Written by Ethno-regional prejudices have been used consistently to shorthand characters in Hollywood films. This is an epistemic category of sorts, which does not necessarily have anything to do with race, but more of the idea of ethnicity and the cultural connotations of race. This does not come with the presumption of a fixed view of identity, therefore. Quite the […]
Written by atreestump
Reference Guide to Capitalism The series is a comprehensive guide to capitalism first and foremost. It is not a propaganda series designed to agitate, it is a well sourced ‘reference video series’ that can be thought of as a textbook of sorts. This is a nine part series about Capitalism. Try not to get too […]
Written by atreestump
This topic is very sensitive and controversial, I don’t intend to offend anyone, but I can understand why it can come across as offensive. What is Anti-Natalism? The phrase from the German pessimist, Arthur Shopenhauer best encapsulates what anti-natalism is all about – ‘Better never to have been born’. In more recent times, South African […]
Written by atreestump
Writing as language As I pointed out in another thread, Derrida displaces objective things and subjective ideas from thier usual priority and he puts writing ahead instead. There is some dispute over whether this is a correct interpretation, some believe Derrida was ‘bringing writing up to speech and thought’, rather than privileging writing. For Derrida, […]
Written by atreestump
What is incorporation? We all like to believe that we are original and autonomous individuals, soveriegn individuals that are authentic. This is an impossible occurence and the concept of incorporation describes the process of our ‘thrown-ness’ into existence. It’s sometimes referred to as a ‘ready-to-hand’; ‘present-at-hand’ or ‘readymade’ quality that affects our ontical-ontology in existence. […]
Written by atreestump
Derrida’s deconstruction of Husserl and Phenomenology Superstructuralism builds on a key field of language theory. Husserl is an ‘I’ philosopher. He’s after an especially ‘true’ level of language from an ‘I’ philosophers point of view, he says it is necessarily and exclusively human and draws an absolute distinction between human signs and natural signs. True […]
Written by atreestump
The basic concept The Apollonian and Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept, or dichotomy, based on certain features of ancient Greek mythology. Apollo is the god of reason and the rational, while Dionysus is the god of the irrational and chaos. The Greeks did not consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, […]
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What is the ontological problem? Willard Van Ormand Quine is a fun read when it comes to the ‘ontological problem’. In his book From a logical point of view (1953) he approaches the problem over a few essays within the book, The first, On what there is, comically shows how the hardest question of them […]
Written by atreestump
I think it’s important to distinguish between liberal/conservative economics that pertain to how tax, management of property and trade works, then liberal/conservative politics that pertain to civil rights, law and social ideals etc, although the two can interweve with each other. Case in point – neoliberalism. Certain conservatives and liberals in the UK and for […]
Written by atreestump
What is abjection? The general usage of the term ‘abject’ is an adjective for the most depraved, low, disgusting forms of ways of life, or individual and societal acts. We might say ‘the crime in that particular area is abject’; or ‘those people live in abject poverty’. In any case, wherever it is used, it […]