A professor at King’s College New York, Joseph Loconte, recently wrote on the origins of fascism in a way that is illuminating to the position we are in today. Before introducing his article, I’d like to back up to something I wrote (in Illiberalism) on this subject a year or so ago: On the far right, […]
Read more...Tag: William James
Illiberalism
Two weeks ago, in Epidemic Irrationality, I reviewed Stephen Hicks’ book Explaining Postmodernism. I’d like to build on one feature of his analysis because it goes a long way to explaining some of the political upheaval in recent years. The three-way battle I highlighted in that earlier post used phrases like “classical liberalism,” “leftist illiberalism,” […]
Read more...Being and Time
Roger Scruton is a great contemporary philosopher. You should run out and read everything he ever wrote. His specialty is aesthetics, but he is versatile. I read him in part for his handle on developments in philosophy over the last few hundred years, including especially the influence of Friedrich Hegel, the preeminent late-18th century philosopher. On the key philosophical subject of […]
Read more...Will to Believe
Let’s look at the objection many agnostics make to belief in God: “If I don’t know, I don’t know. Nor do you. One believes because he wants to believe, that’s all.” Even if this were a completely viable position to take, it wouldn’t support a stance of perpetual agnosticism, as we shall see. Williams James was an […]
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