Preview: /Review: Tommy Shelby and Brandon M. Terry, eds. To Shape a New World: Essays on the Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Cambridge, MA; London, England: Belknap Press, 2018), 463 pages./ To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, Harvard professors Tommie Shelby and Brandon M. Terry have produced a […]
Abstract: In our current unstable world, nuclear warfare, climate crises, and techno nihilism are three perilous clouds hovering over an anxious humanity. In this article I examine our current state of affairs with regard to the imminent risk of nuclear holocaust, rapid climate emergencies destroying the planet, and the cultural and political consequences of emerging
Preview: /Review: Randall Auxier, Eli Kramer, and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, eds. Rorty and Beyond (Lanham, Md, Lexington Books, 2019), 314 pages./ Richard Rorty (1931 – 2007) became a highly controversial figure, both within and without the ranks of academic philosophy upon publication of his 1979 book, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. The controversy over
Preview: /Review: Martha Nussbaum, The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019), 310 pages./ For decades Martha Nussbaum allied herself whole-heartedly with cosmopolitanism. No longer. She appealed at length to the righteousness of Stoic cosmopolitanism in past publications such as Cultivating Humanity in 1997. Now, according to The Cosmopolitan
Preview: In this essay, drawing on the case of Australia in particular, we develop the argument of “schools for democracy” as part of communities that prioritize developing people’s civic agency for human flourishing. We begin with the concept of social capital – norms, values, and practices of trust and reciprocity essential to vibrant civic life
Preview: Where should we look for an answer to the question whether a psychiatrist is an expert? In analyses of the concept of “expert”? In sociological studies? Or perhaps in opinions formulated by psychiatrists themselves? The subject is not as simple as it might first seem and the answer cannot be obvious. Certainly, psychiatrists are
Abstract: Eco says that which cannot be theorized must be narrated. What about that which cannot be narrated? What must we do about (and at) the limits of interpretation, especially as (performative) narration. This review essay takes a method from Giambattista Vico and applies it to the interpretation of Laurent Binet’s portrayal of Umberto Eco
Preview: /François Hartog interviewed by Marcin Rychter/ We have these three categories: past, present and future, and I think we can acknowledge these categories and that they contend against each other as universal. The ways they are being experienced, organized, linked vary in different places and in different times. Regimes of historicity is the concept that helps
Preview: /Review: Paulina Sosnowska, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger: Philosophy, Modernity, and Education (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019), 251 pages./ What is the vocation of philosophy? Should it be defined in terms of political or economic needs, or rather should philosophy autonomously establish its own goals and norms? One might say that philosophy began with
Preview: /Review: David Fiordalis ed., Buddhist Spiritual Practices: Thinking with Pierre Hadot on Buddhism, Philosophy, and the Path (Berkeley, CA: Mangalam Press, 2018), 333 pages./ David Fiordalis’ collection Buddhist Spiritual Practices: Thinking with Pierre Hadot on Buddhism, Philosophy and the Path (hereafter BSP) represents an invaluable contribution in what promises to be a fruitful emerging
