Rembrandt, Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer
3,550 words
Even so the clouds of my melancholy were broken up. I saw the clear sky, and regained the power to recognize the face of my physician. Accordingly, when I had lifted my eyes and fixed my gaze upon her, I beheld my nurse, Philosophy, whose halls I had frequented from my youth up.
— Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (more…)
Hieronymus Bosch, Outer Wings of the Garden of Delights, ca. 1510.
4,305 words
1. Introduction: From Objectivism to Subjectivism
In the previous two installments (Part Three here, Part Four here) we have discussed at length Heidegger’s treatment of the “objectification of beings” in early modernity: how beings come to be seen as “objects” related to a “subject” that confronts them (indirectly) from within an interior space that is called “mind,” “awareness,” or even “self.” This objectification is essentially identical with the representationalist theory of knowledge, which holds that we are only indirectly aware of the “external world,” via internal images which “represent” external objects. So far, however, this may not be the account of modernity that my readers were expecting. (more…)
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Introduction
In the previous essay (“Heidegger’s History of Metaphysics, Part One: Platonism”) I began to sketch Heidegger’s argument for the claim that Western metaphysics lays the groundwork for the nihilism and decadence of modernity. I framed this account partly as a critique of the Traditionalists Julius Evola and René Guénon, who aimed to combat modernity with a “Traditionalism” grounded in Western metaphysics (more…)
Plato and Aristotle, detail from Raphael’s The School of Athens, 1510-1511.
8,701 words
1. Introduction
In my essay “Heidegger Against the Traditionalists,” I sketched a critique of Guénon and Evola from a Heideggerian perspective. Although I raised several objections to Traditionalism, the crucial one was this: Guénon and Evola are thoroughly (and uncritically) invested in the Western metaphysical tradition. According to Heidegger, however, it is precisely the Western metaphysical tradition that is responsible for all the modern ills decried by the Traditionalists. (more…)
Greg Johnson
Graduate School with Heidegger
San Francisco: Counter-Currents Publishing, 2020
220 pages
There are three formats for Graduate School with Heidegger:
1,613 words
The enemy is not merely any competitor or just any partner of a conflict in general. He is also not the private adversary whom one hates. An enemy exists only when, at least potentially, one fighting collectivity of people confronts a similar collectivity. (more…)
2,086 words
Say you’re trying to fix a vehicle. You pop open the hood and find that someone threw a wrench in the gears, the relay is worn, and the battery needs replacing. How do you then fix the vehicle? Well, you remove the wrench from the gears, replace the relay and the battery and then check for additional damage (you never know with cars). (more…)
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In the fall of 2000, I taught an adult education class entitled Philosophy on Film, where we discussed The Matrix, American Beauty, Ground Hog Day, Network, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Gattaca, and Crimes and Misdemeanors.
2,309 words
Richard Weaver
The Ethics of Rhetoric
Muriwai Books, 2017 (1953).
The great task that lies ahead of us is to persuade our people of the rightness of our ideas. It behooves us, then, to study the art of rhetoric, or persuasion. Richard Weaver’s The Ethics of Rhetoric is a rigorous and intelligent introduction to this vanishing art. (more…)
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Richard M. Weaver
Ideas Have Consequences
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948
Expanded edition, with a Foreword by Roger Kimball and an Afterword by Ted J. Smith III, 2013.
The defeat of logical realism in the great medieval debate was the crucial event in the history of Western culture …. (more…)
Achilles in examinen Hectora saevit (1766)
1,607 slov
English original here
Poznámka autora:
Následuje text mého projevu na první konferenci Probuzení (Awakening-konferenssin), pořádané v Helsinkách 8. dubna 2018. (more…)
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You have asked me whether you should join the military. Given what I wrote, you wonder, does a racially conscious white male have any business in the armed forces? (more…)
Georg Friedrich Kersting, Faust in his Study
5,530 words
Part 4 of 4 (Part 3 here)
Definition of “Axial thought”
The Axial Age idea is the most concerted effort to retain aspects of the idea of progress while disallowing Western civilization from claiming to be the most progressive in the sciences, technology, cultural creativity, and forms of state organization. This idea has historical merits. (more…)
Socrates
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Author’s Note:
The following text is based on a transcript by Rollo Walker of a 1999 lecture on “Objectivity, Relativism, and Well-Being.” This text only includes the first half of the transcript, and it has been massively condensed and rewritten.
Socrates is famous for arguing that all human beings pursue happiness; (more…)
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…)
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As the Chinese “silent invasion” of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada continues, you may want to learn something about the Western academics who lay the intellectual groundwork for this invasion. In a prior article, “The Transcendental Mind of Europeans Stands Above the Embedded Mind of Asians,” we met two influential scholars calling upon whites to abandon their “failed” attempts to formulate transcendental truths for the sake of the more “profound” contextual approach of Chinese philosophers with their demonstration that all thinking is “embedded” to a time and a place. (more…)
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Wild at Heart is not David Lynch’s best movie, but it is my favorite. I would argue, for instance, that Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, and The Straight Story are all better films. But for some reason they do not call me back year after year like Wild at Heart.
