Tag: Public Philosophy
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Pragmatist consulting: The art of bullshitting well
‘Once, when contemplating the apparently endless growth of administrative responsibilities in British academic departments, I came up with one possible vision of hell. Hell is a collection of individuals who are spending the bulk of their time working on a task they don’t like and are not especially good at.’ –David Graeber, ‘On the Phenomenon…
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What Dancy’s Late Late Show appearance has to say about the philosopher’s disappearance
On April 1, 2010, the professional philosopher Jonathan Dancy, who happens to be the father-in-law of Claire Danes, appeared on the Late Late Show to speak with Craig Ferguson about moral philosophy in general and about moral particularism more specifically. Let it be said from the first that I am quite sympathetic to Dancy’s view…
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On the continuing appeal of relativism, postmodernism, and pragmatism
I’m just getting back from a 10-day trip to Scandinavia. The first five I spent in Stockholm and Vaxholm at Future Perfect, a festival focused on the subject of sustainability; the second five in Denmark at Kaos Pilots, a social entrepreneurship school based in Aarhus. At Kaos Pilots, I put on a two-day workshop on…
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Of parabolas, East of Eden, and biting philosophies
A scene: Late afternoon at the playground. A boy, towheaded, with eyes the color of turquoise, and a man, early 30s, with pelo dorado and eyes of wolf-blue. Green jacket against green tire swing against red corduroy pants. The man pushes the boy at regular intervals. The boy’s eyes draw a parabola on the way out,…
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Public lectures on philosophy as a way of life
Peter Adamson, a professor of ancient philosophy at Kings College London, is in the midst of recording an extensive number of 20-25 minute lectures addressed to the generally educated person on the “history of philosophy without any gaps.” His lectures on Aristotle’s ethics are fine and lucid as are his talks on the Cynics and the Cyrenaics.…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 