Post-Modernism and Critical Theory is all Based on The Worst Argument in the World

Via, Rotten Chestnuts, a summation of scholar David Stove’s essay “Idealism, A Victorian Horror Story”. Apparently, everything the Left has believed for the last century and a half comes from the perception/things-in-themselves fallacy, which allows all the other word games to follow. Since you’re starting from a tautology, thanks to the miracle of Dialectics you… Read More Post-Modernism and Critical Theory is all Based on The Worst Argument in the World

17 May 201913 Jun 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

Post-Modernism Isn’t.

I have long been of the opinion that what passes for post-modern “philosophy” is not a philosophy so much as rhetorical exercise, or in my phrase, “word games”. Consider the act of “deconstructing” something: of tacking a thing to the culture that produced it, to the assumptions of that culture, to the history of those… Read More Post-Modernism Isn’t.

28 Feb 201927 Feb 2019 AndrewLeave a comment

Epistemocracy

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s term for a society based on humility towards what can be known. It is the sort of utopian idea that causes one to reconsider one’s own mental processes rather than draw up a blueprint for how others ought to behave. He has also inspired me to read some Montaigne. Odd that I… Read More Epistemocracy

29 Apr 2018 AndrewLeave a comment

Available on Amazon: The Right of Revolution

This was a short essay I wrote a few years ago and have toyed with either expanding or publishing as-is. I decided upon the latter. It’s basic point, that rebellion is justified according to the prime value of a culture, is to my mind eloquently expressed. There’s obviously a great deal more to say on… Read More Available on Amazon: The Right of Revolution

13 Jan 201714 Jan 2017 AndrewLeave a comment

Somebody Translated Descartes’ Meditations into Bro-Speak

That someone calls himself Philosophy Bro, and the book: Descartes Meditations, Bro. It features a side-by-side translate, so you have the 1901 English Translation, and the Bro-Speak on the facing page. You know, like the Seamus Heaney Beowulf or Pinsky’s translation of The Inferno (both of which you should read, because they’re awesome). I just wanted it… Read More Somebody Translated Descartes’ Meditations into Bro-Speak

11 Oct 201611 Oct 2016 AndrewLeave a comment

The Birth of Babbling, or Why Nietzsche Disappoints me

I think his declamatory German just gets lost in translation, but every time I read Nietzsche I find very little substance underneath all the sauce. I’m on page 86 of The Birth of Tragedy and I’m not entirely sure what ideas I’ve gleaned from this. I get the idea that tragedy is the fusion of the… Read More The Birth of Babbling, or Why Nietzsche Disappoints me

10 Oct 2016 AndrewLeave a comment

Frog Socrates, Everybody

Oh, Existential Comics, mashing up Jurassic Park with Ancient Greece. Does he look like Kermit? He looks like Kermit. Does he debate the nature of flies? He tries to. Does his incessant demand for ontological clarity come off as preventing other people from getting a word in edgewise? Yup. It’s just too good to pass… Read More Frog Socrates, Everybody

19 Sep 2016 AndrewLeave a comment

The Meaninglessness of Probability

Interesting discussion by John C. Wright: It is a meaningful sentence to say that the chance of a balanced coin landing headsup is fifty times out of a hundred because and only because the shape of the coin (it has only two sides) is known, and the factors that determine the fall of the coin… Read More The Meaninglessness of Probability

11 Mar 201611 Mar 2016 AndrewLeave a comment

Spengler: You Are Not Original. Be Glad of It.

Why You Won’t Find the Meaning of Life: Most people who make heroic efforts at originality learn eventually that they are destined for no such thing. If they are lucky, they content themselves with Kierkegaard’s pot roast on Sunday afternoon and other small joys, for example tenure at a university. But no destiny is more… Read More Spengler: You Are Not Original. Be Glad of It.

4 Mar 2015 AndrewLeave a comment

Camus and Karamazov, “The Rejection of Salvation.”

A Continuing series in which I post my notes of reading this engaging book. In The Rebel, Camus frames Metaphysical Rebellion in the words of Dostoyevsky’s Ivan Karamazov (among other ways). God is to be not denied, but refuted and condemned. The Problem of Evil on steroids, as it were. From pgs. 56-57: Ivan rejects the basic… Read More Camus and Karamazov, “The Rejection of Salvation.”

23 Feb 2015 AndrewLeave a comment