Studies in a Dying Culture

Jacques Bouveresse is a French philosopher who is invested in analytical philosophy, with a particular interest in Wittgenstein, and is out of step with the fashionable philosophy issuing from France since the 1960s. A fraction of his work has been translated into English. This article was of particular interest to me: Bouveresse, Jacques; Fournier, Christian [...]

The debate: Bronner, Stephen Eric. "The Great Divide: The Enlightenment and its Critics," New Politics, vol. 5, no. 3 (new series), whole no. 19, Summer 1995, pp. 65-86. Goldner, Loren. "A Reply to Stephen Eric Bronner: Renaissance or Enlightenment," New Politics, vol. 6, no. 1 (new series), whole no. 21, Summer 1996, pp. 137-145. Bronner, [...]

In July 2007 I read the following interventions in a debate published in the journal New Politics (new series). First, Bronner: “The Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg,” Vol. VIII, No. 3 (New Series), Summer 2001, Whole No. 31, pp. 162-167. “A Reply to David Camfield and Alan Johnson,” Vol. VIII, No. 4 (New Series), Winter 2002, [...]

Stephen Eric Bronner is not content to regurgitate the critical theory of its European originators of an earlier era, and he is not averse to criticizing their lapses. None of his books are to be missed, but for critical theory I suggest Of Critical Theory and Theorists above all. In October 2006 I read the [...]

More Vonnegut When I picked up Kurt Vonnegut’s Timequake (New York: G.P. Putnam’s, 1997) off my table for the first time, I thought this might be a throwaway book. I was wrong; it was hilarious, and there’s much in there. It is a combination memoir and science fiction tale. A whole decade has to be [...]

I began July by taking A Right To Be Hostile: The Boondocks Treasury (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003) out of the library. (How I envy that title!) This collection repeats some of the strips published in The Boondocks: Because I Know You Don’t Read the Newspapers, but I did not mind having my memory [...]

A year ago June I began an interest in Aaron McGruder’s work with a graphic novel he co-authored, Birth of a Nation. Sensing something contradictory in McGruder’s approach, I wrote a critique which remains unpublished, as I wasn’t satisfied with my exposition. I then turned to his comic strip The Boondocks—which I had missed out [...]

Cornel West, Marxism & morality West, Cornel. The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1991. West wrote this in the late 1970s, before he became a star. The exposition of the development of the Young Marx is good. He presents interesting information on Engels, Kautsky, and Lukàcs, but his thesis contrasting [...]

Mid-April through the first week of May proved to be a fertile Esperanto period. I translated Blake’s "The Birds" into Esperanto and put several other author’s pieces on my web site. I revisited one of my favorite Esperanto short-story volumes, Vitralo, by John I. Francis, and put "La Klera Despoto" [The Cultured Despot] online. I [...]

I have long delayed summarizing the books I read in all or part from February through April 2007, partly in hope of writing extensive reviews of some of them. For now, I will just list the books and some other materials, and I can always return and delve into more detail at a future date. [...]