in American intellectual life: “Until 1830 it was the general rule that talented and curious young minds gravitated to Paris; but from then on they came, in ever-increasing numbers (American students, for example) to Germany, to Berlin.” For more on the meaning and implications
Thomas Nipperdey in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Philosopher Christopher Janaway said: “One feature uniting many kinds of recent philosophy is an increasing recognition that we are working within the legacy of Kant”. For more on the meaning and implications of Janaway’s remark, see p. 79 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. Information about other editions and translations is available at this
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Richard Rorty on the consequences of having to abandon the objectivity and universality of reason: The best we can do is seek “inter-subjective agreement” among the “members of our own tribe.” Though feeling loyal to his American left-liberal roots, Rorty goes on to hope that we will be nice to the other tribes while doing
Richard Rorty in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Jean-Jacques Rousseau said: “While the state can compel no one to believe it can banish not for impiety, but as an antisocial being, incapable of truly loving the laws and justice, and of sacrificing, if needed, his life to his duty. If, after having publicly recognized these dogmas, a person acts as if he does
Jean-Jacques Rousseau on compulsory religious behavior [from Explaining Postmodernism] Read More »
On December 6, 2014, I’ll be giving a three-hour seminar for graduate students at the Catholic University of Portugal. My topic is “Two Narratives of Modernity: Enlightenment and Postmodern.” The seminar is hosted by the Institute for Political Studies and is part of its “Governance, Leadership and Democracy Studies” series. Many thanks to Professor João
Upcoming seminar in Lisbon, Portugal: “The Enlightenment versus Postmodernism” Read More »