1. Introduction, by Z Here is the Wikipedia sub-article on Russell during the First World War: First World War During the First World War, Russell was one of the few people to engage in active pacifist activities and in 1916, he was dismissed from Trinity College following his conviction under the Defence of the Realm … [continue reading]
Author Archives: Z
Real Philosophy Re-Discovered 1: Edith Stein’s “On the Problem of Empathy.” (Re-edited March 2018)
I. Introduction, by Z As irreducibly conscious, intentional animals, and persons, we’re essentially embodied. That seems phenomenologically self-evident. It also seems phenomenologically self-evident that we primitively encounter other people emotionally, and above all empathically, through our own living, minded bodies, and theirs. Moreover, if we’re essentially embodied, then the emotions of others are directly presented … [continue reading]
Seeing as Awakening: APP’s New Avatar.
All too often, as in advertising and political propaganda, images are used for the ideological manipulation of cognition. But by the same token–namely, their highly effective non-conceptual, non-propositional psychological impact–images can also have a manipulation-resisting effect, subverting the little cognitive “Big Brothers” we’ve all had more or less quietly inserted into us while dreaming, dreaming, … [continue reading]
Is Philosophy Inherently Escapist?
W2: I wanted to raise a question in light of your recent post, Hyper-Disciplined Minds. One of my concerns is that some problems you raise for professionalized philosophers are, in fact, problems for anyone who pursues philosophy full time. The fact that experts in critical thinking are siphoned off into the ivory tower, where society … [continue reading]
Are You Secretly APP? –Here’s What You Can Do About It.
1. So you’re a professional academic philosopher. In all likelihood, this implies that you are someone who, at some time, loved real philosophy and wanted to make it your life’s work. 2. But then it also means: (i) that in all likelihood either you are currently are going through, or you actually went through, a … [continue reading]
The APA is a PAC for Hyper-Disciplining Your Mind (APA.org Re-Post, With an Afterword by Z).
1. From: APA@apaonline.org <APA@apaonline.org> Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 12:48 PM To: Z Subject: A letter from Robert Audi to all APA members Dear Colleagues, I am writing you about opportunities and needs of the profession of philosophy and the APA. As you know, the APA sponsors three international meetings a year, supports teaching and … [continue reading]
Home Sweet Soames: “Philosophy’s True Home” (NYT Re-Post, With an Afterword by Z).
1. Philosophy’s True Home, by Scott Soames. New York Times, 7 March 2016. Scott Soames is director of the school of philosophy at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He is the author of “The Analytic Tradition in Philosophy.” We’ve all heard the argument that philosophy is isolated, an … [continue reading]
APA Pacific Division Special: The Mall. By V.
APP Editors’ Note: V is a full professor of philosophy at a research university, with some 30 years of experience –and membership in the APA. I was wandering through the mall. Not because I wanted to, but once in a while, these days, one needs something that just happens to be at a store that … [continue reading]
APP is Not Alone, Sort-Of: “Where Academic Philosophy Went Wrong,” “Alternative Academias,” & “The Career Move That Dare Not Speak Its Name” (CH, PP, and DN Re-Posts, With Afterwords by Z)
1. Where Academic Philosophy Went Wrong, by Charles Huenemann. CH’s personal blog, 19 August 2014 A potted history: I believe Peter Sloterdijk is right that the Enlightenment has been followed by philosophical cynicism, or an impressive array of natural knowledge unaccompanied by any faith in providence. The U.S., which became the dominant intellectual and cultural … [continue reading]
Philosoflicks 5: caesargodkantgoldman.
WHAT IS A PHILOSOFLICK? In “Let’s Make More Movies,” the epistemological anarchist Paul Feyerabend wrote this: The separation of subjects that is such a pronounced characteristic of modern philosophy is … not altogether undesirable. It is a step on the way to a more satisfactory type of myth. What is needed to proceed further is … [continue reading]