Digressions&Impressions

Teaching the history of philosophy (and a bit more)

One deflationary but non-trivial way to understand the role of historians of philosophy in the profession is as teachers that recruit the next generation of students by teaching some of the most enjoyable and exciting bits of philosophy ...

On Teaching (and Meeting Former Students)

I do not blog as much about my teaching experiences in relation to their significance in my life (but see here), in part, because I want to protect the privacy and, more subtly, the intimacy of my experiences with my students (recall). B...

Žižek and Teaching

“I did teach a class here [at the University of Cincinnati] and all of the grading was pure bluff,” he continues. “I even told students at the New School for example… if you don’t give me any of your shitty papers, you get an A. If you...

Philosophical Truth over Piety: or should we teach outside the 'tradition'

It might seem broadminded to call for philosophy professors to teach ancient Asian scholars such as Confucius and Candrakīrti in addition to dead white men such as David Hume and Immanuel Kant. However, this approach undermines what is...

How Do We Teach and Cite Moral Monsters? (The Arthur Koestler Problem)

[This is a guest-post by Neil McArthur.--ES] I first read Arthur Koestler as a teen-ager. He came to me recommended by what I then considered to be the highest possible intellectual authority: Sting. The Police’s visionary album Ghosts ...

Covid Diaries: An Optimistic Intermezzo full of joy

It's nice to offer an upbeat update on my long-haul. (For my official "covid diaries," see here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; h...

On the Modernity and Popularity of Public Philosophy by Academic Philosophers, and some Foucault on Kant

I sometimes suspect that advocates of public philosophy by academic philosophers [sometimes: PPAP] are (tacitly) are committed to at least two of the following three following propositions. PPAP is a relatively recent invention. Publ...

On Meaning More Than Is Intended (on Plantinga, Hazony, and Prophecy)

[T]he principal author of the Bible—the entire Bible—is God himself. Of course each of the books of the Bible has a human author as well; still, the principal author is God. This impels us to treat the whole more like a unified communi...

On Jewish Philosophy

Normal individuals, when they expose themselves to the society around them, tend to fit their views to this society. And this is especially so when that society will determine the course of their careers. In a world in which philosophi...

Seneca on Freedom (Letter 51)

I have set freedom as my goal [Libertas proposita est]; and I am striving for that reward. And what is freedom, you ask? It means not being a slave to any circumstance, to any necessity [necessitati], to any chance; it means compelling...