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Leszek Kołakowski, the philosopher and communist dissident who spent most of his career at Oxford after fleeing Poland in 1968, died this Friday afternoon in an Oxford hospital. Reuters has a brief obituary here, and over at dotCommonweal I’ve excerpted an account of his life that I wrote last year for a book review. Meanwhile, [...]
Filed under: philosophy
by JL Wall
First, if you’re so inclined, go read Sharon’s post about losing a friend. The contrast with the type of grief she discussed and I followed up on is notable, but that aside, it’s a beautiful tribute to friendship and life.
I’ve realized that in the process of writing my post on grief, spectacle, [...]
Filed under: media/culture, philosophy
by JL Wall
Sharon Astyk lights on something rather interesting in her attack on the near-constant Michael Jackson memorializing:
The explanation is this - we love grief itself. It is so much fun to feel bad, to mourn, to grieve. I can still remember the death of a student in my high school, and the waves [...]
Filed under: media/culture, philosophy
Starting this afternoon I’ll be teaching a six-week course on modern philosophy here at Berkeley, so blogging may be a bit lighter than usual (if indeed there is any such thing). Those of you who are so inclined are, however, welcome to follow along with the syllabus.
Filed under: personal, philosophy
“Secondly, We may observe that opinions which contradict first principles, are distinguished, from other errors, by this:—That they are not only false but absurd; and, to discountenance absurdity, Nature hath given us a particular emotion—to wit, that of ridicule—which seems intended for this very purpose of putting out of countenance what is absurd, either in [...]
Filed under: philosophy
As an addendum to H.C.’s excellent post below, I can’t help wondering whether Damon Linker would be similarly happy to argue that since the inevitability of death, like that of doubt, “can be traced to the human condition as it exists in the here and now”, it follows that death, too, “is (and should be) the destiny [...]
Filed under: philosophy, religion
By H.C. Johns
Hello all! As John said yesterday in his extremely generous introduction, I will be guest blogging here (and at own my blog, The Other Right) for the next few weeks while he is on vacation. This is very exciting for me, as I’ve been reading Upturned Earth since quite a ways back and [...]
Filed under: agriculture, personal, philosophy
But first, these may be the smartest sentences I’ve read so far about Obama’s speech at Notre Dame:
… There is no straight line between doubt and a universalized discourse; doubt has a background too, and in the case of Catholic faith its not one that necessarily defaults to secular reasoning. (Not incidentally, this is the [...]
Filed under: personal, philosophy, politics, religion
Concerning a discussion of evidence for moral codes among non-human animals, Lee writes:
I think our resistance to seeing animals as in any way “moral” might be rooted in the Kantian legacy of modern moral philosophy. Roughly, for Kant, you’re only acting morally when you’re acting for the sake of the moral law, and in opposition [...]
Filed under: morality, philosophy
Responding to what I take to include my criticisms of laws defining “hate crimes” against the homeless, Ordinary Gentleman Will writes:
Obviously, intent matters. If someone is attacking people of a particular religious, ethnic or sexual orientation in an effort to harass, provoke or intimidate members of said group, it may be a good idea to [...]
Filed under: government/law, morality, philosophy