Far from being the product of a democratic revolution…the constitution of the United States was the result of a powerful reaction against democracy, and in favor of the traditions of the mother country. John Acton
Our goal is to become a meeting place for philosophers, students and others interested in sharing philosophical discourse. I am currently seeking contributors. If you think you are up to the task, contact me.
By edward j skrod ~ June 22nd, 2009. Filed under:Martin Heidegger.
I just discovered this gem. Hubert L. Dreyfus, Co-Author with Paul Rabinow of Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, recorded the entire Fall Semester of Heidegger’s Being & Time. In addition to being available on ITunes, it is also available HERE.
For those of you that are in my situation, in a small college with limited courses, this course is a GEM. I am systematically doing the readings in Being & Time according to the syllabus, then listening to the lectures. This is a fabulous resource. Here’s a copy of the syllabus.
By edward j skrod ~ June 1st, 2009. Filed under:Uncategorized.
For those of you that have discovered that analytic philosophy bores you to tears (like me), have no fear! There are plenty of graduate programs in Continental philosophy around the country.
I don’t. Well, that’s a lie. I watch ‘The Office.’ Critical Theorist and Philosopher Rick Roderick’s lecture on Nietzsche bitch slapped me around a bit for this decision of mine. Tune in to the 18:00 mark. I would encourage you to listen to the whole piece. It is brilliant. Here’s a sample:
“It is a stupid strategy to think that you can turn [TV] off.All that can happen is that they can turn you off.
As if you could escape an entire world, whose culture is being shaped by this and the subjectivities of millions of what will be culture and objective spirit… shaped by these new instruments and new forces.
As if one could escape it, by turning a switch. That’s why I say you can’t turn off TV.It can turn you off.But you can’t turn it off.You can’t make it disappear.But it can make you disappear…
Nietzsche when he talked about nihilism and the last man had no idea thatNihilism would be technologically achievable… And that it would not upset people as much as he thought. “
By edward j skrod ~ May 22nd, 2009. Filed under:Critical Theory.
I recently listened to a few lectures by Roderick on Nietzsche and was impressed. I found this little gem on google. Here, the late Roderick is interviewed at the University of Texas - Austin in 1987.
A preview:
“Why do the humanities dehumanize us? Why once I have got my degree in the humanities am I less human than when I started? Why are all my humanist teachers actually nihilists, people who believe in nothing?”
” A student, for example, in a class in my view, the first thing he should ask is he should look at the syllabus and go ‘Whyin the hell are we reading this? What good are these books? Why should I read them?”
“Recognize the Poverty of Student Life. The University has turned education into a poverty stricken experience…” (starting at 27:20)
By edward j skrod ~ May 18th, 2009. Filed under:Ethical Theory.
Today I bring you a few podcasts from Oxford University and Philosophy Bytes.
The first from Oxford’s “Interviews with Oxonians” is of Roger Crisp on Aristotle’s Ethics.
The second podcast is from Nigel Warburton’s Philosophy Bytes with Terence Irwin on Aristotle’s Ethics.
The third is a podcast on Applied Ethics with Julian Savulescu.
Relevant to the Ethical Theory class is the following interview with Warburton and Anthony Kenney on Aquinas’ Ethics.
Finally, a discussion on morality is never complete without Nietzsche, thus the following interview with Warburton and Christopher Janaway on Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals.
On another note, if you think you would like to contribute to the blog on a regular basis, please contact me and we can discuss access priviliges, etc.
If any of the above links are broken, please let me know.
A controversial song by The Cure which is a brief summary/commentary of/on Camus’ L’Etranger - Killing an Arab
(I hope the fair use act will cover this song. So do me a favor and don’t distribute this song for any other reason than to use it for its intellectual value.)
