Bergson, apostle of reactionary irrationalism
A draft from March 5, 2009. I don’t recall what I planned to write, but here are the references: Nizan, Paul. “The End of a Philosophic Parry: Bergsonism,” Les Revues, 1929, reprinted in Paul Nizan, Intellectuel Communiste Maspero (Paris, 1967). Nizan exposes Bergson’s empty pseudoconcreteness, which reminds me of Adorno’s later evisceration of Heidegger. My [...]
Ethnoepistemology
Originally titled “Ethnoepistemology, my ass!”, written 2 August 2008. Excuse all the cuss words. I’ve cut out a few of the epithets, but I’m preserving the flavor of my diatribe. * * * * * Ethnoepistemology (James Maffie), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. There are often lapses and biases in reference works in the humanities [...]
Habermas & Sartre on silence
“In this situation, silence would be a false response: the person who is addressed and remains silent, clothes himself in an aura of indeterminate significances and imposes silence. For this, Heidegger is one example . . . . Because of this authoritarian character Sartre rightly called silence ‘reactionary’.” SOURCE: Habermas, Jurgen. “Transcendence from Within, Transcendence [...]
The Institution of Philosophy (1)
Cohen, Avner; Dascal, Marcelo; eds. The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis? La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1989. When I first surveyed this anthology four years ago, the name Marcelo Dascal, whose work is currently under review, was unknown to me. My assessment of this book was . . . er . . . [...]
Dascal on disputation & the analytical-continental divide
Dascal, Marcello. How rational can a polemic across the analytic-continental ‘divide’ be?, International Journal of Philosophical Studies 9(3): 313-339, 2001. In order to specify controversy’s position within the large family of polemical dialogues, I propose to distinguish between three members of the subfamily to which controversies belong. I will call them ‘discussion’, ‘dispute’, and ‘controversy’. [...]
February-April 2007 reading review
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. [...]
Wittgenstein’s philosophy as politics
Robert Vienneau’s blog Thoughts on Economics has an entry Wittgenstein and Marxism on my Wittgenstein, Marxism, Sociology: An Annotated Bibliography. More importantly, Vienneau provides his own bibliography Wittgenstein and Soviet Communism, mostly in connection with Piero Sraffa and referencing articles from New Left Review. There is also this noteworthy article: Robinson, Christopher C. (2006). “Why [...]
