the exhaustion of criticism and “pseudo-modernism”
A recent entry in this blog entitled “the exhaustion of criticism” (published July 9th, 2011) accused academic critical studies in general, and Biblical Criticism in particular, of exhausting itself (and its potential readership), to the point of a complete disciplinary unraveling. I do believe that scholars working in the Humanities (Philosophy, Theology, Religious Studies, History, [...]
Republicans are crazy about taxes
Republican leaders weathered the recent debt ceiling debate with aplomb, fiercely and tirelessly resisting all calls for increases in Government Revenues through new taxes. Their opposition to new taxes is so absolute, so unrelenting, that it effectively rests on a total renunciation of belief in the legal morality of taxation. Republicans would be more philosophically [...]
Lapore is wrong about meaning in Poetry
Ernie Lapore, “Poetry, Medium, and Message.” The Stone. New York Times Online. 7.31.2011. Rutgers philosopher Ernie Lepore writes about poetry in yesterday’s installment of “The Stone,” a philosophy “blog” on the New York Times. Something about the article rankled me and inspired this cranky response. Lapore says the New Critics locate meaning, and the resistance [...]
the exhaustion of criticism
The last lines of Qohelet (Ecclesiastes, aka “The Teacher”) are those of an editor, who advises us to value the straightforward words of a single wise person far more than all the many books produced by the scholars and seekers in the world; he laments: “of making many books there is no end, and much [...]
weiner public tweeter
Well, you know, when you mean to send a private message and it ends up going on your main twitter feed… that’s pretty embarrassing. When it’s a scandalous message… and gets attention, and you thereafter claim that someone else did it, that you were hacked, when you blame the muckraking blogger who reported the issue [...]
Dewey, Democracy, Ethics, and Education
At the beginning of our 12th week of class, my American Philosophy class (PHI 216) read John Dewey’s “The Ethics of Democracy,” an essay published in the 1888 edition of the University of Michigan’s Philosophical Papers [see here google books full text]. It’s curious timing for me, since I am also trying to find time [...]
Lincoln and Slavery (Foner Redux)
About three weeks ago I mentioned my interest in Eric Foner’s book on Thomas Paine, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America [see my previous post]. Well, Foner has a new book about the era of the American Civil War, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. And this book, which was published last fall, has [...]
Conscience, Liberty, and the Wall of Separation
Here in the fifth week of our course in American Philosophy, we are just entering the 19th century, and so far all that we have encountered in the way of intellectually rich philosophizing in America can be categorized either as political theory or philosophical Christian theology. Philosophical theology, or theological philosophizing, proceeds in the same [...]
(Reading List) Eric Foner: Tom Paine and Revolutionary America
On my reading list: Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976; paperback in 1977; LCCCN: 75-25456). Eric Foner probably should have been one of my professors when I was at Columbia, but alas, Epimetheus! I suppose most schools offer more opportunities than students can use. Nevertheless, I do have [...]
Ontology as the Forbearance of God
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) During our third week of the course American Philosophy, we entered the 18th century in the colonies, a time of expansion, change, and development. Usually, the period is identified with the “Enlightenment”, that is, with the emergence of rationalism in science, history, philosophy and theology. The most prominent American thinker of the [...]