Tabla de contenidos para April - May 2020 en Philosophy Now

EMO NIETZSCHE © DEIMANTE JUDICKAITE, 2020 Friedrich Nietzsche is not known as a positive guy. Most accounts of him give us a tender and morose misanthrope consistently repulsed by everything he saw around him (unless he saw a mountain; he liked mountains). As a philosopher, he is widely seen as a destructive force, tearing down anything that gave off the slightest whiff of tradition or convention. There’s little doubt Nietzsche would be proud of this reputation; in his chest-puffing autobiography Ecce Homo, he described himself as “dynamite”. Whilst there is no shortage of evidence for Nietzsche’s demolition programme, it is on particularly clear show in 1888’s Twilight of the Idols. This work is a protracted assault on the philosophical canon that Nietzsche sees flowing forth from errors originally made by…

The final work of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, History, Memory, Forgetting (2008), provides a densely argued defence of the concept of collective memory. In one chapter he considers the short work on historiography by Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Life (1874). Ironically, what earned Nietzsche this special attention was Ricoeur’s need to ‘set apart’ Nietzsche’s work because it “contributes nothing to the critical examination of the historical operation.” Ricoeur saw Nietzsche as assaulting remembrance. By contrast, David Rieff, who attacked the concept of collective memory in his 2016 book, In Praise of Forgetting, applauds Nietzsche, and encourages the reader to take up Nietzsche’s moral imperative of ‘active forgetting’. Ricoeur and Rieff are on two different sides when it comes to social memory, but both…

Conflict-of-duty remains one of the most intractable problems in moral philosophy. How to think about situations in which a person has two or more moral obligations, but can fulfill only one? It was primarily to deal with this problem that W.D. Ross introduced the concept of prima facie duty in his signature essay ‘What Makes Right Acts Right?’, (chapter 2 of his 1930 book The Right and the Good) and. Prima facie means something like ‘on the face of it’ or ‘at first sight’. Philip Stratton-Lake claims that within twenty years of its appearance in 1930, Ross’s theory was old-hat and “rejected out of hand by most moral philosophers.” Nonetheless, his term ‘prima facie duty’ has remained part of the moral philosophical lingo. And if Ross’s theory is dated, apparently…

With every passing moment that cannot be seized,You discover that light cannot be captured and timecannot be stopped,And that life is fleeting.You realize that most of the realities created in themind are illusory,And most things in life are not important at all.You recognize that all your efforts eventually fadeaway with time,Yet like Sisyphus you keep carrying the burden of lifein an uphill climb,And find some measure of meaning in a seeminglymeaningless world.You try to preserve your freedom within a nature thatenforces its rules on life,And to maintain your dignity in a society that imposesmasks on you.You endure through difficult challenges and failures,And know that you must keep enduring to the end.You wait in vain for a revelation about the unknowable that keeps its silence,And admit that you will never reach…

TO TALK ABOUT POSTHU-manism we have to go back to a relatively distant past – to the philosophical rift that separated the analytical philosophy of the Anglo-American tradition from the Continental one that has dominated the philosophical culture of Europe. In its constant deconstruction of the basic assumptions of mainstream Western philosophy (from Plato to the 19th Century), modern Continental thinking takes its main inspiration from Nietzsche. From Nietzsche onwards, it has focused on dismantling God, the subject, objectivity or truth, and rationality, in a process of nihilist liquefaction. And although some have tried to counter this process, many more others have decided to adopt the opposite strategy – that is, to accept and indeed try to ‘inhabit’ this nihilistic condition. Philosophical posthumanism can be considered part of this wide…

I believe that human rights can be defined as those inalienable rights one should have on the basis of being a human, regardless of faith, ethnicity or political views. They include the right to life, freedom of the self and of speech, and the right to preserve personal space from external interference. Of course, human rights are not absolute; they are defined and redefined continuously. Yet those I’ve mentioned are universally agreed upon, at least among the member states of the United Nations. Human rights stem essentially from what the Greek philosopher Thales (c.624 BC–c.546 BC) said about treating others as one expects to be treated. This principle is now known as the Golden Rule. Every human being must enjoy a certain set of rights for life to be tolerable.…

On his 2013 album Yeezus, the Chicago rapper Kanye West highlighted something that the world had failed to notice, namely, that he is a god. He had been called many things in his life – including a jackass by Barack Obama – but never this. Naturally, West’s deific pretensions incurred accusations of narcissism and blasphemy. The offending song was unambiguously titled ‘I Am a God’, and its message was clear: I, Kanye West, am more than human. West later explained that the song was born out of frustration. Desperate to become a success in the fashion industry, yet feeling rebuffed by the labels he wanted to work with, he was tipped over the edge at Paris Fashion Week when he was pointedly asked not to attend a series of events:…

This little book constitutes a loving plea for practicing philosophy with children and adults alike, to get a closer connection with each other, develop a deeper understanding, and to reconnect to this beautiful world we live in. In a lighthearted way it explains complex philosophical notions so they become understandable to anyone. Capricious illustrations by Blair Thornley form a cheerful complement and bring Huk and Tuk to life. “In this whimsical, playful story Dr Maria daVenza Tillmanns shows how we can reforge deep understanding of each other and of ourselves, proceeding from Buber’s theory of Self and Other.” Dr Claartje van Sijl, philosophical counselor and trainer Maria daVenza Tillmanns teaches a ‘Philosophy with Children’ program in underserved San Diego schools in partnership with the University of California, San Diego. Published…

