Philosopher
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The Ghost at the Feast March 17, 2023
In the early 1950s, the internationally wandering rabbi, sociologist, and philosopher Jacob Taubes was pranked by his colleagues at Harvard. Taubes was known for playing with the limits of law and revolution, secular redemption and religious heresy, ...
Orwell, Camus and Truth March 13, 2023
One afternoon in April 1945, a dishevelled Englishman walked into one such café. He was a war correspondent for the Observer — fond of shag-tobacco and Indian tea. His pen-name was George Orwell. Orwell was meeting Albert Camus – the distinguished wr...
Resisting the “Triumph of the Will”? March 13, 2023
Every fall, we undergraduates at University of Virginia had the opportunity to watch the classic Nazi propaganda film Der Triumph des Willens or The Triumph of the Will. Given to the film by Leni Riefenstahl, the young woman who masterminded it, the ...
This Is a Philosopher on Drugs March 09, 2023
There is something strange in the disinterest philosophers show for experimentation with mind-altering drugs—or at least for talking about their experimentation publicly. At the margins of philosophical writing, we have Walter Benjamin’s record of hi...
Searching for Character in Identity March 08, 2023
A few years ago, I was teaching at an inner-city charter school, majority black, minority Hispanic. One Friday, over lunch at an all-day faculty diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, teachers were given sheets with concentric circles and a...
The Grand Inquisitor and the Voice of Freedom March 06, 2023
The rich philosophical vision of Fyodor Dostoevsky is punctuated, in his masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov, by a dynamic narrative full of psychological realism, highlighted by complex characters. Even a virtuous character like Alyosha has his own w...
