philosophy - Encouragement

philosophy

Political Philosophy and the Question of Genre

I feel I might be reinventing the wheel.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 8: Sample Final Exam

Much has been said about the public's addiction to cable news or TikTok.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 7: Normative Ethics

Education is your responsibility to your community.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 6: Plato's "Apology"

The examined life is a radical proposition, and I can't tell you that everyone will be happier if they aim for it.

philosophy

On Nietzsche's Bees

Do you need to be conscious of history to know yourself?

philosophy

Lecture 5: Closing "Antigone," Opening Plato's "Apology of Socrates"

We are unable to use the law to gain a larger vision of what is right.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 4: Writing the Midterm

...I can believe that "everything is water" from my own life.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 3: The Ode to Man and a Definition of Humanity

"Antigone" serves as reflection on some incredibly uncomfortable truths.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 2: Introducing "Antigone"

It took me a long time to realize that "What is family?" is the question "Antigone" begins with and refuses to minimize.

philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy, Lecture 1: Porochista Khakpour's "Just (Don't) Do It" and Ursula K. Le Guin on Writing

You’ll notice that self-reflection, done right, probably isn’t going to lead to “everything is great and I have no complaints.”

philosophy

Plan for Introduction to Philosophy, Fall 2024

I'm putting together a philosophy class and I thought you might like to see the plan.

philosophy

Joan Didion, "On Self-Respect"

I want self-respect to claim its rightful place as an eminently useful concept.

philosophy

Emerson on Surfaces; Hamilton Nolan on Joe Biden

Emerson: "We live amid surfaces, and the true art of life is to skate well on them."

philosophy

Camus on Art, Wealth, and Valuation

In Create Dangerously, Camus asks if art must either be "merely entertaining," trying to connect to the majority, or if it will get stuck expressing "nothing but negativity," trying to "blindly reject society."

philosophy

Francis Bacon, "Of Delays"

...the logic behind promoting practical, effective action in any and all cases has become a wasteland for powerful abusers and their craven, crank fanboys.

philosophy

Philosophy and Advertising

If we do separate philosophy from religion cleanly, then is philosophy relegated to being a cult?

philosophy

Heidegger: "Philosophizing... is extra-ordinary questioning about the extra-ordinary."

Heidegger's talk of philosophy's engagement with the "extra-ordinary" is not mere provocation.

philosophy

Heidegger: "whoever engages in philosophy must know a few things"

Heidegger links philosophy and history: "philosophy either projects far beyond its own time or else binds its time back to this time's earlier and inceptive past."

philosophy

On Heidegger's Reading of the "Ode to Man" in Introduction to Metaphysics

Why should we care about Heidegger's reading of Antigone's "Ode to Man?"

philosophy

A Quick Comment on Leo Strauss' "Restatement on Xenophon's Hiero" and the phenomenon of "Red Caesarism"

...some academics contend the United States has entered a "post-Constitutional" period where the emergence of a "Caesar" is necessary and/or deserved.

philosophy

Poetry and Nihilism: Confronting the Nothing

My aim is to introduce the concept of nihilism as a philosophical and academic matter.

philosophy

Heidegger's "Unfaith"

...I want to look at some remarks of Heidegger which concern how faith relates to the question "Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?"

philosophy

Introducing Heidegger's "Fundamental Question of Metaphysics"

...I was not convinced in the least that "Why is there anything at all?" was a good question.

heidegger

On the Prefatory Note of Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics"

In my early twenties, I was assigned Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics for a class. I did not get very far.

philosophy

On the Problem of "Missing Out"

We believe who we were could understand who we are.