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...
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,...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
In Hegel’s Master/Slave dialectic, the dialectic is resolved when the Master realizes his dependence on the Slave, who produces the goods that maintain the Master’s life —mutual recognition becomes...
The Fear, Fantasy, and the Real Material Conditions The public conversation about Large Language Models (LLMs, collectively referred to as AI) has revolved around fears and fantasies as depicted in...
1. Rags To Reason "Rags to Reason" delves into existential themes, the interplay of art and ethics, and the relevance of classical philosophers like Aristotle and Sartre in modern contexts. The...
Philosophy is an extreme intellectual sport. We would like to believe that doing philosophy is only and always good, but doing philosophy can be extremely dangerous. Most obvious is the risk of...
Once we get to Modern Philosophy, concepts of space become more familiar and consequently feel more “real.” It is difficult for us to relate to space as a whirling receptacle steered by Goddesses; or...
Society Of The Spectacle is a seminal work written by Guy Debord, leader of the Situationist International (SI for short), a radical avant-garde movement composed of artists, intellectuals, and...
If you want to understand how change is possible in the simplest sense of movement from one place to another, you need an account of the space across which that thing moves. This is Aristotle’s...