Wild at Heart was released in the summer of 1990, when Lynch was riding high on Twin Peaks mania. It won the Palme d’Or at the 1990 Cannes film festival, albeit over vocal protests. (more…)
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In his new book Identity, Francis Fukuyama seeks to forestall the rise of white identity politics. Nevertheless, as I argue in “Fukuyama on Identity Politics,” Identity is a very useful book for White Nationalists because it concedes many of our most important premises. In “Fukuyama on Diversity,” I argue that Fukuyama admits that diversity is a problem and offers only very weak reasons to value it at all. Here I examine Fukuyama’s alternative to white identity politics, namely a conservative form of color-blind civic nationalism. (more…)
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Francis Fukuyama’s latest book Identity was written to forestall the rise of Right-wing identity politics, but, as I argued in “Fukuyama on Identity Politics,” the book is actually very useful to White Nationalists because it concedes a number of our basic premises while offering weak reasons to resist our ultimate political conclusions. This is especially apparent in his discussion of diversity.
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Francis Fukuyama
Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition
London: Profile Books, 2018[1]
Francis Fukuyama is the most eminent living neoconservative intellectual. I have admired and benefitted from his work since 1992, when he published his first book, The End of History and the Last Man. (more…)
4,562 words
Andrew Lynn
Classic Philosophy for the Modern Man
Classic Spirituality for the Modern Man
Howgill House Books, 2017
“In a time of universal triviality, seeking answers to the great questions of existence is . . . a revolutionary course of action. Those who have the humility to ask the question ‘Could it be us who have gone astray?’ are the true radicals.”–Andrew Lynn (more…)
2,309 words
Traduction de l’anglais : Pia Chantre; English original here
Précisions de l’auteur :
Il s’agit ici du texte de mon discours à la première Conférence du Réveil (The Awakening Conference), qui s’est tenue à Helsinki (en Finlande) le 8 avril 2018. Le sujet qui m’avait été donné de présenter était l’Esprit combatif européen. Comme à mon habitude, j’ai un peu improvisé à partir du texte que j’avais préparé. (more…)
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Suomentanut Timo Hännikäinen, English original here
Puhe Awakening-konferenssissa Helsingissä 8.4.2018
”Laulaos, oi runotar, viha Peleun poian Akhilleun / turmiokas, mi akhaijeja löi lukemattomin tuskin, monta mi Hadeen luo väkivoipaa sielua syöksi / sankarien, heist’ itsestään teki koirien riistan, / lintujen eineen”. Näin alkaa Homeroksen Ilias, länsimaisen sivilisaation ensimmäinen kirja. (more…)
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Jacques-Philippe-Joseph de Saint-Quentin, The Death of Socrates, 1762
Part 2 of 2
Author’s Note:
The following text is a transcript by V. S. of the conclusion of the introductory lecture of an eight-lecture course called The Trial of Socrates. As usual, I have edited this transcript to remove excessive wordiness and filled in the gap between the two sides of the tape.
(more…)
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Part 1 of 2
Author’s Note:
The following text is a transcript by V. S. of the introductory lecture of an eight-lecture course called The Trial of Socrates. The lecture was delivered on September 1, 1998. I have previously published six of the lectures, but the Introduction and the final lecture, on Plato’s Phaedo, were thought to be lost. (more…)
Lord Yama instructs Nachiketa, as related in the Katha Upanishad.
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Part I here, Part II here, Part IV here
In the last installment of this series, we saw that the Katha Upanishad tells the story of Nachiketa, a boy who is tutored by Yama, the god of death. The boy makes a request of Yama, which at first the god does not want to grant: “When a person dies, there arises this doubt: ‘he still exists,’ say some, ‘he does not’ say others. I want you to teach me the truth.” But Yama soon realizes that Nachiketa is a worthy student, and begins to teach. (more…)
Tanulmány két harcos fejéhez. Leonardo da Vinci vázlata az Anghiari csata című falképhez (Szépművészeti Múzeum)
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A szerző megjegyzése
Az alábbi beszédet 2018. április 8-án Helsinkiben az első alkalommal megrendezett Ébredés Konferencián adtam elő. A szervezők arra kértek, hogy az európai harci szellemről beszéljek. Szokás szerint kicsit improvizáltam, és eltértem az előkészített szövegtől. Szeretnék köszönetet mondani a szervezőknek, a találkozó mintegy 200 résztvevőjének, és annak a Counter-Currents olvasónak, akinek az adománya lehetővé tette, hogy a konferenciára utazzak. (more…)
2,031 words
Translations: Finnish, French, Hungarian, Czech
Leonardo da Vinci, Study of Two Warriors’ Heads for the Battle of Anghiari
Author’s Note:
This is the text of my talk from the first Awakening Conference, which was held in Helsinki on April 8, 2018. The topic I was asked to speak on was the European fighting spirit. As usual, I improvised a bit and departed from my prepared text. I wish to thank the organizers of the Awakening Conference, the approximately 200 people who attended the meeting, and the Counter-Currents reader whose gift made this trip possible. (more…)
Envy’s Tetsuya Fukagawa
3,910 words
Opening remarks
οὐδαμοῦ γὰρ κινοῦνται μουσικῆς τρόποι ἄνευ πολιτικῶν νόμων τῶν μεγίστων (Plato, Republic 424c)
“The forms of music are not changed without the most significant socio-political mores and laws being changed with them.” So writes Plato in his chef-d’œuvre. This insight is borne out by history, and perhaps never more so than in our own time, the post-war twentieth and twenty-first centuries. (more…)
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