One of the most distinctive features of Claude Lanzmann‘s Shoah is that it features no archival footage. Not a single second of it. There are no grainy, black-and-white flickering images of Jews being herded into train cars for shipment to concentration camps, pushed and shoved along by brutal, indifferent German soldiers, of camp inmates peeringContinue reading “Claude Lanzmann’s ‘Shoah’: The Holocaust Brought To The Present”
Category Archives: Philosophy
Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia And The Insight Of The Depressed
There is a moment during the disastrous wedding reception that kicks off Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia that you suspect the reason Justine the bride is being so mysteriously, bafflingly, awkwardly morose, is that she is aware of an impending apocalypse, the one made imminent by a beautiful blue planet approaching the earth on a collisionContinue reading “Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia And The Insight Of The Depressed”
On Not Watching Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible
A dozen or so years ago, my now-wife-and-then-girlfriend’s roommate, a young woman who worked as a community organizer, told me that she had recently seen Gaspar Noé‘s recently released Irréversible. She really liked it: it was a disturbing movie, hard to watch because of that notorious eight-minute rape scene and all the other violence, but I,Continue reading “On Not Watching Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible”
The Trials Of Muhammad Ali
We all know the story: In 1967, three years after winning the heavyweight title, [Muhammad] Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. The U.S. government declined to recognize him as a conscientious objector, however, because Ali declared that he wouldContinue reading “The Trials Of Muhammad Ali”
Schwitzgebel On Our Moral Duties To Artificial Intelligences
Eric Schwitzgebel asks an interesting question: Suppose that we someday create artificial beings similar to us in their conscious experience, in their intelligence, in their range of emotions. What moral duties would we have to them? Schwitzgebel’s stipulations are quite extensive, for these beings are “similar to us in their conscious experience, in their intelligence,Continue reading “Schwitzgebel On Our Moral Duties To Artificial Intelligences”
Mark Bennett Is A Sexist Tool
Over at the blog Defending People, Mark Bennett, a Houston-based criminal defense lawyer, writes a long, technical, closely argued post critiquing Danielle Citron‘s putative rebuttals of arguments–based on First Amendment concerns–against her proposals for ‘revenge porn’ laws. Bennett titles his post ‘F**ing Danielle Citron’ and at the end signs off thusly: P.S. “F**king” is fisking.Continue reading “Mark Bennett Is A Sexist Tool”
An Officer’s View On The NYPD Protests: Still Blinkered
Steve Osborne, proudly standing with his back to the Mayor and the city of New York, comes to tell us why the New York City Police Department has been throwing an extended tantrum that would put a toddler to shame. (Interestingly enough, the NYPD has given itself a ‘time-out’ and like harried parents everywhere, weContinue reading “An Officer’s View On The NYPD Protests: Still Blinkered”
Kill All The Cartoonists; God Will Sort Them Out
You read or view a satirical piece or a cartoon in a newspaper or a magazine. It offends you; you are enraged; your deepest sensibilities–personal, religious–have been ravaged and injured. Unable to assuage your feelings by acknowledging the abstract free speech rights of those who have so insulted you, and still caught up in aContinue reading “Kill All The Cartoonists; God Will Sort Them Out”
Wishful Dreaming And Running On Cold Mornings
Last night, my preparations for bed included a little collection of running gear: tights, shorts, gloves, hat, an inner layer, and finally, an outer sweatshirt. I was planning to make a return to a running routine after having been diverted and distracted back in December. I had checked in with my running partner to seeContinue reading “Wishful Dreaming And Running On Cold Mornings”
Heisenberg On Minimal Theoretical Change In Scientific Revolutions
In ‘Abstraction in Modern Art and Science’ (from Across the Frontiers, Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1974) Werner Heisenberg wrote: How does a revolution in science come about? The answer: By trying to change as little as possible; by concentrating all efforts on the solution of a special and obviously still unsolved problem, and proceeding as conservativelyContinue reading “Heisenberg On Minimal Theoretical Change In Scientific Revolutions”
Samir Chopra 