2019 comes to a close, and with it the 2010s. Below are a few thoughts on these periods of time. The most significant book I’ve read in 2019 is probably Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism. The German title, literally “Elements and Origins of Totalitarian Rule” more closely reflects the contents of this monograph. Arendt […]
The premise of the enlightenment would be that we have finally discovered how to live rationally. Authority is located in natural science, free enterprise and free markets, and empirical knowledge. Thus we can cast aside all the superstitions of the past and finally become what we were meant to be. Can we? Not everyone agrees. Marx, Freud […]
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Posted 26 December 2018
† Johan
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Philosophy § Uncategorized
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Also tagged: bergman, capitalism, china, existentialism, freud, god, india, jung, marx, pinker, rosling, tolstoy
Two momentous events that took place last year were the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, and the UK’s referendum on EU membership that led to the “Brexit†decision to leave the union. The two are often lumped together and seen as symptoms of a single larger force, which they probably […]
Memes often travel between neighboring countries and cultures like genetic material travels between bacteria in a colony. The imitation by one culture of another is rarely a pure copying though, but usually a kind of creative act: a selection, curation, editing, emphasising, painting over. But the distance between some cultures is greater than between others. Edward […]
The performers: Kevin McHugh from the US on piano, Hugues Vincent from France on cello, as well as an Australian clarinet player, and Japanese cello and flute players and a drummer. The venue: Nanahari – “seven needles”, ä¸ƒé‡ – a small basement in Hachobori, east Tokyo, in an authentically Showa-era building. We are partly transported […]