Logical Trumpism in action (Vinjamuri, 2026) A.J. Ayer wrote Language, Truth, and Logic in order to tell the world about Logical Empiricism (Ayer, 1935/1952). The purpose of Robert Hanna’s essay, “Trump, Truth, and Logic,” is to tell the world about what he calls Logical Trumpism. To the extent that the Logical Empiricists held that the … [continue reading]

(APP, 2013-2024) In his essay, “Against and Beyond Professional Academic Philosophy: A Synopsis,” Robert Hanna raises the question: what are the material conditions for the real-world implementation of what he calls “life-shaping philosophy”? Then he argues that three material conditions need to be jointly satisfied in order to implement life-shaping philosophy in the real world: … [continue reading]

(Smith, 2014) In his essay “Analytic Philosophy is Ending Not With a Bang But a Whimper,” Robert Hanna argues that first, Analytic philosophy as originally conceived, has been dead since the early 1950s, and actually has no future whatsoever, and second, Kant’s theoretical philosophy is actually significantly closer in content and methodology to classical Analytic … [continue reading]

In his essay “Philosophy Professionalized: How We Killed the Thing We Loved,” Robert Hanna defines “real philosophy” as follows: By real philosophy, [I] mean authentic, serious, synoptic, systematic reflection on the individual and collective human condition, and on the natural and social world in which human and other conscious animals live, move, and have their … [continue reading]

(Hanna and Paans, 2020: p. 35; diagram created by Otto Paans) In a companion-piece essay to his essay “Running On Empty: Why Hasn’t Professional Academic Philosophy Produced Any Important Ideas in the Last 50 Years?,” namely, “How To Make Two Neglected Brilliant Ideas into Important or Even Revolutionary Ideas,” Robert Hanna identifies two of those … [continue reading]

“The Death of Socrates by Means of the APA,” by Q, after “The Death of Socrates,” by Jacques-Louis David, 1787 (APP, 2013) By a brilliant philosophical idea, Robert Hanna means a philosophical idea that manifests great intellectual creativity, insight, and originality, opens up a new way of looking at a large domain of concepts, facts, … [continue reading]

(Philosophics, 2022) In “The Philosophy of Limits and Life-Shaping Philosophy,” Robert Hanna argues that, bracketting the issue of transcendental idealism, Kant’s 18th century philosophy of limits can be smoothly exported to our contemporary 21st century philosophical situation. Considered superficially, one might think that this exploration is essentially negative and skeptical. But on the contrary, upon … [continue reading]

(GPC, 2019) In Voltaire’s Candide, the scathing critique of abstract, world-alienated, self-alienating, sanctimonious theoretical philosophy in general, and of professional academic philosophy in particular—specifically exemplified by 18th century Leibnizian/Wolffian rationalism and theodicy, or “theo-idiocy,” satirically represented by that iconic moralistic idiot of professional academic philosophy, Dr Pangloss—equally evocatively and provocatively concludes with the phrase “il … [continue reading]

(Murphy, 2021) In “The Analytic-Continental Divide, and How to Transcend it,” Robert Hanna argues that The Great Divide between Analytic philosophy and Continental philosophy is essentially an artifact of the social-institutional structure of the professional academy in the latter half of the 20th century and the first three decades of the 21st century, and if … [continue reading]

(Russell, 1912/2009) In “The Eleven Fundamental Problems of Philosophy and How to Solve The Hyper-Fundamental Problem,” Robert Hanna formulates a list of the eleven fundamental problems of philosophy, then identifies one of them–the problem of rational anthropology: what is the nature, meaning or purpose, and value of individual and collective rational human existence in a … [continue reading]