APP Editors’ Note: The following essay was an invited submission to the online journal Analyse & Kritik, intended for its forthcoming special issue on “Rorty and Paradigm Change in Philosophy.” But now it has a philosophical life of its own. The complete version of the essay follows directly below; and here’s a downloadable .pdf of … [continue reading]
Monthly Archives: March 2019
On Solving Professional Philosophy’s Irrelevance Problem.
In Robert Hanna’s recent essay, “How to Escape Irrelevance: Performance Philosophy, Public Philosophy, and Borderless Philosophy”–itself building on Carlo Cellucci’s recent essay, “Philosophy at a Crossroads: Escaping From Irrelevance”–Hanna describes and critically analyzes two contra-professional-academic-philosophy movements, namely public philosophy and performance philosophy. Both kinds of philosophy respond to the increasing irrelevance of professional academic philosophy, … [continue reading]
An Open Letter to the University of Chicago Philosophy Department, Re: “Thinking And Being: A Conference With Irad Kimhi.”
All theory, my friend, is grey But green life’s golden tree.(Faust I) If there were a verb meaning ‘to believe falsely,’ it would not have a meaningful first person present indicative. (L. Wittgenstein) I was thinking, which is something a man should not do. (Dean Jagger as Colonel Stovall, in “Twelve O’Clock High,” Twentieth Century … [continue reading]
The New Inquisitors.
Back in 2010, nobody expected the identitarian inquisition. Their chief weapons are fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to identity politics. They have come to dominate universities, centrist and leftist political parties, much of the mass media, and the most powerful corporate tech giants. The chief dogma of The Identitarian Church is … [continue reading]