Tagged: philosophy

From The TLS: Who was the first modern philosopher?

Like the enlightenment, modernity is an umbrella term that is useful for what it covers but also in danger of excluding thinkers or ideas that might deserve the label. A.C. Grayling’s new book, The Age of Genius, devotes itself in part to answer the question of what exactly we mean when speaking of modern philosophy. […]

“The Meaning of Human Existence”

  Biologist Edward O. Wilson has spent his life studying evolutionary biology, writing books, and winning Pulitzer prizes, among other things. He is still going strong at 85 years old, and recently published “The Meaning of Human Existence,” a book intended to explain and convince the general public of the scientific theory of evolution. Drawing […]

What would Plato Tweet?

With cerebral momentum from yesterday’s post on why philosophy won’t go away, let’s move on to another question raised by the same author, Rebecca Goldstein: what would Plato Tweet? Goldstein likens the modern social media attention-seeking frenzy to the ancient Greek striving for kleos, which, as students will remember from CC101, is somewhat equivalent to “glory”. […]

Why philosophy won’t go away

Are you living an examined life? No, really, are you? In between texting while walking, daydreaming while note-taking, scrolling while sleeping, and sleeping while strolling, are you living an examined life? It’s ok if you are not. Few are. But it’s an important question to ask oneself, and that’s why philosophy matters. Clancy Martin, in […]

Machiavelli’s notion of truth

Earlier this week we discussed Machiavelli’s potent shock-value. Now, Arts & Letter Daily has linked us to The New Criterion’s post on Machiavelli’s philosophical musings of truth. The claim is that they are just as important as his political work. ALDaily writes: “I depart from the orders of others.” With that, Machiavelli reconceived both politics and philosophy. […]

Oscar Wilde’s review of the Zhuangzi

Relating to CC102’s study of Confucius, and Prof. Wiebke Denecke’s lecture on Confucian China, is the Zhuangzi, a compilation of wisdom teachings much like the Dao De Jing. After scrupulous analysis of Herbert A. Giles’s 1889 translation, Oscar Wilde comes to the following conclusion in his review: It is clear that Chuang Tzu is a very dangerous […]

The ‘hard problem’ of consciousness

Consciousness. What is it? The Core cannot say. However, an article by Michael Graziano for Aeon Magazine makes some interesting claims. Here is an extract: Many thinkers have approached consciousness from a first-person vantage point, the kind of philosophical perspective according to which other people’s minds seem essentially unknowable. And yet… we spend a lot of […]

Explaining Nietzsche and Existentialism to 5-Year-Olds

Relating to CC202’s study of Friedrich Nietzsche is an excellent and amusing attempt to explain his existentialism to a group of 5-year-olds. Here is the video: For more information, visit bit.ly/108bPAL.

Giacinto Scelsi

From the Shutter Island Soundtrack: The Core presents Giacinto Scelsi, an Italian composer from the 20th century that remained largely unknown for most of his career. The impact caused by the late discovery of Scelsi’s works was described by Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich: A whole chapter of recent musical history must be rewritten: the second half of […]