Tag: science

Edmund Husserl

6,312 words

Leo Strauss credited Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology as a critical resource for his project of overthrowing modern political thought and vindicating the ancients. This may come as some surprise to readers of Strauss, given the prominence of his critique of historicism, which applies to Husserl as well. But Strauss’s late essay, “Philosophy as Rigorous Science and Political Philosophy”[1] as well as posthumously published lectures and correspondence reveal significant debts to Husserl.

Husserl was not, moreover, a mere “negative influence” — i.e., someone whose ideas Strauss rejected. Husserl was a “positive influence,” meaning that Strauss accepted and incorporated some of his ideas. (more…)

Portrait of Schelling by Karl Joseph Stieler

5,320 words

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

In the first part of this essay I introduced readers to Schelling, who is one of the first philosophers to react against what Heideggereans have called “the metaphysics of presence”: the hidden will in Western metaphysics that gives primacy to human subjectivity, adjusting our understanding of the Being of beings to the human desire that beings should be completely transparent to us, hiding nothing, and readily available for our manipulation. In response to this, Schelling argues that it is nature, not human subjectivity, that should be the starting point of philosophy. (more…)

24,021 words

The following text is being presented in commemoration of Sir Oswald Mosley’s 136th birthday. — Ed. (more…)

René Descartes

2,176 words

I rooted out of my mind all those errors that had formerly crept in . . . — René Descartes, Discourse on the Method

I know this much is true. — Spandau Ballet, “True”

There are famous concepts in Western philosophy, but it is hard to find any better known than René Descartes’ seemingly indubitable pronouncement that “I think, therefore I am.” (more…)

7,156 words

1. Introduction

The thesis of this essay is that it is wise to be superstitious. To put it differently, I will argue that my readers should be superstitious — or that they should embrace the superstitious nature they already have (for most of us have it), rather than try to disown superstition. (more…)

4,533 words

The 2011 film Contagion is truly a movie for our times, especially now. It’s quite peculiar how the battle against infectious disease, ongoing for a century and a half, suffered a staggering setback in merely two years. For posterity’s sake, I’ll digress a bit about the present historical context in this rapidly-changing situation. (more…)

563 words / 2:02:23

Nick Jeelvy welcomed longtime friend of the show Karl Thorburn to the latest broadcast of The Writers’ Bloc to discuss unlimited power and its applications. (more…)

Francis Parker Yockey

1,315 words

Thanks in no small part to Counter-Currents, the writings of Francis Parker Yockey are more popular than ever. The Centennial Editions of Yockey’s works follow upon at least two recent biographies of the post-war anti-liberal thinker. This is part of a trend I noted a few years ago. Yockey was all but unknown in his lifetime, but now is more read and relevant than mainstream contemporaries such as Drew Pearson, a Leftist who was once the most widely-read newspaper columnist in America, but faded into obscurity after his death. (more…)

2,263 words

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1 here)

The Question of Public Virtue

When Lasch wonders whether American democracy can survive crime, drugs, and urban decay, he is sounding another populist theme that harks back to classical republicanism: the dependence of popular government on public virtue. (more…)

3,013 words

Christopher Booker
The Real Global Warming Disaster
New York/London: Continuum, 2009

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was never in any meaningful sense a scientific body, nor was it intended to be. It was essentially a political organization, using the prestige of science to promote the purposes of those who ran it. — Christopher Booker, The Real Global Warming Disaster (more…)

Salvador Dalí, Perpignan Train Station

5,557 words

Part 3 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)

With Young Virgin Auto-Sodomized by Her Own Chastity, Dalí returned to his paranoiac-critical concerns (i.e., autoeroticism), but now transformed. The paranoiac origin is Dalí’s obsession with Vermeer’s The Lacemaker, which in turn he believed to “consist” in rhinoceroses’ horns. (more…)

3,916 words

NOTE: All names in this memoir are fictional.

Last year I went to a Christmas party in St. Louis, given by a communications group: a catch-all for filmmakers, directors, actors, screenwriters, and the usual wannabes. Having written an award-winning screenplay some years ago, I’m more be than wanna, but the candle of my fifteen minutes of local fame has long since burned out. (more…)