My motto for the new year comes from Slavoj Žižek - yes, Žižek - in conversation with Alain Badiou: "I am prepared to advocate my views in a democratic way; but not, however, to allow others to decide democratically what my views are - here I confirm my philosophical arrogance." - Slavoj Žižek & Alain… Continue reading “Here I confirm my philosophical arrogance” – Žižek
“The business done by machines”
The project of modernity in three phrases: "There remains one hope of salvation ... that the entire work of the mind be started over ... and the business done (if I may put it this way) by machines." Reread that: "the entire work of the mind ... done by machines"! - Francis Bacon, preface to The… Continue reading “The business done by machines”
“Postnatural Intelligence” in First Things
I have an essay, "Postnatural Intelligence," in the new issue of First Things (Feb. 2019) - on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), the arc of modern philosophy, & the rise of 'intelligent' technologies. "The novel’s genius is that it shows how the 'modern Prometheus' and his critics can both be right. It may be within our… Continue reading “Postnatural Intelligence” in First Things
Those who do not write
A curious parallel: Jesus, like Socrates, never writes. But, in both cases (if memory serves), there is a single exception to this rule: (i) Jesus writes in the dust in defence of a woman whom he refuses to condemn (the pericope de adultera at John 8.2-11); (ii) Socrates traces geometric figures in the dirt on behalf of… Continue reading Those who do not write
“Human perfection and technical perfection”
"Human perfection and technical perfection are incompatible. If we strive for one, we must sacrifice the other. ... Technical perfection strives toward the calculable, human perfection toward the incalculable. Perfect mechanisms ... evoke both a fear and a titanic pride which will be humbled not by insight but only by catastrophe." - Ernst Jünger, The… Continue reading “Human perfection and technical perfection”
“A bright cloud of tears, the years”
The new years walk, restoring Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem The time. Redeem The unread vision in the higher dream ... - Thom Eliot, 1930 TSE in the Bahamas, 1964
Laws of war and peace – “Pierino Belli,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy (Springer 2018)
David Lloyd Dusenbury, “Pierino Belli”, Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Marco Sgarbi (Springer 2018, forthcoming). Several excerpts from my typescript are copied below: Pierino Belli was born in 1502 in the Piedmontese city of Alba. His family belonged to the city’s minor nobility, and Belli affixed the name of Alba to his own. In Latin, he is… Continue reading Laws of war and peace – “Pierino Belli,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy (Springer 2018)
Kierkegaard on the preposterousness of authors
"Julius Caesar is supposed to have said that he did not see how an augur or priest could look at another priest without both of them bursting into laughter. What a smart man this Caesar must have been! I happen to have a hard time understanding even how two men can look at each other… Continue reading Kierkegaard on the preposterousness of authors
“Utopia’s Borders”
A piece of mine went live this morning at American Affairs. "A borderless utopia is, paradoxically, a contradiction in terms. In order to be 'no place' (Ou-topos), Thomas More and Francis Bacon insist that you must first make a place."
“The right mistakes”
I find myself hoping to make, "as Leszek Kolakowski put it so succinctly, the right mistakes at the right time". - S. Žižek, They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor (London, 2008), 193
