Tag: the arts

Jusepe de Ribera, The Philosopher

2,417 words

Part 3 of 14 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)

When Socrates finally speaks directly to Gorgias, he asks a simple, straightforward question: ‘What is your art (techne)?’ To which Gorgias gives a simple, straightforward answer: “Rhetoric [rhetorike] is my art, Socrates.”

Socrates continues: “Then is it best to call you a rhetorician [rhetor]?” Gorgias agrees and amplifies: “Yes, Socrates, and a good one too, if you want to call me what, as Homer puts it, ‘I boast myself to be.’” Earlier Gorgias said nobody has asked him anything new in years. He’s heard it all. (more…)

1,882 words

In Greece in the fourth and fifth centuries BCE, the sophists were highly-prized teachers of the art or craft (techne) of rhetoric. (The Greek word techne is the root of our words technique and technology.)

Socrates was widely seen as a sophist, for instance in Aristophanes’ Clouds. To a naïve bystander, Socrates certainly looked like a sophist. Like the sophists, Socrates spent a great deal of time arguing about ideas. Moreover, Socrates was seen arguing with known sophists, including the greatest sophists of them all, Gorgias and Protagoras, as depicted in the Platonic dialogues which bear their names. (more…)

Charles Krafft, CCTV

3,616 words

Editor’s note: This is a transcript of a talk given by Charles Krafft at a Counter-Currents event in 2013, which was published as Counter-Currents Radio episode number 323. We would like to thank Hyacinth Bouquet for this transcript.

Greg Johnson: All right, let’s begin our final session. This session is called “Grace Under Pressure.” It’s a very practical session. It’s a chance for people who have experience to pass on their experience to the rest of us. (more…)

5,798 words

Editor’s note: The following is the transcript of Charles Krafft’s speech at the Inaugural Meeting of the Northwest Forum in Seattle on November 12, 2016. (more…)

Charles Krafft in his bunker

44:25 / 102 words

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2,386 words

Vig Scholma, Furor Teutonicus

The Road to Alt Right Artistry

Since Hillary Clinton’s mention of the Alternative Right in one of her speeches, there have been countless discussions about what the Alt Right is and represents, with everyone and anyone, no matter how inappropriate, suddenly declaring they are part of the Alt Right. I think it is quite easy to define what the Alt Right is: it is the postmodern manifestation of what Julius Evola termed the True Right.  (more…)