Stylized letter Z.

About Z

Z, aka Robert Hanna, is a 60-something cosmopolitan anarcho- or borderless philosopher, and previously was a tenured full professor of philosophy at a public university somewhere in North America, but still managed to escape with his life.

THE FATE OF ANALYSIS: Published on 1 October 2021, And Now Affordably Available in Hardcover, Softcover, & Epub.

The Fate of Analysis: Analytic Philosophy From Frege To The Ash-Heap of History, and Toward A Radical Kantian Philosophy of The Future, by Robert Hanna, is a comprehensive revisionist study of the history of Analytic philosophy from the early 1880s to the present, with special attention paid to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s work and the parallels and … [continue reading]

The Fate of Analysis: Analytic Philosophy From Frege To The Ash-Heap of History, And Toward a Radical Kantian Philosophy of the Future (Forthcoming in 2021).

Robert Hanna’s The Fate of Analysis: Analytic Philosophy From Frege To The Ash-Heap of History, And Toward a Radical Kantian Philosophy of the Future is a comprehensive revisionist study of the history of Analytic philosophy from the early 1880s to the present, with special attention paid to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s work and the parallels and overlaps … [continue reading]

On Paul Bali’s “How I Got Fired By The Ryerson Philosophy Department.”

Nemo: I just read Paul Bali’s “How I Got Fired By The Ryerson Philosophy Department.” I imagine this situation is all too common and vastly under-reported; most people would be devastated, depressed and cowed and perhaps few would have resisted the process. I wonder what was the agenda of the instigator of this affair, the … [continue reading]

Hazel Barnes’s “Self-Encounter: A Study in Existentialism,” Episode 3: To Leap Or Not To Leap.

I.  Introduction by Z Hazel Barnes was an American philosopher, the first translator of Sartre’s L’être et le néant, aka Being and Nothingness, into English, and the author of seven original books in Existentialist philosophy, including The Literature of Possibility: A Study in Humanistic Existentialism (1959) and An Existentialist Ethics (1967). In The Literature of … [continue reading]

Hazel Barnes’s “Self-Encounter: A Study in Existentialism,” Episode 2: The Far Side of Despair.

I.  Introduction by Z Hazel Barnes was an American philosopher, the first translator of Sartre’s L’être et le néant, aka Being and Nothingness, into English, and the author of seven original books in Existentialist philosophy, including The Literature of Possibility: A Study in Humanistic Existentialism (1959) and An Existentialist Ethics (1967). In The Literature of … [continue reading]

Philosophy and Profanity.

Profanity (aka cursing, cussing, swearing, etc.) is civil-disobedient, counter-cultural, defiant, disruptive, edgy speech. (Profanity can also occur via other forms of expression, e.g., gestures, voiced music/singing, or pictures, although for simplicity’s sake in this little essay, I’ll focus mostly on speech.) The terminology of profanity in contemporary secular societies usually derives from words standing for … [continue reading]

Why There Can’t Be a Natural Science of Consciousness.

Cognitive neuroscientists and science-obsessed philosophers of mind frequently claim that they’re “going to unravel the mystery of consciousness” via natural science one of these days.[i] But it just ain’t going to happen. Andrew has many excellent students who care more about real philosophy than about getting bank-able grades. One of them wrote to him recently … [continue reading]

Hazel Barnes’s “Self-Encounter: A Study in Existentialism,” Episode 1: Being and Nothingness.

I.  Introduction by Z Hazel Barnes was an American philosopher, the first translator of Sartre’s L’être et le néant, aka Being and Nothingness, into English, and the author of seven original books in Existentialist philosophy, including The Literature of Possibility: A Study in Humanistic Existentialism (1959) and An Existentialist Ethics (1967). In The Literature of … [continue reading]

Democratic Socialism and Social Anarchism: Convergence, Prima Facie Divergence, Reconciliation. Foundations of Anarchism and Socialism 9

APP Editors’ Note: This is the ninth in a series on the historical and philosophical foundations of anarchism and socialism, with special reference to social anarchism (aka “anarcho-socialism,” “libertarian socialism,” etc.) and democratic socialism. We decided to devote the first five installments of the series to the Democratic Socialists of America, aka the DSA, and … [continue reading]