1. Introduction, by Z Simone Weil was a French philosopher, religious mystic, and radical political activist. She died of tuberculosis in 1943 at the age of 34. Her Lectures on Philosophy is a 1978 translation of the transcript of a set of lectures Weil presented in French in 1933-34. In his Introduction to the translation, … [continue reading]

1. Introduction, by Z In part 2 of Proposed Roads to Freedom, Russell discusses many concrete social and political issues, and proposes a number of concrete solutions, in line with his favored doctrine, Guild Socialism–a federalist development of Kropotkin-style social anarchism. And in the last chapter, “The World As It Could Be Made,” he quite … [continue reading]

The one intelligible theory of the universe is … objective idealism [which acknowledges] the physical law as derived and special, the psychical alone as primordial … [and] matter [as] effete mind, inveterate habits becoming physical laws. (C.S. Peirce, Collected Papers, 6.245, 1891) The attempt to understand nature remains one of the basic objectives of Western … [continue reading]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

  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 … [continue reading]