Tag: language

1,035 words

In the contemporary push toward inclusivity, the moral claims of diversity politics are rarely interrogated. Cloaked in the rhetoric of fairness and justice, the diversity agenda promises a more equitable society, one that accommodates the marginalized and recognizes the value of different perspectives. (more…)

2,111 words

Jacques Derrida

(Part 1 here)

Still confining ourselves for simplicity to spoken utterance.
-J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words
Also the epigraph to Jacques Derrida’s Signature, Event, Context (more…)

2,296 words

John Langham Austin was an English philosopher of language, an Oxford Don, and (like Alan Turing) a Military Intelligence Officer, who worked on the D-Day landings. Born in 1911, Austin died relatively young, at the age of 48, and his three books were all published posthumously. (more…)

1,961

Talk is cheap.

“Moral” = Conforming to a standard of right behavior.

“Vocabulary” = words used on a particular occasion or in a particular sphere.

“Progressive” = person advocating or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas. (more…)

1,808 words

The auguries, which were so often used for the purposes of political obstruction or intrigue.
-Goldwin Smith, Lectures and Essays

I behold the surest pledges that as on one side, no local prejudices, or attachments; no separate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests.
-George Washington, 1789 Inaugural Address (more…)

1,952 words

The principle of verification is supposed to furnish a criterion by which it can be determined whether or not a sentence is literally meaningful. A simple way to formulate it would be to say that a sentence had literal meaning if and only if the proposition it expressed was either analytic or empirically verifiable.
-A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic
(more…)

3,298 words

Even though it does not receive quite as much attention as it deserves, one important aspect of the Cultural Revolution in the 60s is the sudden rise and rapid dominance of “descriptivism” in academia, education, and editorial staff in dictionaries, usage guides, and grammar manuals. (more…)

Nick Lowles, founder and Chief Executive of the antifa organization Hope Not Hate. (Image source: Gov.uk)

2,616 words

The first point in occult science is by no means the advancing of assertions or opinions which are to be proven, but the communication, in a purely narrative form, of experiences which are to be met with in a world other than the one that is to be seen with physical eyes and touched with physical hands. — Rudolf Steiner, An Outline of Occult Science (more…)

Kristian Zahrtmann, Socrates and Alcibiades, 1911 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

2,907 words

Part 7 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here)

Wisdom vs. Tyranny

Having established that the true self is the soul and defended philosophical dialogue as the best path to self-knowledge, Socrates wraps up his argument. (more…)

John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening The Golden Box, 1903

5,755 words

Part 6 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 7 here)

The final part of the Alcibiades I deals with the self and self-knowledge. Most ancient commentators held that this discussion is the core of the dialogue.

From Self-Cultivation to Self-Knowledge

Socrates has finally gotten Alcibiades to admit that he needs to pursue self-cultivation. But what is self-cultivation? We must answer that question lest we mistakenly cultivate something other than ourselves. (more…)

2,265 words

England is not the jewelled isle of Shakespeare’s much-quoted message, nor is it the inferno depicted by Dr. Goebbels. More than either it resembles a family, a rather stuffy Victorian family, with not many black sheep in it but with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons. — George Orwell, “England, Your England”

Evening has fallen, the swans are singing.
The last of Sunday’s bells is ringing.
The wind in the trees is sighing,
And old England is dying.
— The Waterboys, “Old England” (more…)

1,187 words / 8:25

Only one word in the English language can get you killed if you say it — or, in many cases, merely if your murderer claims you said it.

In his essay “Why The N-Word Is Not Just Another Word,” black writer H. Lewis Smith attempts to explain why this word has acquired its verboten status: (more…)

Leonid Pasternak, The Passion of Creation (1892)

2,009 words

Recently I took part in a discussion of writing and how to do it on Counter-Currents. This being a topic of some importance to me, I decided to throw together a few thoughts in a form more coherent that I could do in a podcast. A danger in doing this is that readers will joyfully point out instances in which I have failed to follow my own suggestions. (more…)