Tomorrow in Budapest: Gilgamesh on death; Thales on gods; Richard Avenarius on "the human world-concept"; Martin Heidegger on "the deep phenomenon"; Miklós Szentkuthy on the sexlessness of mathematical physics; all to introduce Jan Patočka's dissident philosophy of history ---
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Bataille: “Towards the unknown”
"Poetry describes nothing that does not slip towards the unknown."- Georges Bataille, Theory of Religion
from Jan Patočka’s “Political Testament”
"What is needed is for people to behave at all times with dignity, not to allow themselves to be frightened & intimidated, & to speak the truth." - Jan Patočka, "Political Testament," 1977
Ecce Homo: Jesus & Pilate in the History of Secularity (Emory University)
Julia Kristeva says that "the 'genius of Christianity' has introduced radical innovations … we have not done taking the measure of." I try to take the measure of 'secularity' in a new essay for Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion on my Hurst & Oxford book, The Innocence of Pontius Pilate.… Continue reading Ecce Homo: Jesus & Pilate in the History of Secularity (Emory University)
The Innocence of Pontius Pilate: Digital edition
I am pleased to see that Oxford University Press has released a digital edition of The Innocence of Pontius Pilate. See here.
The Innocence of Pontius Pilate: Lund University
Samuel Pufendorf fumed that there is "not one iota of legitimate process" in the Roman trial of Jesus, which was "a public act of terror", & it's an honour to be talking about the trial at Pufendorf's old faculty at Lund University today. Register here.
Radnóti: “My words will yet ring out”
"I don’t concern myself with vengeance, my heart is free of rage, the world will be rebuilt – & though this ugly age has banned my words, they will yet ring out beneath new walls." - Miklós Radnóti, killed in the autumn of 1944
“Veins are like roots”: Nemesius of Emesa on Human Nature
1,350 years before La Mettrie wrote his materialist L'Homme plante (Man a Plant), Nemesius reminded us that we're part plant: "The veins are like roots of the liver that draw the food from the stomach, as the roots of plants draw it from the earth..." For more on this: Nemesius of Emesa on Human Nature… Continue reading “Veins are like roots”: Nemesius of Emesa on Human Nature
Patočka: “An unselfconscious favour and grace”
"Truth means that being is open to understanding & explanation; beauty means that the emergence of being in the human world manifests the mystery of being as something perennially enchanting; goodness that the world includes an unselfconscious favour & grace." - Jan Patočka
Patočka on the wonder of being
"The wonder of being is no fable." - Jan Patočka, Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History
