Welcome to the cosmic wormhole that will take you directly to The Eerie, Uncanny House of Cinema, where Mr K and Mr N are already waiting for you, HERE. Philosoflicks and Against Professional Philosophy are sub-projects of the online mega-project Philosophy Without Borders, which is home-based on Patreon here. Please consider becoming a patron! … [continue reading]
DARE TO THINK FOR YOURSELF! (Preface and Complete, Downloadable Text) Mr Nemo Philosophically Narrates One Year in The Age of Trump
PREFACE “Mr Nemo” is a pseudonym adopted by an angry, unemployed philosopher: me. “Trump” names a President of the United States of America, elected on 8 November 2016. “The WTFU Party” names an alternative political party created by me on 22 November 2016, in reaction and response to Trump’s election. This lightly-edited compilation of short … [continue reading]
Canon Wars, Round 2: The Multi-Culti Critique of Western Philosophy.
Mainstream contemporary professional academic philosophy is seriously under attack, and not just by APP. In a recent edgy essay, “Taking Down Descartes: The Canon Wars,” I critically analyzed and historically contextualized Christia Mercer’s very interesting New York Times article from 25 September 2017, “Descartes Is Not Our Father,” and drew two main conclusions: It’s … … [continue reading]
Computability and Physics.
APP Editors’ Note: Andreas Keller is an independent philosopher living in Hannover, Germany, and currently working as a computer programmer. *** In Part 3, Section 2.2 (“Natural Mechanism, Computability, and Anti-Mechanism”) of “The Rational Human Condition”[i], Robert Hanna proposes a definition of what he calls “natural mechanism,” in terms of mechanistic laws of physics. He … [continue reading]
Performance Philosophy, Public Philosophy, and Borderless Philosophy.
Two New Movements in Contemporary Philosophy Two extremely interesting movements in contemporary philosophy have emerged simultaneously, but also almost entirely independently of one another, within the past five years: performance philosophy and public philosophy. I think that both performance philosophy and public philosophy are not only extremely interesting, but also extremely important. That is because … [continue reading]
Susan Haack’s “The Real Question: Can Philosophy be Saved?”
APP Editors’ Note: “The Real Question: Can Philosophy be Saved?” originally appeared in Free Inquiry 37, 6 (2017). “Our editor” refers to FI’s editor, Tom Flynn. Once again—now, heaven help me, even in the pages of Free Inquiry!—I find myself “otherwise minded,”[1] the cannibal among the missionaries. Why so? I certainly share our editor’s sense … [continue reading]
On Philosophical Failures.
Eighteen months ago, in “‘Failed Academics’: Schopenhauer, Peirce, and the (D)evolution of University Philosophy,” APP wrote about the meta-philosophically fascinating phenomenon of great philosophers who are also notable social “failures,” and in particular “failed academics.” We focused on Schopenhauer and Peirce: but we might just as easily have written about Diogenes, Socrates, Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Thoreau, … [continue reading]
Taking Down Descartes: The Canon Wars.
The history of modern philosophy begins with Descartes, right? Wrong. In “Descartes Is Not Our Father,” a very interesting–but I also think, very wrong-headed– essay published in The New York Times on 25 September 2017, Christia Mercer writes this: René Descartes has long been credited with the near-single-handed creation of modern philosophy. Generations of students … [continue reading]
The Duck, the Fish, and the Sharks: A Parable.
Almost everyone has heard the story about the duck and the fish. Some ducks are swimming around in a pond; one of them looks down and sees some fish swimming around directly beneath him. The duck says: “Hey guys! How’s the water down there?” Then one of the fish turns to another one and says: … [continue reading]
Professional Disorientation.
APP Editors’ Note: Jeremy Tauzer is a PhD student in philosophy at Saint Louis University. INTRODUCTION Imagine, or perhaps recall, the ideals of the incoming philosophy grad student. This student has emerged from encounters with the sarcasm of Socrates, the loftiness of Plato, the painstaking system-making of Aristotle, the epistemological turmoil and ethical theorizing of … [continue reading]