Giambattista Vico

5,481 words

Author’s Note:

This is the transcript by V.S. of my speech “Vico and Modern Anti-Liberalism,” given at The London Forum on Saturday, September 27, 2014. I have heavily edited it, rewriting it in places. I want to thank Jez Turner and The London Forum team for a memorable event. 

Today I’m going to talk about a topic that’s somewhat esoteric. (more…)

Young Sailor Ripley lacked “parental guidance.”

1,444 words

In the past, people used to blame the gods or the fates for their misfortunes. These days, they like to blame their parents.

• “My parents were sedentary and fat, and their bad example is why I grew up sedentary and fat.”
• “My father was always uptight. And now I’m uptight and can’t enjoy life.”
• “Growing up with a mother who drank, it was natural that I would take to drink as well.”

(more…)

Bust of Epicurus

1,291 words

Trans. Guillaume Durocher

Translator’s Note:

The following is drawn from Pierre Hadot, Qu’est-ce que la philosophie antique ? (Paris: Gallimard, 1995), 191-96. Some non-English secondary sources have been removed from Hadot’s footnotes. The title is editorial.

To achieve the healing of the soul and a life in accord with the fundamental [Epicurean] choice, it is not enough to have learned the Epicurean philosophical discourse. (more…)

40:21 / 156 words

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Beginning in August of 1999, I gave a series of eight lectures on “The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophies East and West,” (more…)

67:53 / 223 words

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Beginning in August of 1999, I gave a series of eight lectures on “The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophies East and West,” (more…)

3,431 words

English original here

El tema central de la filosofía de Heidegger tiene un gran número de nombres: el sentido (Sinn) o significado del Ser, la verdad (Wahrheit) del Ser, el claro (Lichtung) del Ser, el “sujeto indefinido”[1] que “da” Ser, y el “Ereignis” (“evento” o “apropiación) del Ser, refiriéndose a la pertenencia mutua del Ser y del hombre.[2] (more…)

3,298 words

Spanish translation here

One of Heidegger’s most striking claims is that modern nihilism is the consummation of Western metaphysics. Generally, people think of nihilism and metaphysics as polar opposites. Nihilism is associated with the dissolution of an objective world into subjective impressions, the transformation of objective values into subjective preferences, the loss of shared meanings and a common frame of reference. Traditionally, metaphysics upholds the objectivity of reality, knowledge, and values. (more…)

54:49 / 99 words

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This is my lecture “Giambattista Vico and Modern Anti-Liberalism,” delivered at the London Forum on Saturday, September 27, 2014.  (more…)

Nicolas Poussin, “Et in Arcadia Ego,” 1637

4,637 words

In 1762, Immanuel Kant did something unprecedented. He missed his daily walk. He stayed home to read Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s new book Emile, a philosophical novel on education that was to exercise a profound and revolutionary influence on his thought.[1] (more…)