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Aesthetics

Humanity vs. Technology (in 5 minutes)

July 31, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Biotech, Blog2024+, critical thinking, Democracy, Digital Humanities, Emergent Tech, Ethics, Internet, Justice, Labor Issues, Machine Learning, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Posthuman, Public Philosophy, Social Media, Surveillance, Teaching, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Uncanny Valley Comments Off on Humanity vs. Technology (in 5 minutes)

Dr. Leigh M. Johnson summarizes the challenges technology poses to humanity (and the humanities) in 5-minute PowerPoint.

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Determining a Judgment of Taste

July 16, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Blog2024+, critical thinking, Ethics, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Race and Racism, Relativism, Uncategorized Comments Off on Determining a Judgment of Taste

On Kant’s strange anecdote of the rue de la Huchette

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Hotel Bar Sessions Ep 19: Laughter

July 25, 2021 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Hotel Bar Sessions, humor, Philosophy, podcast, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Trump Comments Off on Hotel Bar Sessions Ep 19: Laughter

  In advance of Rick Lee’s forthcoming book, co-hosts Charles and Leigh ask him why he thinks all “theories” of comedy are inadequate. What exactly is the “joke” part of a joke? Why are philosophers not only hostile to comedy, but also categorically unfunny? Is comedy formulaic or does it resist systematic analysis? What is…

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BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS Ep3: “The National Anthem” with Ammon Allred

November 27, 2020 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Black Mirror, Black Mirror Reflections, Blog 2023+, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Television 1 Comment

In Episode 3 of BLACK MIRROR REFLECTIONS, I am joined by one of my absolute favorite human beings, Dr. Ammon Allred, who is also quite literally the only person with whom I feel comfortable recording a conversation about Black Mirror‘s inaugural episode, “The National Anthem.” And, after having recorded said episode, I’m already having second thoughts about…

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Motivation

February 13, 2016 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Music, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Motivation

It’s Saturday, the hardest day of the week to find motivation to get things done.  Luckily for me, I have almost unrestricted access to all the music ever written (thanks, Google Play!), a stereo with a volume dial that goes all the way up to 10 (thanks, technology!), and neighbors who don’t mind my loudness because…

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Horror

February 12, 2016 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Film, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Horror

I do not enjoy horror films. Not even a little bit. They genuinely terrify me. I hate them, I won’t voluntarily go to them, and no amount of cajoling or ridicule will change my mind about that. Now, I should note here at the start that I don’t believe that ghosts or spirits or devils…

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Purposiveness

February 11, 2016 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Purposiveness

I thought I might slip in a somewhat “technical” philosophy post, since I’m blogging every day this month and those of you not interested in such things can just hold on until tomorrow. Today, I’m going to say a bit about Kant, and a tiny little thing that has been nagging about his Critique of…

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On Teaching Our Incapacity To Unexperience

October 21, 2015 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Ethics, Film, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, SPEP, Teaching, Thinking in Images, Trigger Warnings, Weak Humanism 6 Comments

They say you can’t “unring a bell.” It’s an analogy that is often used to illustrate our incapacity to un-experience things, to erase lived-experiences from our bodies and minds. What I discovered recently is how particularly true that is in the classroom. A few weeks ago in my Philosophy and Film course, we screened Werner…

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Relativism, Revolutionary Fictionalism, Moral Facts and #TheDress

March 3, 2015 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Ethics, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Relativism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology 1 Comment

[Disclaimer: this post is a brief, quickly-composed and so incomplete response to a number of tangentially-related events and essays from the last several days.  I have a lot more to say about all of them, including how they are not merely tangentially-related, but not now.] If you haven’t already, you should read yesterday’s Stone article in the…

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