RH: Last night between sleeps I was thinking about two of our recent posts—“Immanuel Kant—Racist and Colonialist?,”[i] and “Being Oppressed vs. Being Offended: Why A Real Dialogue About Racism is Still Far Away,”[ii]—in relation to each other. The Kant post criticizes ad hominem attacks on classical figures in the history of philosophy in the name … [continue reading]
Author Archives: Otto Paans
Philosophy and Cognition in the Age of Mechanical-Digital Reproduction, #3—The Ground of the Aura.
Previous Installments in This Series #2: Modes of Perception, Modes of Existence #1: Introduction: The Disappearance of Authenticity, The Appearance of Estrangement III. The Ground of the Aura In his 1936 essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin introduces one of his most notorious concepts: the “aura” of a … [continue reading]
Being Oppressed vs. Being Offended: Why A Real Dialogue About Racism is Still Far Away.
Let me begin with two assertions, and an important distinction. The first assertion is that every human animal possessing a set of undamaged minimal capacities for consciousness, self-consciousness, cognizing, caring and feeling, choosing and acting freely, and rationality, even if they don’t always use those capacities properly or well, is a human person with absolute, … [continue reading]
Meditations & Mediations, #6—Inwardness.
Previous Installments: #5: Recurrence. #4: Movement. #3: Context. #2: In an Instant. #1: Introduction, and On Sources. Section VI: Inwardness Every focal point possesses an infinite inwardness. Every concept or moment in a space of thought can be taken as point of departure and unfold itself infinitely. To explore this inwardness requires an inward attitude: … [continue reading]
How To Do Real Metaphysics: 22 Theses.
Thus profound metaphysics is rooted in an implicit geometry which —whether we will or not—confers spatiality upon thought; if a metaphysician could not draw, what would he think? —Gaston Bachelard, Dialectics of Inside and Outside [I]f pure experience means to know things just as they are, then simplicity or passivity are not characteristics of it––the … [continue reading]
Philosophy and Cognition in the Age of Mechanical-Digital Reproduction, #2—Modes of Perception, Modes of Existence.
Previous Installments in This Series #1: Introduction: The Disappearance of Authenticity, The Appearance of Estrangement II. Modes of Perception, Modes of Existence Against the background of alienation, the media of photography and early cinema developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The acceleration of the world, so clearly discernible in Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, … [continue reading]
Five Theses About Real Philosophy, #2.
The first installment in this series is HERE. I. Introduction Some time ago, one of APP’s readers asked how real philosophy as we define and practice it (two activities that are inextricably connected) is supposed to be different from other types of philosophy, and whether all philosophy that is not real philosophy should be regarded … [continue reading]
Criticizing the Criticism: Some Reflections on Professional Academic Thought and Real Philosophy.
The essay “Echoes of the Future” has a publishing history that I would like to share here. As things stand currently, it will be published in its final version in the journal Borderless Philosophy, although an early version was published in installments here on APP. Part I can be found HERE, part II HERE, part … [continue reading]
Echoes of the Future: Apprehensive Aesthetics for a Bygone World, #4–Apprehension.
APP EDITORS’ NOTE: The essay below, Otto Paans’s “Echoes of the Future: Apprehensive Aesthetics for a Bygone World,” will appear here in serial form, and then be published in full, in a slightly revised version, in Borderless Philosophy 3 (2020). This is the fourth and final installment. But you can read or download a .pdf … [continue reading]
Echoes of the Future: Apprehensive Aesthetics for a Bygone World, #3–Transformation.
APP EDITORS’ NOTE: The essay below, Otto Paans’s “Echoes of the Future: Apprehensive Aesthetics for a Bygone World,” will appear here in serial form, and then be published in full, in a slightly revised version, in Borderless Philosophy 3 (2020). This is the third installment. But you can read or download a .pdf of the … [continue reading]