“Diogenes Sheltering in His Barrel,” by John William Waterhouse PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS #8: The philosophy of borders, immigration, and refugees. #7: The philosophy of old age. #6: Faces, masks, personal identity, and Teshigahara. #5: Processualism, organicism, and the two waves of the organicist revolution. #4: Realistic idealism: ten theses about mind-dependence. #3: Kant, universities, The Deep(er) … [continue reading]
Monthly Archives: October 2018
Democratic Socialism and Social Anarchism: Convergence, Prima Facie Divergence, Reconciliation. Foundations of Anarchism and Socialism 9
APP Editors’ Note: This is the ninth in a series on the historical and philosophical foundations of anarchism and socialism, with special reference to social anarchism (aka “anarcho-socialism,” “libertarian socialism,” etc.) and democratic socialism. We decided to devote the first five installments of the series to the Democratic Socialists of America, aka the DSA, and … [continue reading]
An Existential Argument for Anarchism. Foundations of Anarchism and Socialism 8
APP Editors’ Note: This is the eighth in a series on the historical and philosophical foundations of anarchism and socialism, with special reference to social anarchism (aka “anarcho-socialism,” “libertarian socialism,” etc.) and democratic socialism. We decided to devote the first five installments of the series to the Democratic Socialists … [continue reading]
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm. Foundations of Anarchism and Socialism 7
APP Editors’ Note: This is the seventh in a series on the historical and philosophical foundations of anarchism and socialism, with special reference to social anarchism (aka “anarcho-socialism,” “libertarian socialism,” etc.) and democratic socialism. We decided to devote the first five installments of the series to the Democratic Socialists of America, aka the DSA, and … [continue reading]
The Blue Pill Without Amnesia–On the Philosophical Foundations of Political Correctness, Part 3.
PART 1 PART 2 6. Coercive Liberalism “We are condemned to be free” may have been a key slogan of Existentialism, but it is equally true of today’s liberalism. But at least, the existentialists viewed the human condition as absurd, since we had to experience the responsibility of freedom without ever being able to shake … [continue reading]
The Creek and The Cloud.
APP Editors’ Note: As we’ve said many times, whereas professional academic philosophy imposes various kinds of self-defeatingly silly, vitiating constraints on the form and content of works of philosophy–in effect, intellectual, moral, and political border-patrolling–APP is committed to the radical contrary thesis that there are no in-principle constraints on the form and content of real … [continue reading]
The Blue Pill Without Amnesia–On the Philosophical Foundations of Political Correctness, Part 2.
PART 1 4. Reversed Teleology I wish to draw attention to a different aspect of the “retrospective twist” I described in part I of this essay. As I indicated, this technique is applied by reading works of, for instance, Kant, with a contemporary mindset. It is easy to frame Kant as a bigot, racist and … [continue reading]
Free Places, Not Safe Spaces. An Open Letter to Western University's Freedom of Expression Policy Committee
APP Editors’ Note: Impelled by an Ontario government mandate to produce a freedom of expression policy, the administration at Western University, aka University of Western Ontario, aka UWO, has created an Ad Hoc committee to create such a policy. From October 2 to 5 they will have consultative sessions with members of the campus community. … [continue reading]
The Blue Pill Without Amnesia–On the Philosophical Foundations of Political Correctness, Part 1.
1. Introduction Nietzsche is well known for a terrifying thought experiment: if one night, a demon would visit you in a dream, and reveal to you that you would re-live your live again and again for all eternity, what would you do? Nietzsche’s initial hunch is that most people would wake up screaming, having glimpsed … [continue reading]