CALL ME MAGGIE

philosophy

  • Loving as heeding the vocation of humanization

    Lecture from PHIL 2306, Intro to Ethics, 07March2023: Finding the ground for ethical theory and moral action. I propose that most “vicious” / vice-ridden reactivity to our circumstances arises from dehumanization. Therefore, if there is a place where we can… Continue reading

  • Professors indoctrinating students? In reality, it’s the other way around

    Rather than radicalizing them, I am more radicalized by all these millenials and zoomers who long to comprehend the world they are inheriting from people like me. Continue reading

    Professors indoctrinating students? In reality, it’s the other way around

  • 2020 — SPRING TCCD-NE Course

    My current course in Introduction to Philosophy: Reading schedule, readings, and assignments. If you are not one of my students, you are still welcome to read along with us. Continue reading

    2020 — SPRING TCCD-NE Course

  • Open Virtue, Closed Propriety: Considerations on Daoism and Bergsonism

    No consideration of parallels between Daoism and Bergsonism has been accomplished. Yet there is a profitable comparison to be made between the ancient Chinese philosophy of the Dào Dé Jing and the more contemporary work of French philosopher Henri Bergson.… Continue reading

    Open Virtue, Closed Propriety: Considerations on Daoism and Bergsonism

  • New Patreon Podcast

    I finally created my Patreon page, Call Me Maggie, and I look forward to working with whomever decides to join up. Continue reading

    New Patreon Podcast

  • 2019 — Summer Course

    Here you will find the readings for my 2019 Summer II course. Check back frequently for updates. Back to Call Me Maggie homepage Have the assigned readings completed by the time you get to class. The first part of class… Continue reading

    2019 — Summer Course

  • Greek Natural Philosophy

    The first edition of the text on Presocratic philosophy which I co-authored with J. Baird Callicott and John van Buren is now available for adoption from Cognella. Greek Natural Philosophy presents the primary sources on the Presocratics in a straightforward… Continue reading

  • Socrates in the Anthropocene

    I want to thank Scott Knowles for encouraging me to leave my little town of Denton, Texas, and come up here for the Anthropocene Campus Philadelphia at Drexel University. A word of warning as I follow up my colleagues on the roving… Continue reading

    Socrates in the Anthropocene

  • INTRO TO PHIL, fall 2017

    I will be saving my white boards here for my students. From time to time, I will record by lectures. But I won’t be doing this everyday like I did in my summer Existentialism course. Questions raised in morning class… Continue reading

    INTRO TO PHIL, fall 2017

  • Getting under way

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

    Getting under way

  • Explanations of religion

    Below my lecture from 13 July 2016. Before I addressed the students, we had more discussion on what we take for granted in the everyday world, and then we shared a few things we take for granted about religion. Our questions… Continue reading

    Explanations of religion

  • Apostle & Epistle

    The term apostle derives from L.L. apostolus, from Gk. apostolos “person sent forth,” from apostellein “to send away, to send forth,” from apo– “from” + stellein “to send.” One sent-forth is a messenger. To have a message is to be an apostle. Who sends forth the… Continue reading

  • Hidden Desire: Nietzsche, Gay Philosopher

    Most folks I know who focus on Nietzsche are very heteronormative. Yet Nietzsche as gay man has always made so much sense to me. Why do folks NOT read Nietzsche as a man who loved men, a man even more… Continue reading

    Hidden Desire: Nietzsche, Gay Philosopher

  • Loving Struggle, Possible Existenz

    Philosophizing must be a work of art that is always on the brink of failure; a befriending of the power of imaginative vision that already stretches too far until it reaches contradiction and breaks down. Only in this reaching beyond… Continue reading

  • Philosophy Should Come Out to Play

    I want to suggest that we divide play into two major categories; active and passive. The passive forms — let’s call them amusements — are indeed suspicious, as they seem to anesthetize the agent and reduce creative engagement. From our… Continue reading

  • Philosophy as Happening

    Public philosophy for the Society of Control? Does this have impact? Despite the circus/rave structure of the event, what does it say that the dominant themes were Stoical? The mental marathon billed as “A Night of Philosophy” began in an… Continue reading

    Philosophy as Happening

  • Philosophy Department Fights For Survival | Daily Nous

    I’m the chair of the only remaining Department of Philosophy at a public university in the state of Louisiana. (LSU has a department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, which is the only other public university in the state where a… Continue reading

    Philosophy Department Fights For Survival | Daily Nous

  • Philosophers Getting Beyond the Wall

    Does having a PhD in philosophy mean your work opportunities have narrowed down to the academic job market? This assumption seems widespread, for example, a recent Guardian article declares that programs should accept fewer graduate students as there aren’t enough… Continue reading

    Philosophers Getting Beyond the Wall