CALL ME MAGGIE

Philosophy as a Way of Life

  • Picasso and the Spanish Civil War

    The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University acquired some sketches by Picasso that concern the Spanish Civil War: “The Dream and Lie of Franco.” All above works captured here by my photography may be under copyright and are being posted for… 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

  • AnarchoCynic Praxis, Faith and Sacred Tradition

    What makes our praxis specifically AnarchoCynic  concerns how we take on none of the authority to be gained from established hierarchies, seek to take no privileged position for ourselves, and specifically engage folks about the customs that hold most currency in our… Continue reading

  • Charity or philanthropy

    One of the reasons for the possible rehabilitation of charity is especially paradoxical, given philanthropy’s technocratic pretensions. Over the past decade, as groups have become more sophisticated at assessing the impact of their work, and as digital payment systems have… Continue reading

  • AnarchoCynic Praxis

    While I am very knowledgeable about the workings of our political system–and I even vote, esp. locally–my energy and time goes to helping establish temporary autonomous zones wherein friends and allies can work together. If Paulo Freire is right that… Continue reading

  • necrophilia

    Originally posted on coromandal: This excerpt by Erich Fromm describes necrophilia in terms of sadism, control, work and technology.  Necrophilia is literally love of death, which on its face sounds absurd, until we realize, with a closer look, that it’s… Continue reading

    necrophilia

  • Veteran Organizer Gives Inside Look at the First $15 Minimum Wage Campaign

    …more than just a collection of war stories, Rosenblum’s purpose in Beyond $15 is to persuade other advocates to follow his lead. The book uses Sea-Tac’s success to argue for a “social movement union” approach to organizing that grounds labor… Continue reading

    Veteran Organizer Gives Inside Look at the First $15 Minimum Wage Campaign

  • 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

  • Of girls, bulls, and the authenticity of subversion

    “…March 7th of this year, the day before International Women’s Day. Fearless Girl appeared, standing in front of Charging Bull. On the surface, it appears to be another work of guerrilla art — but it’s not. Unlike Di Modica’s work, Fearless… Continue reading

  • 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

  • Anti-Fascism vs. Nostalgia in “Rogue One”

    Thanks to my old high school friend, John F., for pointing this out to me. Great summary of why Rogue One may be the best Star Wars film yet. The author is at pains, sometimes, to be sufficiently critical; maybe errs… Continue reading

  • Becoming Other: Foucault, Deleuze, and the Political Nature of Thought   | Learning Philosophy of Change

    In this paper–linked after the jump–Giorgio Bertini employs the notion of the ‘thought of the outside’ as developed by Michel Foucault, in order to defend the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze against the criticisms of ‘elitism,’ ‘aristocratism,’ and ‘political indifference’–famously leveled by Alain… Continue reading

  • 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

  • Metaphysics, Memory, and Dewey

    I was asked to drop by my colleague’s class and hold forth on Chapter 1 of John Dewey’s text The Reconstruction of Philosophy (get the text here). Here are the recordings from those days. Had some good discussions with the folks… Continue reading

    Metaphysics, Memory, and Dewey

  • Mythopoesis

    Intro to Philosophy (MWF @ 1pm)–12 Sep 2016 We went through the beginning of Greek philosophy in Hesiod/Homer in their attempt to express a just world order through making-narratives (mythopoesis) of gods and the birth of the cosmos. This led to… Continue reading

    Mythopoesis