Dec 18, 2020Member-onlyHere Goes Heidegger In A NutshellAristotelian Essence, Cancelled — Heidegger criticizes Aristotle’s study of beings (“What is?”, the question treated in Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics) because it assumes things/objects as the primary focus for the study of Being. For Aristotle there are things that occur naturally (like trees and animals) and things that are made or produced, like chairs…Philosophy2 min readPhilosophy2 min read
Dec 5, 2020Member-onlyOn the Perils Of PhilosophyRelativism. Skepticism. Incommunicability. Nihilism. Death. — Philosophy is an extreme intellectual sport. We would like to believe that it is good always, but doing philosophy can be extremely dangerous. Most obvious is the risk of death. Philosophy is littered with those who have been, quite literally, killed for the practice. …Philosophy3 min readPhilosophy3 min read
Oct 25, 2020Member-onlyThe Death of PhilosophersPhilosophy is preparation for death. So said Socrates, Greek philosopher par excellence, martyr to the cause, executed by the state in 399BC for corrupting the youth. According to his pupil Plato, who recorded the scene of his death in the Phaedo, when friends snuck into his prison cell to help…Philosophy6 min readPhilosophy6 min read
Aug 3, 2019Member-onlyEpicurus’ Happiness Chill Pill, A Riff1. Don’t Fear God Epicurus believed that whatever entity created the cosmos, it could not possibly be impressed by anything humans are capable of doing. When you can move mountains, why would you be interested in watching ants build a mound? So we need not worry about God’s judgment because God isn’t lording over…Philosophy3 min readPhilosophy3 min read
Jul 30, 2019The Story of Space: Elaborations of Void in Hellenistic PhilosophyOnce we get to Modern Philosophy, concepts of space become more familiar and consequently feel more “real.” It is difficult for us to relate to space as a whirling receptacle steered by Goddesses; or to Aristotle’s containing surfaces comprising place. We speak of space and place as if these conceptions…Philosophy6 min readPhilosophy6 min read
Jul 17, 2019Apropos Philosophy Moving HouseBelieve me you, I am aware! I’m currently taking a non-fiction writing class to see if I can still be schooled to write differently. This is part of the great unlearning those of us trained academically must do. But this also raises an interesting question for me… Philosophy is, in…Philosophy2 min readPhilosophy2 min read
Jul 14, 2019Member-only10 Kinds of Public Philosophy, and A Doubt About the Very NameThere was a recent flutter on Twitter about public philosophy, what it is and what counts as public philosophy. I opined that I didn’t think that you could be both a public philosopher and an academic, but quickly realized that maybe what I meant was that you couldn’t easily be…Philosophy5 min readPhilosophy5 min read
Jul 6, 2019Member-onlyThe Strange Unpredictability at the Heart of Our Common Humanity“The second challenge arises from the use of adjectives like ‘hidden’. I think that such a description of large parts of everyday life has become an increasingly mistaken one. The sheer amount of locationally referenced information about everyday life that is available or is coming on stream, and which by…Machine Learning3 min readMachine Learning3 min read
Jul 3, 2019Member-onlyHiding In Our Own Lives in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism“If there is to be a fight, let it be a fight over capitalism. Let it be an insistence that raw surveillance capitalism is as much a threat to society as it is to capitalism itself. This is not a technical undertaking, not a program for advanced encryption, improved data…Artificial Intelligence3 min readArtificial Intelligence3 min read
Jun 26, 2019Member-onlyQueer Space: Duane Michals’ Photographic Series “Things Are Queer”Duane Michals’ black and white photographic series “Things are Queer” (1973) begins with the photograph of a bathroom that is framed by the negative space between bathtub, sink, and toilet. At first, it is these bright white objects that we see, but we are soon drawn into the dark spaces…LGBTQ6 min readLGBTQ6 min read
