Real Philosophy Re-Discovered 4: Simone Weil’s “Lectures on Philosophy.” With an Introduction by Z.

1. Introduction, by Z Simone Weil was a French philosopher, religious mystic, and radical political activist. She died of tuberculosis in 1943 at the age of 34. Her Lectures on Philosophy is a 1978 translation of the transcript of a set of lectures Weil presented in French in 1933-34. In his Introduction to the translation, … [continue reading]

How to Become an Official Enemy of the Professional Academic State. The Timeline of the Sartwell Case, and What It All Means

1. The Timeline of the Sartwell case.  Feb. 24 – Sartwell’s post against the APA statement on bullying: http://eyeofthestorm.blogs.com/eye_of_the_storm/2016/02/bully-for-you.html  Feb. 27 – Sartwell’s post stating his intention to leave academia: http://eyeofthestorm.blogs.com/eye_of_the_storm/2016/02/out.html Feb. 28 – Sartwell accuses Linda Zagzebski of plagiarism and posts a link to a music video by Miranda Lambert called “Time to Get … [continue reading]

Real Philosophy Re-Discovered 3. Bertrand Russell’s “Proposed Roads to Freedom,” Chapter VIII: The World As It Could Be Made. (Cornwall, NY: Cornwall Press, 1918, With an Introduction by Z.)

1. Introduction, by Z In part 2 of Proposed Roads to Freedom, Russell discusses many concrete social and political issues, and proposes a number of concrete solutions, in line with his favored doctrine, Guild Socialism–a federalist development of Kropotkin-style social anarchism. And in the last chapter, “The World As It Could Be Made,” he quite … [continue reading]

The Organicist Conception of the World. By L_E & Z, On Behalf of the APP Circle.

The one intelligible theory of the universe is … objective idealism [which acknowledges] the physical law as derived and special, the psychical alone as primordial … [and] matter [as] effete mind, inveterate habits becoming physical laws. (C.S. Peirce, Collected Papers, 6.245, 1891) The attempt to understand nature remains one of the basic objectives of Western … [continue reading]

Real Philosophy Re-Discovered 2. Bertrand Russell’s “Proposed Roads to Freedom,” Introduction. (Cornwall, NY: Cornwall Press, 1918, With an Introduction by Z.)

1. Introduction, by Z Here is the Wikipedia sub-article on Russell during the First World War: First World War During the First World War, Russell was one of the few people to engage in active pacifist activities and in 1916, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm … [continue reading]

The New Prison of Language: Some Words in English Against the Oppression of Mandatory English in Professional Philosophy.

I would like to begin with a question: why are we being compelled to write and to communicate in English inside the professional academic philosophical world? It seems to be a trivial question that one could easily answer by saying that English is “the most universal language,” and “the global language par excellence.” But this … [continue reading]

Real Philosophy Re-Discovered 1: Edith Stein’s “On the Problem of Empathy.” (Re-edited March 2018)

I. Introduction, by Z As irreducibly conscious, intentional animals, and persons, we’re essentially embodied. That seems phenomenologically self-evident. It also seems phenomenologically self-evident that we primitively encounter other people emotionally, and above all empathically, through our own living, minded bodies, and theirs. Moreover, if we’re essentially embodied, then the emotions of others are directly presented … [continue reading]

Seeing as Awakening: APP’s New Avatar.

All too often, as in advertising and political propaganda, images are used for the ideological manipulation of cognition. But by the same token–namely, their highly effective non-conceptual, non-propositional psychological impact–images can also have a manipulation-resisting effect, subverting the little cognitive “Big Brothers” we’ve all had more or less quietly inserted into us while dreaming, dreaming, … [continue reading]