Shūsaku Endō‘s Silence is a remarkable religious novel, one whose close reading and discussion in a philosophy classroom pays rich dividends. This week marks the concluding sessions of my Philosophical Issues in Literature class’ discussion of Endō’s novel; I can enthusiastically recommend it–in whole or in part–for use in classes on epistemology and philosophy of religion.Continue reading “‘Silence’ And Shūsaku Endō’s Christianity”
Category Archives: Psychology
Talking Philosophy With Kids At The Brooklyn Public Library
This Sunday afternoon at 4PM, I will be participating in a Philosophy for Kids event at the Grand Army Plaza branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (in the Info Commons Lab); the event is sponsored by the Cultural Services Office of the French Embassy. I’ll be functioning as a kind of Philosophical Advice Columnist takingContinue reading “Talking Philosophy With Kids At The Brooklyn Public Library”
Dehumanization As Prerequisite For Moral Failure
In An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (§III – Of Justice, Part I, Hackett Edition, Indianapolis, 1983, pp. 25-26), David Hume writes: Were there a species of creatures intermingled with men, which, though rational, were possessed of such inferior strength, both of body and mind, that they were incapable of all resistance, and could never,Continue reading “Dehumanization As Prerequisite For Moral Failure”
A Modest Proposal To Cull The Human Herd
Feeding the elderly and the young i.e., the economically unproductive, is a terribly wasteful, irrational enterprise–programs like Meals on Wheels and after-school lunches are but the most glaring instances of this catastrophically misdirected act of charity; acts like these will never produce any tangible, meaningful results like an increase in the Gross Domestic Product orContinue reading “A Modest Proposal To Cull The Human Herd”
Subway Buskers And Life’s Soundtrack
This morning, as I alighted at a subway station, I was greeted by music and song and melody. A subway station busker–one of New York City’s most familiar residents and features–was holding forth with instrument and vocal chord; his chords and notes and full-throated voice floated up and around and over me as I madeContinue reading “Subway Buskers And Life’s Soundtrack”
Learning From Injuries
An injury is always a learning experience. Most straightforwardly, if you are an active type, you acquire the dreadful knowledge of the precipitous drop in mood that follows one. There is also the terrible castigation, the self-flagellation that is the inevitable accompaniment to such disasters: there is always, in retrospect, some decision that was fatal,Continue reading “Learning From Injuries”
Reading Charlie Brown Comics, Contd.
My post yesterday on my relationship with Charlie Brown comics sparked some interesting contestations by Chase Madar and David Auerbach–in the course of a discussion on Facebook. With their permission, I reproduce some of their comments below and follow-up with some brief annotations. First Madar says: I’ve had the exact opposite reaction since reading PeanutsContinue reading “Reading Charlie Brown Comics, Contd.”
On Being Traumatized By Charlie Brown Comics
I read many, many Charlie Brown comic books as a child; reading them was a sustained exercise in masochism. I hated them, each and every single page, but I kept on reading, from cover to cover. I would finish one, convinced of the utter, vicious, gratuitous cruelty of the world and its residents, and then,Continue reading “On Being Traumatized By Charlie Brown Comics”
George Steiner On The ‘Unvoiced Soliloquy’ And Collaborative Creativity
In Grammars of Creation (Yale University Press, 2001, pp. 84-85), in making note of the ‘anxiety of influence,’ and the valorization of solitary creativity, George Steiner writes: I want to point to the elected presences which makers construe within themselves or within their works, to the “fellow-travellers,” teachers, critics, dialectical partners, to those other voices withinContinue reading “George Steiner On The ‘Unvoiced Soliloquy’ And Collaborative Creativity”
Brave Analytic Philosophers Use Trump Regime To Settle Old Academic Scores
Recently, Daniel Dennett took the opportunity to, as John Protevi put it, “settle some old academic scores.” He did this by making the following observation in an interview with The Guardian: I think what the postmodernists did was truly evil. They are responsible for the intellectual fad that made it respectable to be cynical aboutContinue reading “Brave Analytic Philosophers Use Trump Regime To Settle Old Academic Scores”
Samir Chopra 