Those pensive-looking guys to the left are 20th C. philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Bertrand Russell. Although they come from different ends of the philosophical spectrum– existentialism and literature for Sartre, mathematical logic and analytic philosophy for Russell–they did share a passion for and commitment to the life of that long-lost animal, the engaged intellectual. It…
Read MoreJudith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California-Berkeley, delivered a lecture Thursday night at The University of Memphis entitled “Vulnerability, Survivability: The Political Affects of War.” For the most part, Butler’s lecture drew upon her recent work in Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence and Who…
Read MoreAs one of his first acts in Office– a long overdue one– Obama signed an Executive Order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within the year. What’s more, Obama’s order also included directives to end torture (such as waterboarding) in U.S. interrogration practices, shutter CIA “black site” prisons abroad, and end the practice of…
Read MoreAn excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have A Dream” address to the people assembled on the Washington Mall, August 28, 1963. …In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of…
Read MoreI’ve mentioned my fascination with medical mysteries before on this blog (see: my post on Apotemnophilia). I suppose that part of that fascination is simply grounded in the strangeness of some of the conditions, but I am also particularly interested in the way that medical knowledge is stymied. A couple of years ago, I read…
Read MoreRecently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the power, and lack thereof, of shame. As regular readers of this blog already know, I’m currently working on a manuscript in defense of human rights via a reconstituted humanism (what I’m calling a “weak humanism“). Yesterday, I was flipping through a book I read several years ago…
Read MoreThe “weak humanism” debate rages on, thanks to a reinvigoration by Professor Grady. If you’re still interested in having this one out, especially if you’ve got some Cartesian or “Enlightenment” axes to grind, you should check in on the extended discussion here. [NOTE: Please direct comments to the original post, not this one.]
Read MoreIt has occurred to me that I need to say a lot more about what I mean by “weak” in the formulation “weak humanism,” about which I posted a short while ago (here) and which has sparked a very interesting and productive discussion. My clarifications herein are in part attempts to sharpen my own sense…
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