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Perennial Philosophy

  • The Feeling is Mutual: Interview with scott crow – RABBLE LIT

    …one thing is to recognize that there can be conflict. Anarchy doesn’t mean that everything will be conflict-free… If someone else’s desires and needs don’t impede on my own… in communal terms, if they’re not trying to extract resources, time,… Continue reading

  • New Speculative Fiction Anthology Explodes the Mainstream Trans Narrative

    A new collection of stories from trans authors who go well outside the status quo box in exploring how trans signifies more than assimilation to the main stream. Rather than make a meaningful difference in the lives and acceptance of… Continue reading

  • Plants–the slowest of animals

    I’m in a Philosophy of Animals class this semester. One of my last courses before I begin the dissertation process. Already by the second meeting, we got in a bit of debate about how we distinguish animals as more morally… Continue reading

  • Existentialism Course, Summer 2017

    When I do lectures in this class, I will post the audio files here. Doing this lets students be a little more free to engage in the lecture without worry that they will miss taking notes on something important. It… Continue reading

    Existentialism Course, Summer 2017

  • What appears tends to disappear

    Φύσις δε… kαθ’ Ηραkλειτον… kρύπτεσθαι φιλεΐ Phúsis de… kath’ Erakleiton… krúptesthai phileî (Qtd in Themistius, Orations 5.69b, DK B123) The story I am about to tell therefore begins symbolically at Ephesus, in Asia Minor, around 500 BCE, on the day… Continue reading

    What appears tends to disappear

  • Notes on Immaterialism | Becoming Integral

    In Immaterialism: Objects and Social Theory (Polity Press, 2016), Graham Harman applies his object-oriented philosophy to social objects. The book functions as “a compact list of the first principles of object-oriented social theory, which I have also called ‘immaterialism’” (126).… Continue reading

    Notes on Immaterialism | Becoming Integral

  • The idea of God

    Intro to Philosophy on MWF @ 1:00pm. I asked the youth to read chapter 4 of Way to Wisdom–“The Idea of God.” Mostly I spent time laying the groundwork for a better understanding of what Jaspers means by “faith.” Continue reading

    The idea of God

  • Hesiod’s Chaos and Laozi’s Way

    PHIL 1060, Monday nights, 19 Sep 2016 Grounding ourselves in how the ancient Greeks and Chinese thought about the order of things. First, we discussed the basics of Hesiod’s mythopoeic worldview as a procreative cosmogony. Then, we moved over to… Continue reading

    Hesiod’s Chaos and Laozi’s Way

  • Encountering the Encompassing

    PHIL 1050, MWF @ 1:00pm, Monday 19 Sep 2016 My young friends were asked to read Jaspers chapter on das Umgreifende, the Encompassing or as Ralph Mannheim translates the term in Way to Wisdom, the Comprehensive. Not an easy thing to… Continue reading

    Encountering the Encompassing

  • The nameless backgrounds the nameable

    MWF PHIL 1050.006, 1:00pm, Friday 16 Sep 2016 We took a close look at poem 1 about the Dao (Way), spending time on the (ironic) difference between the Nameless and the nameable. Basically, it is difficult to name the Ultimate Source of Reality… Continue reading

    The nameless backgrounds the nameable

  • Pressing against

    Intro to Philosophy (MWF @ 1pm)–09 Sep 2016 We went through and hit some notions from Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  Continue reading

    Pressing against

  • Getting under way

    First class for  my 1:00pm iteration of Introduction to Philosophy on M – W – F. Continue reading

    Getting under way

  • It’s Not Cool to Hate the ‘Star Wars’ Prequels Anymore | Inverse

    I am super happy to see this. A struggle for me over the last 20 years has been to get folks to see the Star Wars prequels as films in their own right that contribute visually and allegorically to mythography established… Continue reading

  • Reverence Ritual Worship Worldview

    For this class, we took a step back to explore a few concepts before we move from India to China. Continue reading

    Reverence Ritual Worship Worldview

  • Anthropotechnics: An Interview with Peter Sloterdijk

    Modern and postmodern humans not only live in the “house of Being” (as Heidegger called language), but increasingly in the abode of the technosphere. Continue reading

  • Diversity of worship, unity of thought

    Because we had roamed around in and out of a few topics yesterday, I decided to mostly lecture today with the hope that we would catch up a bit but that there would still be a lot of good questions… Continue reading

    Diversity of worship, unity of thought

  • Coordination, Subordination, and Exordination

    Yesterday in our class, the discussion led me to talk for a little bit about a distinction originally made by Marcuse, I believe, regarding soft versus hard totalitarianism. I extended this description out to all manner of group structures that lead… Continue reading

    Coordination, Subordination, and Exordination

  • Ordering expectations

    In Tuesday’s class, we touched on the diverse story traditions from ancient India. My colleagues spent time at the beginning of our meeting talking with each other about what they had discovered about Indian sacred traditions, and what questions this… Continue reading

    Ordering expectations