As many as 37% of employees self-report that their jobs are pointless (YouGov poll, UK, 2015). The anthropologist David Graeber has described a ‘pointless’ job as one that would make no difference to anyone if it ceases to exist. Such jobs are not confined to low qualification tasks, such as telemarketing, but are also prevalent at various levels of management. I would like to contend that one of the most qualified positions one can hold, that of university professor, is pointless, too, at least in some respects. Most professorial positions involve a combination of teaching and research. The teaching part undoubtedly has its merits. Who else would convey the body of knowledge that humanity has acquired, but someone who has gained that knowledge? It is the research part – the…

Recently I was chatting with some bright young philosophers about the role of biography in the history of philosophy. One of them, Daniel Drucker, offered a nice observation about Friedrich Nietzsche. Just as, for the sake of his philosophical reputation one might see Gottlob Frege as having been lucky to have died before the rise of Nazism (which, given discoveries about his rabid antisemitism, he might well have supported), so Nietzsche was unlucky not to have lived to a ripe old age, for he would then have had a chance to explicitly reject Nazism, a movement whose misplaced association with his thought has tarnished his name. We are drawn to the life stories of famous philosophers, but Nietzsche’s story has a stronger pull than most. His youthful appointment as a…

DO WE HAVE A MORAL DUTY to treat non-human animals well? Are they sufficiently like us to be considered ‘moral beings’? According to Immanuel Kant in his essay ‘Speculation on the Beginning of Human History’ (1786), man’s conception of himself as the ‘true end of nature’ prompted us to exalt ourselves “altogether beyond any community with animals”, relegating other animals to the status of mere means and tools for humans. But for moral philosopher Christine Korsgaard, the questions of how we’re related to other animals, and whether it matters how we treat them, take us into the ‘existential heart of philosophy’. It confuses her, therefore, that relatively few philosophers have ventured into this territory. She sets out to redress this balance somewhat with her book Fellow Creatures (2018). To Korsgaard,…

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My first encounter with Roger Scruton, in the Autumn of 1984, was inauspicious. It was at a drinks reception at Birkbeck College, the purpose of which was to introduce new graduate students to their supervisors. Back then, he still looked like the Head Boy. Eventually I came face to face with him. “Hello. Are you one of mine?” No, I had been assigned another supervisor. “In that case, you cease to interest me”, came the laconic reply. Birkbeck College, where Roger was Professor of Aesthetics until he resigned his position to pursue life as a freelance and often a Visiting Professor, was founded to allow people employed during the day to study in the evenings. It is unique in enabling people of all ages and occupations to gain University of…

Received wisdom says that the philosophical projects of Nietzsche and Plato are about as diametrically opposite as any two philosophical projects can be. This impression is not without justification. Plato is the philosopher of otherworldly order who argued that our senses do not reveal any valuable or fundamental truths. Nietzsche is a self-proclaimed inverter of Platonic philosophy, denying and damning all that is eternal, perfect, and transcendent. However, an over-looked parallel between Nietzsche and Plato in their aesthetic ideas shows they have some unexpected common ground. Specifically, they both attack broad classes of art, arguing that such art is socially problematic. The problem for both of them is that art can negatively affect the development of higher types of people. “But wait,” you might already be saying, “I can remember…

Leonardo da Vinci died five hundred years ago last year, and galleries all over the world commemorated this quincentenary. However, it was only long after his death – after the re-discovery of his collection of note-books – that other academic fields could legitimately start to claim Leonardo as one of their own. So, what does this polymath, Renaissance man, genius, have to add to the study of philosophy? Well, surely if being a philosopher is anything, it is using enquiry to test claims and hypotheses from first principles, including using experiments to discern whether or not truth can be reached from them. Indeed, as Ludwig Wittgenstein stated, “Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity” (Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1923) – in which case we might have plenty to learn,…

IN HIS BOOK POST-INDUStrial Society (1969), Alain Touraine defined a post-industrial society as one in which the service sector generates more wealth than the manufacturing sector. Most developed countries are already in this situation and most other countries are heading straight towards it. This shift from the industrial to the post-industrial has advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages is the reduction of industrial pollution. It has also been said that in post-industrial societies knowledge will become the most valued resource and form of capital: the production of ideas will become the main way to grow the economy. Post-industrial societies invest in creativity, and they appreciate the work of creative professionals such as scientists and designers. Among the disadvantages is an intensification of social exclusion, which Daniel Bell already pointed out…

These days you can hardly turn on the television or watch a movie without seeing slack-jawed zombies stumbling or dragging their limbs after a horrified person. For those who are short on reading material, the New York Times bestseller, The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks (2003) holds critical information on how to survive the zombie apocalypse. Zombie fever doesn’t stop there. Gun enthusiasts may shoot bleeding zombie targets at their local shooting range. In Canada, you can even learn CPR with the help of zombies from the Heart and Stroke Foundation. And when you are done, you can watch the all-time most popular television series, AMC’s The Walking Dead, which had almost twenty million viewers a week. If you’re unsure why zombies are…

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It’s the 4th of July, and Max has invited Orin to a barbecue. Max, holding a Bud in one hand and a burger in the other, approaches Orin through swirls of choking smoke. Orin is looking rather glum, and Max guesses it is not just the veggie burger Orin insisted on having in order to ‘save the planet’. Max: Congratulations! Glad to see you Brits have regained your own independence. About time you freed yourself from your European masters – just as we did from you guys a few centuries ago. Orin: Well, I’m rather disappointed, since I liked the idea of European unity, and the ability to move freely about Europe. But given European history and the cumbersome mechanism needed to form even a semblance of government, I guess…