Adding philosophical depth to anything and everything
Few philosophers can be said to have founded a new branch of philosophy. The Moravian philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) is one. He is the founder of phenomenology, which is exactly what it sounds like: the study of phenomena. In Husserl’s […]
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Understanding Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) is no easy task. That statement is not only about his philosophy but about him as a person. He was Edmund Husserl’s other most notable student, working as Husserl’s assistant after Edith Stein had moved on. […]
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I’ve taught university courses since 1998. Someone born that year could have just graduated from a university. Chances are good that such a person has graduated with a heavy load of student loan debt. That is more than unfortunate; that […]
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Social recognition among individuals and groups is what keeps together communities. Without it, struggles for justice and freedom are impossible. All struggles for justice include the struggle for the authority and power to claim recognition. Excerpt from the book, Rethinking […]
Read moreI’m not a big fan of most philosophy that falls under the umbrella of “postmodernist.” There are two philosophers who I think offered valuable contributions to our quest to understand and improve society. Jean-François Lyotard French philosopher and sociologist, Lyotard […]
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Poor Bertand Russell. He wanted to create the logically perfect language. But he was abandoned in this quest by his teacher and co-author, Alfred North Whitehead, and by his student Ludwig Wittgenstein. Both had originally agreed with Russell that a […]
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John Dewey’s (1859–1952) scientific orientation was biology, and he was influenced by the developments in evolutionary biology. His philosophical starting point was the fact that people exist within a biological environment. We create beliefs to adapt to our environment. Dewey […]
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In philosophy, there is a divide between continental philosophy and analytical philosophy. Some people say that this isn’t really a divide, it’s just a different approach that creates the divide. Some analytical philosophers are fond of saying that they work […]
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In my previous article on German philosopher Max Scheler, I briefly summarized his philosophy of persons. He optimistically saw the possibilities for humanity if we could recognize the positive value of the individual person. Scheler was also able to see […]
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Philosophers are notorious for discounting human emotion. The strong preference for rationality goes back to the ancient Greeks, particularly Plato and Aristotle. Rationalism has overwhelmed philosophical conversation ever since, it’s strongest expressions being positivism and Kantian morality. The problem with […]
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