In Dream and Reality: An Essay in Autobiography (Macmillan, 1950) Nikolai Berdayev writes: It has been said that ‘green is the tree of life and grey the theory of life.’ Paradoxical though it may seem, I am inclined to think that the reverse is true: ‘grey is the tree of life and green the theory thereof.’…What isContinue reading “Nikolai Berdayev On Philosophy’s Therapeutic Function”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
Horkheimer And Adorno On The ‘Convergence’ Of Art And Science
In Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (University of Stanford Press, Cultural Memory in the Present Series, ed. Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, p. 13, 2002) Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno write: The prevailing antithesis between art and science, which rends the two apart as areas of culture in order to make them jointly manageable as areas of cultures,Continue reading “Horkheimer And Adorno On The ‘Convergence’ Of Art And Science”
Donald Trump’s ‘Hot-Mic’ And Men Talking About Sex
A friend offers the following reaction to the latest ‘sensational’ disclosures about Donald Trump’s misogyny: To all the guys on my feed posting their shock and outrage over Trump’s hot-mic comments about women: give me a break. “How could America possibly elect someone who talks like this about women??” you ask. Do you honestly thinkContinue reading “Donald Trump’s ‘Hot-Mic’ And Men Talking About Sex”
On The Dissolution Of A Personal Boundary
One of my favorite pastimes when visiting my in-laws in Ohio is to borrow one of the family cars and head to the local cinema to catch a matinée show; it’s how I catch up on the big-screen action I miss out on here in the Big Apple. The tickets are cheaper; the audiences areContinue reading “On The Dissolution Of A Personal Boundary”
John David Mabbott And Two Influential Paragraphs
In the summer of 1992, I had begun to consider the possibility of returning to graduate school–this time for a new program in study in an unfamiliar field: philosophy. I had no previous academic exposure to philosophy so I would have to begin at the ‘bottom’: by taking classes as a non-matriculate student, and thenContinue reading “John David Mabbott And Two Influential Paragraphs”
The Phenomenology Of Encounters With Notification Icons
It’s 630 AM or so; you’re awake, busy getting your cup of coffee ready. (Perhaps you’re up earlier like the truly virtuous or the overworked, which in our society comes to the same thing.) Your coffee made, you fire up your smartphone, laptop, tablet, or desktop, and settle down for the morning service at theContinue reading “The Phenomenology Of Encounters With Notification Icons”
Justin Caouette On Rational And Emotional Forgiveness
Over at The Philosopher’s Take Justin Caouette wonders if there is a distinction between two kinds of forgiveness, ‘cognitive’ and ‘rational’: Cognitive forgiveness deals with understanding the act that was done to you. So, let’s say your good friend punched you in the face when you walked into his house. After the incident and afterContinue reading “Justin Caouette On Rational And Emotional Forgiveness”
Donald Trump Is An American Hero For Not Paying Taxes
That loud sound you heard last night was not your usual, run-of-the-mill thing that goes bump in the night. That was The New York Times dropping the explosive–just explosive!–scoop on the American citizenry that Donald Trump’s tax returns, a copy of which the Times managed to obtain courtesy an anonymous benefactor, reveal that he mightContinue reading “Donald Trump Is An American Hero For Not Paying Taxes”
G. H. Hardy On The Supposedly ‘Second-Rate Mind’
In A Mathematician’s Apology G. H. Hardy wrote: It is a melancholy experience for a professional mathematician to find himself writing about mathematics. The function of a mathematician is to do something, to prove new theorems, to add to mathematics, and not to talk about what he or other mathematicians have done. Statesmen despise publicists,Continue reading “G. H. Hardy On The Supposedly ‘Second-Rate Mind’”
Addiction As Particularized Process, Not Isolated Condition
In The Addiction Experience, Stanton Peele writes: Addiction is not caused by a drug or its chemical properties. Addiction has to do with the effect a drug produces for a given person in given circumstances—a welcomed effect which relieves anxiety and which (paradoxically) decreases capability so that those things in life which cause anxiety grow moreContinue reading “Addiction As Particularized Process, Not Isolated Condition”
Samir Chopra 