Nikole Hannah-Jones, Frederick Douglass, and the Left
[Published at Dissident Voice and other places.] Twitter conversations with public intellectuals are rarely worthy of note, but a recent...
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- May 18
- 9 min
Love of freedom defines the political left, not the right
[This article was published at Sublation and other venues.] Political discourse in the United States consists largely of lies and...
- Jan 31
- 55 min
The Book of Joe: A Satire of Capitalist Society
Here's an insanely long post. It's actually a "literary experiment" I wrote almost twenty years ago (as the following preface says, which...
- Jul 30, 2022
- 7 min
Classical music vs. mediocrity
On one side is the mediocrity of all functionaries. All bureaucrats. There’s no point in my writing about bureaucrats in the ordinary...
- May 25, 2021
- 12 min
Critiques of Richard Rorty (and postmodernism)
[Here are notes I took many years ago while reading Richard Rorty’s famous book Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. As you’ll see from...
- Sep 13, 2020
- 6 min
On how to live
When I was younger, I used to wonder: should I care what people think of me? I saw arguments on both sides of the question. And I still...
- Sep 4, 2020
- 2 min
I was feeling rather metaphysical last night
David Graeber died. At 59. Tomorrow, you or I might die. At any moment. Meanwhile, we pretend life has meaning. Eventually, we will die....
- Aug 29, 2020
- 3 min
"Government in the Future"
[From 2008.] Reading Chomsky’s pamphlet Government in the Future, which sets out to answer the question “What is the role of the state in...
- Aug 26, 2020
- 6 min
"A refutation of Kantian and Benthamite ethics"
Here's a paper from my undergraduate days, which you might find mildly interesting in its outline (and critique) of both Kantian and...
- Aug 16, 2020
- 4 min
A short critique of Albert Camus
Journal entry from 2007.— Reading The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (by Camus). Impressive book. Tries to answer the question I was...
- Aug 11, 2020
- 59 min
The relativity of values
Back in my twenties I had an intellectual and creative energy I don't have anymore. I was consumed by philosophy, jumping from topic to...
- Jul 16, 2019
- 7 min
Thoughts from the dark
Lugubrious. That's the word for how I'm feeling tonight. That and self-indulgent. So I thought I'd write a blog post. These midnight...
- Dec 27, 2018
- 3 min
The meaning of life
[Excerpts from this book. See also this blog post, "Excerpts on happiness."] The meaning of life?— Life is not totally “meaningless.”...
- Dec 12, 2018
- 4 min
Against "the postmodern novel"
[Here's an excerpt from a book on 'humanism' I wanted to write back in 2006. It's from a passage in which I was arguing against...
- Jul 30, 2018
- 4 min
Old notes on etymology
The profundity of language.— You can gain great insight into the human condition, into the nature of the mind, by studying the evolution...
- Mar 21, 2018
- 12 min
Notes on Marxism and empiricism
(Also see these notes.) Reading Maurice Cornforth’s Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy (1965). A good book, not dogmatic or...
- Jun 21, 2016
- 4 min
Notes on Theodor Adorno
[Old notes.] Reading Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed, by Alex Thomson. I’m not very impressed with Adorno. Continental thinkers...
- May 26, 2016
- 1 min
Various notes and excerpts
Over the years I've taken copious notes on various topics of philosophy. In case anyone is interested, I'll link to several sets of such...
- May 21, 2016
- 3 min
Old notes on the Enlightenment
In Margaret Jacob's The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents (2001), the selections from Locke’s Thoughts Concerning Education...
- May 19, 2016
- 12 min
Bertrand Russell, and David Hume, on philosophy
[Old notes.] Reading The Problems of Philosophy (1912) by Bertrand Russell. I’m inclined to agree with most of it. (In a lot of ways I’m...
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