Previous Installments #1: Introduction, and On Sources. Section II: In An Instant Even if mustering up the courage to decide something requires time, making the decision itself happens in an instant. Likewise, to become aware of something often happens in an instant. Instantaneousness and insight share a deep and unexplored connection. Heidegger called this connection … [continue reading]
Monthly Archives: August 2019
On Leonard Nelson’s “The Socratic Method.”
You can also download a .pdf version of this essay, HERE. The Socratic method … is the art of teaching not philosophy but philosophizing, the art of teaching not about philosophers but of making philosophers of the students…. If there is such a thing at all as instruction in philosophy, it can only be instruction … [continue reading]
Fragments of Reality, Fragments of Solidarity.
In this essay, I’d like to respond Michelle Maiese’s thought-provoking recent critical piece on APP, “Smithereens: Reflections in a Black Mirror.” Maiese presents the following (reconstructed) argument: (1) Socialism—whether democratic socialism or social anarchism (aka anarcho-socialism, libertarian socialism, etc.)—is fundamentally concerned with respect for universal human dignity; with human freedom of thought, expression, choice, and action; with … [continue reading]
Regressive “Progressivism”: Andrew Yang and the Freedom Dividend.
Do not be fooled by Andrew Yang! I’ve seen otherwise well-meaning Liberals and Progressives falling for Yang’s “Freedom Dividend”-centered presidential candidacy. Yang’s plan seems simple and obviously beneficial to the very constituencies Liberals and Progressives tend to fight for. Nevertheless, Yang either does not understand very basic macroeconomics or he is a right-wing wolf in … [continue reading]
The Economic Philosopher.
APP Editors’ Note: Jeremy Tauzer is a PhD student in philosophy at Saint Louis University. The power of suggestion which is exerted through things and persons and which, instead of telling the child what he must do, tells him what he is, and thus leads him to become durably what he has to be, is … [continue reading]
Thoughts on Postmodernity 1: An Impossible Presentation.
Imagine being introduced to someone at a party. A friend of yours wants you to meet someone she knows and facilitates an encounter. Even before you have shaken hands with your new conversation partner, he exclaims: “I am not an alcoholic!”, before proceeding to tell you his name. Chances are that you will think your … [continue reading]
Statism, Capitalism, and Beyond.
THINKING FOR A LIVING: A PHILOSOPHER’S NOTEBOOK (SECOND SERIES, INSTALLMENT 14) PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS IN THE SECOND SERIES #13: Identity ad absurdum: a critique of the cultural appropriation argument. #12: Neo-Kantianism and anti-Kantianism: a primer for contemporary philosophers. #11: From Bertrand Russell to Brazilian carnaval: how to make the world as it could be made. #10: … [continue reading]
Captions #4–The Philosophical Transfiguration Of The Commonplace.
Previous Installments: #3: Philosophical Reflections On Love And Picture-Perfect Experiences. #2: The Cartesian Corollary. #1: Captions (To The Cartoons We Live)–In Defense of Captions & A Curriculum Vitae. Arthur Danto wrote a very interesting book, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace–whose title he’d most respectfully borrowed from a Muriel Spark novel, The Prime of Miss Jean … [continue reading]