Curt Stoeving, Friedrich Nietzsche, 1894.
1,994 words
The French philosopher René Descartes was a worried man. His concern was that his memory resembled a sheet of paper that was constantly being written over with his experiences, with facts and events. Realizing that it is in the nature of paper eventually to become filled with writing, he avoided wherever possible being told extraneous facts for fear that insufficient room would remain in his mind for things of importance to this polymath. Thus, he hoped to avoid the fate of Homer. Homer Simpson, that is. (more…)
G. W. Leibniz Memorial in Leipzig
7,567 words
Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here
1. Introduction: Leibniz and the Completion of Metaphysics
Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von Leibniz (1646–1716) is one of the most extraordinary figures in the history of ideas. A true polymath, he was not only a philosopher but a physicist, historian, jurist, diplomat, inventor, and mathematician. (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…)
Frans Hals, Portrait of René Descartes, 1649-1700.
6,518 words
1. To Be Is to Be “Set Before”
In the previous installment of this series, we saw Heidegger contrasting modernity to the Middle Ages in the following terms:
For the Middle Ages . . . the being is the ens creatum, that which is created by the personal creator-God, who is considered to be the highest cause. (more…)
Mr. Gurdjieff
7,589 words
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was born on this day in 1866, 1872, or 1877 — depending on whom you ask. [1] Much else about his biography is equally uncertain. We do know that his father was Greek, his mother Armenian, and that he was born in Alexandropol which was then part of the Russian Empire (it is now in Armenia and is called Gyumri). (more…)
Representatives of two stages of mental development: Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer (1653)
6,358 words
Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)
Why did the West rise to become the most powerful civilization, the progenitor of modernity, the culture with the most prodigious creators? The answers are plenty. But it may be that a child psychologist, Jean Piaget, has offered the best theoretical framework to explain the difference between the West and the Rest. (more…)
1,570 words
A few years ago, a friend of mine spent a summer in the south of France with his daughter, who was in grade school at the time. Unfortunately, the daughter caught a bug toward the end of their stay, and my friend made multiple trips to the local pharmacy trying to find the right medicine for her. His French is imperfect, so he struggled to make himself understood by the druggist. (more…)
1,340 words
Edited by Alex Kurtagić
Editor’s Note:
The following is excerpted from Jonathan Bowden’s Skin, a book he wrote in the early 1990s. The text has been lightly edited, mainly for punctuation, spelling, and capitalization.
In Samuel Beckett’s work . . . , which has become emblematic of the modern condition, (more…)
Martin Heidegger, 1889–1976
1,233 words
Part 1 here, Part 2 here
In ancient and medieval philosophy, “to be” meant to be an enduring presence, the Eternal Being being God. For moderns, “it” (the enduring presence) becomes a being, an object, in time and space or else a self-conscious subject.
(more…)
Immanuel Kant, 1724–1804
1,305 words
Part 1 here, Part 3 here
Immanuel Kant, the first to philosophize the “question of freedom,” approaches the world like Descartes. He begins with Cartesianism’s dehistoricized, peopleless subject, which is seen as an “ends in itself,” something that is to be “freed” for the sake of its “self-assured self-legislation.”
(more…)
Martin Heidegger, 1889–1976
1,324 words
Part 2 here, Part 3 here
They’re killing us with their freedom.
Every dissolution of social order, every assault on the family, the unrelenting denigration of authority and heritage, and now our biological replacement by the Third World’s refuse–all justified, legislated, and celebrated in freedom’s hallowed name.
(more…)
