Feminist theory has recently faced accusations of trendiness, but Marianne Janack and Michelle LaRocque leap to its defence. As with any political movement, feminism has had a fraught relationship with theory. On the one hand, feminists have recognized the value of a sound theoretical basis for the effectiveness of political action; on the other, they …
Jezebel was a much-maligned woman, but Dane Gordon wonders if she really deserved such a bad name. Jezebel is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is not a complimentary definition: “Name of the infamous wife of Ahab, King of Israel, hence, a wicked abandoned woman, or a woman who paints her face.” Webster’s Dictionary …
Akif Rashid asks Albert Camus why so many people around him are unhappy and confused, and what to do about it. I tend not to live by very many adages, but I am inclined to a witticism once in a while. One of the lines close to my heart is by Henry James: “I’ve always …
Greg Artus contemplates (dis)embodiment, Zoom life and social media, through the ‘Looks’ of Sartre, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. In this past year of severe restrictions on physical social interaction, everyone seems to have been made starkly aware of the importance of what some existentialists would call Being-with-Others. A social life conducted through screens has shown people …
Gary Cox considers the problematic side of freedom, from the edge of a cliff. Many of the central themes and concepts of existentialism – freedom, choice, responsibility, bad faith, anxiety, despair, and absurdity – originated in the writings of Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55), in such ground-breaking works as Either-Or (1843), Fear and Trembling (1843), The Concept …
Sam Morris on the existential choice we all face. The 4th January 1960 was an overcast and drizzly day in northern central France. Albert Camus was returning to Paris with his publisher Michel Gallimard and Gallimard’s wife and daughter in a powerful four-door sports car, a Facel Vega. The Vega was infamous for its rear …
Richard Oxenberg gives a poetic introduction to Heidegger’s Being and Time. so much depends upona red wheelbarrowglazed with rainwaterbeside the white chickens William Carlos Williams In order to appreciate Heidegger’s thought it is necessary to see it in relation to the Western metaphysical tradition from which it has emerged. This would be true, of course, …
Dan Sinykin says that Kierkegaard is worried about you. Preface: For the love of God, consider this a primer, a warm-up, a teaser, but certainly not a substitute for the work analyzed within. One is a ragtag attempt at accessible jottings about the other, which is a timeless masterpiece on the human condition. You can …
We Have Spirit, Yes We Do! We Have Spirit, How ‘Bout You? Read More »
Ion Georgiou explains the literary theories of a man who loved words. “A writer writes to a great extent to be read (as for those who say they don’t, let us admire them but not believe them).” Albert Camus It has been said of Monsieur Sartre – and it remains undoubtedly true – that the …
Jonathan Rée on Søren Kierkegaard and the struggle to become a real thinker. I am not a Christian, but in some ways I wish I was. Of course Christianity can be tiresome (as all Christians would agree) but it can also be fresh and crisply intelligent. And I find it hard to resist Christianity as …