Here's a recording of my second lecture on Jan Patočka, "Philosophy & the Experience of History" -- with glances at the writing cultures of Egypt & Babylonia, the first pages of Genesis, the first democratic cities, & "the wonder of being".
Author: David Lloyd Dusenbury
Jan Patočka lecture at Belgrade’s Institute of European Studies
Honoured - & sobered - to be returning to Belgrade this week, to give a lecture at the Institute of European Studies on “War & the Fate of Europe in the Underground Writings of Jan Patočka”. Watch the lecture in its first iteration, at the Danube Institute in Budapest, here.
“The Innocence of Pontius Pilate”: Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
Very pleased to be giving a public lecture, "The Innocence of Pontius Pilate: Notes on an Unnoticed Theme in Judaic and Islam", at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest next Monday, 6 p.m., as part of a series of lectures, "The Faces of Writing: A History of Bible Interpretation and Culture".
Derrida’s strongest line
"If things were simple, word would have gotten around." via The TLS
“Arresting & erudite”: Alexander Faludy reviews The Innocence of Pontius Pilate
Thrilled to see a very generous review of my Pilate book, on the cusp of Holy Week. "Arresting & erudite", writes Alexander Faludy. "Inquiry into the interpretation history of Jesus’s Roman trial cannot be the same after Dusenbury’s work." Read here.
How a philosopher toasts a god
How a philosopher toasts a god he's drinking with -- "One of the gods shall fall by the hand of mortal man." - Anaxarchus of Abdera, offering a dark (& ironic) toast to the "divine" conqueror, Alexander - per Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers IX.60
“Victims of a transitional period”: Osamu Dazai
"[We are] victims of a transitional period of morality ... [but] however much the waves on the surface of the sea may rage, the water at the bottom, far from experiencing a revolution, lies motionless." - Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun, 1947
Matthias Corvinus Collegium – Debrecen: “War & the Fate of Europe”
Honoured, & sobered, to be giving a lecture next week at Matthias Corvinus Collegium in Debrecen, Hungary, on "War & the Fate of Europe". We'll reflect on the causes of world wars & prospects for peace in Jan Patočka's Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History.
Jesus seminar at Eötvös Loránd University
Very pleased that my Jesus-seminar at Eötvös Loránd University is "back in 'real presence'" (as a colleague put it), starting today. A face-to-face conversation in a white-walled room is how it's meant to be.
Innocence of Pontius Pilate in National Review (7 March 2022)
Honored to see a column on The Innocence of Pontius Pilate in the pages of National Review. Their critic is unconvinced; so be it. "Judging Pontius Pilate" will run in the 7 March edition; it's online now.