On “Idols of the Mind”
A Philosophical Happy Hour thinking through the challenges posed by Francis Bacon’s Idols of the Mind. The concept of idols as a philosophical problem is one that has captured the attention of a wide variety of thinkers, from early modern philosophers such as Descartes and Francis Bacon to 20th century phenomenologists such as Jean-Luc Marion. […]
On the Future of Education and Technology
A Philosophical Happy Hour discussing education and technology in light of the first entry in Adam Pugen’s “Future is Technoclassical” article. In a recent article, published here on the Peripatetic Periodical, Faculty Fellow Adam Pugen investigates the resurgence in “classical education” that has been affected through the digital environment. The precise nature of this technologically-mediated […]
On Slicing Through “Conspiracy Theories”
A Philosophical Happy Hour on how we ought to approach conspiracy theories.“The truth is out there”? Human history finds itself interwoven, in every age, with falsehood. We suffer, to steal a phrase of Umberto Eco’s, a “fatal imbalance between story and plot”—between what underlies, the reality, and what sits atop, the narrative. In recent years, […]
On Definition and Language
“Nothing properly signifies itself.” To signify: this is to convey something other, to something other. Signification thereby contrasts with representation by their respective extensions, which can be either “other-representation” or “self-representation”. When you see a portrait, this represents something other than itself, namely, the person portrayed. When you see that person herself, her visible being […]
