Tag Archives: Philosophy

Reading Log: The Infinity of Lists (Umberto Eco)

I "finished" "reading" Umberto Eco’s fantabulous essay/anthology The Infinity of Lists. The scare quotes are necessary because Eco’s 400+ page volume is two books in one: an extended essay on the idea and example of lists in art and literature … Continue reading

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on Art and the Sun-Like Eyes of Man (Heinrich Blücher)

[photo by Aube Insanite] “The eyes of man are sun-like, because art comes and makes them more sun-like. Art is so mighty because it changes our perception of the world. It is almost as mighty as philosophy and not nearly … Continue reading

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Reading Log: On Being Blue (William Gass)

I don’t remember the chain of events that brought me to this extended rumination on "blue"– as color, characteristic and quality– but it wasn’t, as a I first suspected, a treatise on depression. Rather, Gass’ short (91pp) book considers blue … Continue reading

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A Surfeit of Seeming

Ihab Hassan (who you might remember from a previous entry here) hits another one out of the park with this piece in The Georgia Review, “The Way We Have Become: A Surfeit of Seeming”. A good bit: Here I reveal … Continue reading

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from Candide (Voltaire)

Pangloss was professor of metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology. He proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause, and that, in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron’s castle was the most magnificent of castles, and his lady the best of … Continue reading

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from Philosophical Investigations (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Here it is difficult as it were to keep our heads up,– to see that we must stick to the subjects of our everyday thinking, and not go astray and imagine that we have to describe extreme subtleties, which in … Continue reading

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Phistophicles, Lesser Known Greek Philosopher

The teachings of Phistophicles, lesser known ancient Greek philosopher, are now available for all to learn from…

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Reading Log: The Trial of Socrates (I. F. Stone)

Like many who have studied philosophy, Socrates has long had an established place in my intellectual pantheon. How could the man who essentially created Western philosophy occupy any lesser place? After reading I. F. Stone’s The Trial of Socrates I … Continue reading

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What is Art?

Let the commoners tell you, while I shall eat cake…

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Not Really About Bakhtin

My interest in literary theory has so greatly waned that I could do no more than skim Terry Eagleton’s article on Mikhail Bakhtin. But it did remind me that I was, at one point, captivated by his work, particularly his … Continue reading

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Habermas on the Death of Richard Rorty

Among contemporary philosophers, I know of none who equalled Rorty in confronting his colleagues – and not only them – over the decades with new perspectives, new insights and new formulations. This awe-inspiring creativity owes much to the Romantic spirit … Continue reading

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RIP: Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard, long a philosophical hero of mine, has died. Baudrillard is often lumped in with other postmodern French philosophers (Lyotard, Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari, etc) as retrospectively incomprehensible and oh-so-passe, revered only by a few graduate students and their mentoring … Continue reading

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Pessimism vs. Existentialism

As Sartre constantly reminds us, we are what we do. In short, existentialism is not a philosophy that allows us to feel sorry for ourselves in the midst of our malaise. It is a philosophy with which we can come … Continue reading

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Incisive Analysis?

If only a few more blog entries could approach Anscombe’s potent blend of incisiveness and brevity…

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37days

My discovery today (I’d be upset it took me so long except that just means I have a huge archive of wonderful stuff to read through): 37days. You can read about the blog if you want, but “write like hell” … Continue reading

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Sustaining Culture in a Dark Time

We work in the company of others (philosophers and farmers, artists and scientists, as we variously require), and we work in the dark. The historian Daniel Boorstin has remarked that ignoring the past in making decisions is like trying to … Continue reading

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Television and Good Art

I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art. This seems like a poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with. … Continue reading

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An Interview with Harold Bloom

Breakfast with Brontosaurus I have only three criteria for whether a work should be read and reread and taught to others, and they are: aesthetic splendour, cognitive power, and wisdom

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Science Paper Hoax

Remember when Alan Sokal published a gibberish paper in Social Text and people around the world proclaimed the death of postmodern literary theory and the exposure of the post-structuralist Emperor’s lack of clothes? Now that MIT students have done the … Continue reading

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Derrida’s Bumpersticker

“If I told you that you had a nice text/body, would you hold it/it against me?” via Graham Foust’s interview in Here Comes Everybody

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