Tag Archives: politics

Notes on Ursula Le Guin’s “The Dispossessed”

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Lee

Stepping off a train onto a crowded platform. Anxious glances of the passers-by. Shevek wonders at this anxiety: is it a function of the capitalist economy here? The fact that each of these people must make enough money to live? … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Literature | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Gospel of Work

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Lee

When Henry Miller writes that “the gospel of work” is “the doctrine of inertia” he really speaks to me. I often think about what politicians are trying to convince us of when they talk about “work” and “jobs.” It’s spoken … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Review of Slavoj Žižek’s Like a Thief in Broad Daylight (Part 1: “Introduction”)

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Lee

Slavoj Žižek begins his book Like a Thief in Broad Daylight by discussing the purpose of philosophy. Its purpose, he says, is to “prod” people – meaning to “corrupt the youth” the way Socrates did, by challenging established norms. I … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Philosophy, Reviews of 2018 Books | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Kathy Acker and Postmodernism

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Lee

Though Kathy Acker doubts her ability to write essays, she nevertheless tackles the classical questions like any other essayist. In her short essay on postmodernism, she gives an answer to the question “What is art?” Her answer is that art … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Kierkegaard vs the Modern World

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Lee

(A Review of Sylvia Walsh’s Kierkegaard and Religion: Personality, Character, and Virtue) Søren Kierkagaard is a difficult thinker in more ways than one. Not only is his writing full of abstractions and speculative notions and references to Hegel, but he … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Reviews of 2018 Books | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Reading Toynbee A Study of History

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Lee

A society is a group whose members have shared problems. “There is no such thing as society” would be true if there were no shared problems, if each individual had only his or her own problems to worry about. “There … Continue reading →

Posted in Toynbee | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Imagination and Evaluation in History: Spengler and Adorno

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Lee

Oswald Spengler: “Once again, therefore, there was an act like the act of Copernicus to be accomplished, an act of emancipation from the evident present in the name of infinity. This the Western soul achieved in the domain of Nature … Continue reading →

Posted in Spengler | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hegel, Theodicy and Contradiction

Posted on August 2, 2016 by Lee

This is a paper I presented at the “Hegel’s Conception of Contradiction: Logic, Life and History” conference in Leuven on 17th May 2013. In retrospect, it seems strange to talk about theodicy without also discussing God and the problem of … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment