Get Your Smart On
There is good in arguing, even if it is not persuasion. Here is me riffing-off of Arguing Is Bullshit by David Pinsof @everythingisbullshit
> “Arguing has little to do with persuasion; it is an agonistic contest of wills and wits. …that is not quite persuasion, and so we may now want to ask: What is persuasion, really? Does it even...
5 Substack posts to help you enter into Nietzsche's thought.
1. Nobody understands Nietzsche (except me) by Sam Kriss recounts his adolescent fascination with Nietzsche, initially driven by a Gnostic yearning for intellectual escape from the perceived...
Existentialism, a philosophy centered on individual existence and freedom, traces its roots to the 19th-century thinkers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. Though differing significantly in...
Maria Lugones' Playfulness, 'World'-Traveling, and Loving Perception, a treatment.
> “Then I want to take up the practice [of world-traveling] as a horizontal practice of resistance to two related injunctions: the injunction for the oppressed to have our gazes fixed on the...
I know you're angry and frightened now, but don't stay mad for too long. We have work to do.
Everywhere we look, women are divided. The perception that a majority of Anglo-American women voted for the Trump ticket in the recent elections has created a rift between white and other women, a...
Part Two of our treatment of Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism Is A Humanism where Sartre gets to defining what Humanistic Existentialism is, after defending it against what it is not.
FOLLOW TO PREVIOUS PART ONE: --- In this second part, Sartre defends Existentialism against common critiques that it is politically ineffective, pessimistic, and too individualistic or solipsistic....
These are my pick for the top fifteen, most readable works in the History of Western Philosophy. Let this list inspire you in your pursuit of wisdom, and that you will get some good ideas about what...
Part One of our treatment of Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism Is A Humanism
In this old thinkPhilosophy podcast from 2018, I explore Jean-Paul Sartre's essay “Existentialism is a Humanism,” a key introduction to existentialist philosophy. Sartre argues that existentialism’s...
I recently posted what I thought was a rather strange question to Notes: > “This is going to sound like a strange question, but what does thinking feel like, for you? If you had to describe it,...
What Is So Good About Becoming A Feminist? I invite you to find out for yourselves.
Jumping in where Becoming-Feminist leaves off, I want to convince you, dear reader, to join us in reading and discussing feminist philosophy by showing you all the wonderful things that will come...
Antagonisms of the Everyday: Philosophy, Culture, PoliticsPolitics and Philosophy on the irregularities and antagonisms of everyday life. Focusing on US,UK, European politics and political theory,...
From the annals of our top fifty books in Philosophy originally published on Goodreads
Of Grammatology established Jacques Derrida as a major figure in contemporary philosophy and introduced both différance and deconstruction. This work includes two key early essays by Derrida: “The...
Don't be afraid, we've got this. For all the things they have revealed in their 2025 plan, there are already people organizing resistance, so get plugged in locally and learn the ropes ASAP.
I’ll cut to the chase. Here is a list of changes we can expect, and since I didn’t want to give you this scary list without actionables, below are some quick ideas for how you can prepare to weather...
Revisiting Anthony Appiah's freaky Friday identity experiments
Would you still be you if you were born as a boy instead of a girl, or as a girl instead of a boy? That is, if your sex assignment were different that it was when you were born, would that change the...
Theodor Adorno, one of the foremost thinkers from the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, made a lasting impact with his critiques of mass culture and the homogenization of society. In The Culture...
A reading of Sandra Bartky's Toward a Phenomenology of Feminist Consciousness
Sandra Lee Bartky would have been 90 years old this year, were she still alive. She passed away in 2016 at the age of 81 in her Michigan home. Her essay, "Toward a Phenomenology of Feminist...
A private space for us to converse and connect
Today I’m announcing a brand new addition to my Substack publication: Philosophy Publics subscriber chat. This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers—kind of like a group chat or live...
What can a piece of paper teach us about what thinking is for?
In this example, I am your professor in this undergraduate Introduction To Philosophy. This is an experiment I did run in many of my classes. I would come out from behind the lectern holding a piece...
A Primer on the etymology, history, ideas and practices of Phenomenology
Etymology What exactly is the appeal of etymology? I am fascinated by tracking meanings down throughout the ages. You can see meaning accumulating, taking a turn, and evolving over time. Concepts get...
🎉 Celebrating 1k Subscribers with a 📖 Bibliography of Feminist Thinkers 🎉
Adams, Carol J. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. Continuum, 1990. Adams explores the intersections of feminism, vegetarianism, and animal rights, arguing that...