You can understand why the medievals, with their earthy practicality, responded to Aristotle, who offers arguments like this one against the irrationalism of monism: If everything is and is not simultaeously, yh not walk over a cliff? “Why do we observe him guarding against this, evidently . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 2010 essay in Political Theology , Daniel Bell, Jr. offers a sharp critique of Hardt and Negri and Amgamben. He notes that, in contrast to other democratic theorists, Hardt and Negri hold out a modest hope for “democratic polities [that are] fugitive, episodic, on the run and generally . . . . Continue Reading »
Biggar again, defending the Augustinian view that killing in some circumstances is not a violation of love of neighbor: “I may (intend to) kill an aggressor, not because I hate him, nor because I reckon his life worth less than anyone else’s, but because, tragically, I know of no other . . . . Continue Reading »
In his classic Leisure the Basis of Culture , Josef Pieper notes that Kant considered knowledge ot be “discursive” rather than “receptive and contemplative.” Against romantics like Jacobi, he insisted that “the law is that reason acquires its possessions through . . . . Continue Reading »
Some reflections on the metaphysics and politics of marriage and pornography at http://www.firstthings.com/ . . . . Continue Reading »
Homi Bhabha (in an essay in Redrawing the Boundaries: The Transformation of English and American Literary Studies ) sees the connection clearly: “My growing conviction has been that the encounters and negotiations of differential meanings and values within ‘colonial’ textuality, . . . . Continue Reading »
In Book 10 of the Nicomachean Ethics , Aristotle ponders the nature of happiness, concluding from philosophical arguments that happiness consists in contemplation. He adds a theological argument: “We assume the gods to be above all other beings blessed and happy; but what sort of actions must . . . . Continue Reading »
A few comments on the physiology, psychology, and culture of aroma from Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses . Like many writers, Ackerman links smell and memory: “Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary, and fleeting, yet conjure up a . . . . Continue Reading »
I offer some reflections on the timeliness of the work of JG Hamann over at http://www.firstthings.com/ . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week, Pat Robertson told his viewers that he believes Alzheimer’s disease to be a “kind of death,” a basis for the un-afflicted spouse to seek divorce and move on with their life—so long as they act mercifully and provide a means for care of that spouse. This view . . . . Continue Reading »
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