From Reductionism to Simplicity: Against Modernist  Minimalism and Towards a New Monastic Minimalism, #1.

Figure 1: Courtyard of the St. Benedictusberg Abbey, designed by Dom. Hans van der Laan. Photograph by author. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Modernism and Minimalism: Reductionism as Paradigm 2. Monastic Minimalism: Six Defining Features 3. Against Mechanistic Materialism 4. Conclusion This essay will be published in four installments, one per section. You can also download … [continue reading]

Aphorisms Toward A Cultural Philosophy For The Present Time, #8–From the Fear Machine to the Malign Metaverse.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction: Autonomism at the Gates 2. Aphorisms 1-11: Social Dictatorship 3. Aphorisms 12-24: State Power 4. Aphorisms 25-38: Guilt and Exculpation 5. Aphorisms 39-52: Confusion and Control 6. Aphorisms 53-61: The Myth of Order 7. Aphorisms 62-83: Mechanisms of the State Apparatus 8. Aphorisms 84-109: From the Fear-Machine to the Malign … [continue reading]

Aphorisms Toward A Cultural Philosophy For The Present Time, #7–Introduction: Autonomism at the Gates.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction: Autonomism at the Gates 2. Aphorisms 1-11: Social Dictatorship 3. Aphorisms 12-24: State Power 4. Aphorisms 25-38: Guilt and Exculpation 5. Aphorisms 39-52: Confusion and Control 6. Aphorisms 53-61: The Myth of Order 7. Aphorisms 62-83: Mechanisms of the State Apparatus This is the seventh installment in the series, although … [continue reading]

Toward a Critique of Psychedelic Reason, #5–Elaboration 3, & Conclusion.

(Vervaeke, 2022) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Magic Mushrooms and Drug Use in Modern Society 3. A Preliminary Phenomenology of Psychedelic Experience 4. Elaborations 1 &2 5. Elaboration 3, & Conclusion REFERENCES This essay will be published in five installments; this fifth and final installment contains the third part of section 4, the Conclusion, … [continue reading]

Toward a Critique of Psychedelic Reason, #3–A Preliminary Phenomenology of Psychedelic Experience.

(Vervaeke, 2022) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Magic Mushrooms and Drug Use in Modern Society 3. A Preliminary Phenomenology of Psychedelic Experience 4. Elaborations 5. Conclusion This essay will be published in five installments; this installment contains section 3. But you can also download and read or share a .pdf of the complete text … [continue reading]

Toward a Critique of Psychedelic Reason, #2–Magic Mushrooms and Drug Use in Modern Society.

(Vervaeke, 2022) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Magic Mushrooms and Drug Use in Modern Society 3. A Preliminary Phenomenology of Psychedelic Experience 4. Elaborations 5. Conclusion This essay will be published in five installments; this installment contains section 2. But you can also download and read or share a .pdf of the complete text … [continue reading]

A Philosopher’s Diary, #13–Cosmos and Care: Reflections on Self-Cultivation.

The descriptive sub-title of this blog—Against Professional Philosophy—originally created and rolled out in 2013, is “A Co-Authored Anarcho-Philosophical Diary.” Now, ten years later, after more than 350,000 views of the site, this series, A Philosopher’s Diary, finally literally instantiates that description by featuring short monthly entries by one or another of the members of the … [continue reading]

Sterile Spaces, Synthetic Humans, and Disentanglement: High Modernism and Our Alienation From Nature, #3.

Figure 1: Shigeru Ban’s “The House Without Walls.” Image via: arquitecturaviva.com. Photograph by: Shinkenchiku Sha. [High modernism] is best conceived as a strong, one might even say muscle-bound, version of the self-confidence about scientific and technical progress, the expansion of production, the growing satisfaction of human needs, the mastery of nature (including human nature), and, … [continue reading]