Introduction In the 20th Century, Structuralists shared the view that man is defined by his outward language as opposed to his inward powers of the mind. How could ideas exist in the mind without words? How could powers of reasoning operate without sentences? Analytic philosophy claims man has a unique instrument with which to do […]
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Philosophy as a technology Technology can be the knowledge of techniques, processes, and the like, or it can be embedded in machines, computers, devices, and factories, which can be operated by individuals without detailed knowledge of the workings of such things. If wisdom is to be applied, it has to be a technology based on […]
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John Rogers Searle (/sɜrl/; born July 31, 1932) is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Widely noted for his contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and social philosophy, he began teaching at Berkeley in 1959. His main study is “consciousness”. He has […]
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For the first thread in the religion and spirituality section, I thought I would talk about Kabballah. I always understood the tree of life in Kabballah in terms of Plato’s theory of forms, but not as an epistemology as we undertand it today, it’s describing an ontology. It’s divided into four ‘worlds’ – Atziluth, Briar, […]
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What is panopticism? In modern society, we have to endure lots of international problems like terrorism, fraud and general injustice and crime. Governments are increasingly becoming police states and believe that surveillance is the way in which we can combat these problems. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham once designed a plan for a prison, which was […]
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The phenomena of hypnosis Hypnosis is a peculiar phenomenon that allows a practitioner to have some kind of dialogue with the unconscious realm of the human mind. What is curious however, is how the unconscious that is accessed though hypnosis, is responsive to language. If a hypnotist induces the victim to eat a lemon by […]
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The difference isn’t apparent immediately as abjection is difficult to grasp as a concept, but if we think of abjection in a less negative (as in nither good or bad) sense and take into account how it is a process of individuation (as abjection is negation), we can then compare it psychological projection, which is […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]