A few days ago, I wrote a post on reading (and re-reading) what one writes. Today, I want to put down a few thoughts on the business of re-reading what one has read, sometimes willingly, sometimes not. Susan Sontag once said, ‘All great books deserve to be read five times at least.’ When asked ifContinue reading “Re-Reading What One Has Read”
Category Archives: Philosophy
Online vs. In-Classroom Education, Contd.
My response yesterday to Mark Edmundson’s ‘online education is not real education’ New York Times Op-Ed sparked a set of interesting comments in response. I’d like to briefly take those on today as I think they help round out the discussion quite nicely. (Please read the comments in full at the original post.) My Brooklyn CollegeContinue reading “Online vs. In-Classroom Education, Contd.”
Online v. In-Classroom Education: Not Quite a No-Contest
“AH, you’re a professor. You must learn so much from your students.” This line, which I’ve heard in various forms, always makes me cringe. Do people think that lawyers learn a lot about the law from their clients? That patients teach doctors much of what they know about medicine? This is an exceedingly strange wayContinue reading “Online v. In-Classroom Education: Not Quite a No-Contest”
The ‘Narcissism of the True Artist’ and Reading What One Writes
In his seminal Nietzsche: The Man and his Philosophy, RJ Hollingdale, after noting that Nietzsche made note of some forty-six poems composed between 1855 and 1858, goes on to say: The sign that he was a born writer, however, is not to be found in them, but in a remark in Aus Meinem Leben [From My Life],Continue reading “The ‘Narcissism of the True Artist’ and Reading What One Writes”
Incubating Corporate Wrongdoers: Catch ’em Young
Luigi Zingales asks, ‘Do Business Schools Incubate Criminals?,’ in response to news that continues the depressing ticker-tape of scandal emanating from our financial and business communities, wonders how so many business executives show little ethical sensibility given that business schools offer instruction in ethics, suggests the classes offered are flawed, and eventually prescribes that: [E]thics shouldContinue reading “Incubating Corporate Wrongdoers: Catch ’em Young”
Colm Tóibín on the ‘Real’ and the ‘Imagined’
Colm Tóibín writes of the intimate relationship between facts and fiction (‘What Is Real Is Imagined’, New York Times, July 14 2012), about how the story-teller’s primary responsibility is to the story, about how the novelist may, in creating fiction, embroider the facts, embellishing and enhancing, for being stuck just with the facts is not aContinue reading “Colm Tóibín on the ‘Real’ and the ‘Imagined’”
David Coady on the Need for an ‘Applied Epistemology’
David Coady‘s new book What To Believe Now: Applying Epistemology To Contemporary Issues (Blackwell, 2012)–by making vividly clear the importance and the significance of epistemology to politics and political life–may well be the most important and interesting book on epistemology in recent years; anyone interested in the control of the flows of information, their influence onContinue reading “David Coady on the Need for an ‘Applied Epistemology’”
Studying Political Philosophy via Revolutions (Well, Three of Them)
Today, I’m going to think out loud about the syllabus I’m designing for the coming fall semester’s seminar on Political Philosophy. (I’m conducting this rumination in a public forum in the hope of helping me finalize this pesky business; please do chime in with suggestions, critiques, bouquets, brickbats etc.) My class will meet twice aContinue reading “Studying Political Philosophy via Revolutions (Well, Three of Them)”
The Walking Dead Claim Another Victim
I have finally succumbed to The Walking Dead. As I had noted in a post earlier this week, I am ensconced in a friend’s apartment, house-sitting, with access to–among other things–an impressive collection of graphic novels. Included in them is the first compendium of The Walking Dead comic book series (Compendium One, May 6, 2009,Continue reading “The Walking Dead Claim Another Victim”
Richard Epstein’s Overdetermined Critique of the Roberts Ruling
Richard Epstein offers an interesting critique–based on the alleged inseparability of the power to regulate commerce and the power to tax–of John Roberts’ ruling in the ACA case. If it’s not an activity the government can regulate, then it’s not something the government can tax either. Thus, Justice Roberts should have struck down the individualContinue reading “Richard Epstein’s Overdetermined Critique of the Roberts Ruling”
Samir Chopra 