6,341 words
Part 3 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)
1. Fichte on the Nature of the State
We began to explore Fichte’s political philosophy in the last installment, as expounded primarily in his 1796 work Foundations of Natural Right. It is a basic principle of Fichte’s philosophy that subjectivity, what he calls the “I,” must bring nature under the control of reason. (more…)
A French Jacobin
3,782 words
Part 2 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)
1. Introduction: Transcendental Idealism as Political Radicalism
In part one of this essay, I covered J. G. Fichte’s moral philosophy, as set out in his 1798 work The System of Ethics. In the present installment, which is largely self-contained, I shall cover his social and political philosophy, chiefly as expounded in The Foundations of Natural Right. Here we will find many ways in which Fichte lays the groundwork for contemporary Leftism, including a surprising anticipation of what Gen Z calls “real Communism.” (more…)
2,715 words
Years ago, I watched a much-acclaimed documentary about the artist R. Crumb. What I remember most about it, however, is not Crumb himself, but his older brother Charles. Like most of the rest of the family, Charles was both an artist and a madman. (more…)
7,590 words
1. Knowledge of the Right Use of All Things
To explain what philosophy is, we always have to go back to the beginning. Pythagoras (ca. 570-495 BC) is said to have been confronted by Leon, the tyrant of Philius, who demanded to know if he was wise. He responded that he was not a wise man, but merely a φιλόσοφος (philosophos), a “lover of wisdom”; a practitioner of φιλοσοφία (philosophia). Φίλος (philos) means “love,” and σοφῐ́ᾱ (sophia) means “wisdom.” (more…)
Zednářský univerzalismus v pojetí Jeana Delvillea
2.261 slov
English original here
Následující esej původně byla závěrečnou částí recenze Collina Clearyho na knihu Ricarda Duchesneho The Uniqueness of Western Civilization. Protože je v ní ale obsaženo příliš velice důležitých postřehů, než aby zůstaly „zastrčené“ na konci velice rozsáhlé knižní recenze, upravil jsem ji tak, aby fungovala i jako samostatný útvar – Greg Johnson.
Dokonce i ve většině moderních Zápaďanů – ano, i u našich politicky dokonale korektních akademiků – se dosud skrývá jakýsi míhavý záblesk starobylé, indoevropské thymotické přirozenosti. (more…)
6,383 words
1. Introduction: Remind me, why Fichte?
Readers have been asking me why I am devoting multiple essays to J. G. Fichte, an exceedingly difficult and seldom-read German Idealist born in 1762. The simple answer is that these essays are a continuation of my series on Heidegger’s “history of metaphysics.” Having devoted several essays to Kant, I am continuing with Fichte, then will move on to Schelling and Hegel, and then, finally, to Nietzsche. (more…)
J. G. Fichte meets Immanuel Kant, 1791
6,194 words
1. “The circumference of my world is equivalent to the limits of my will.”
In my last essay, we established that for Fichte self-consciousness is an ultimate fact. We saw via our own experiments in introspection that the “I” — this “presence” that says, in effect “I am” — is not simply a feature of the self, it is the self. (more…)
6,227 words
1. Martin Heidegger Reads Fichte
On June 25, 1929, Heidegger wrote to Karl Jaspers, “At the present moment I am lecturing on Fichte, Hegel, and Schelling for the first time — and once more a new world opens up before me. (more…)
1,867 words
David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is not just a great film, it is a nearly perfect one. Even better, it was recognized as such from the start by virtually everyone. The critics lionized it and continue to include it on their “best” lists. The movie business showered it with prizes. Bridge won seven Oscars, including best picture and best director. Audiences made it the biggest film of 1957 and a perennial favorite ever since. (more…)
Detail, Wojciech Gerson, The Capture of the Wends, 1866.
4,637 words
Populist leaders like Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen are right in zeroing in on the economic damage that the globalists have inflicted on the working and middle classes. (more…)
White students pondering over a Herbert Marcuse lecture on the “one-dimensional mind” of the white race.
1,364 words
No one knows Friedrich Julius Stahl (1802-1861). He was a legal philosopher of Jewish parentage who converted to Christianity and became a defender of Prussian Lutheran conservatism against the imposition of Enlightenment values. He rejected Hegel’s argument (more…)
186 words
In the latest episode of Guide to Kulchur, Greg Johnson joins Fróði Midjord for a conversation on Nietzsche’s second essay in the Untimely Meditations, On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life (1874). Topics include civilizational decline, nihilism, vitalism, Christianity, and Nietzsche’s critique of Hegel’s philosophy of history.
The episode is archived on BitChute (video) and Spreaker (more…)