Timothy J. Madigan explains the crucial distinction between compassion and pity. “You want if possible – and there is no madder ‘if possible’ – to abolish suffering; and we? – it really does seem that we would rather increase it and make it worse than it has ever been!”Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche …
Stefan Sorgner on Nietzsche’s still-controversial influence in the land of his birth. The first major philosopher influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche was also one of the founding fathers of sociology, Georg Simmel (1858-1918). His views on Nietzsche are contained in a series of lectures which he published in 1907 with the title ‘Schopenhauer and Nietzsche’. There, …
Yonathan Listik puts in a linguistic performance to communicate Derrida’s linguistic performance. The title of this article contains an ambiguity, and not by chance. ‘Derrida’ isn’t ambiguous; it refers, as you would expect, to the famous post-structuralist philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004). But ‘Derrida’s Performance’ could refer to the theatricality of his writing, or it could …
Danelle Gallo compares the ecstacies of Georges Bataille and Yves Klein. French philosopher Georges Bataille (1897-1962) and French artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) were passionately fascinated with death, eroticism, the sacred, and sacrifice. Bataille, a fluent and often controversially graphic philosopher, related the erotic to the sacred through the imminence of death. Yves Klein, the so-called …
Andrew Hyams recognises what fuels protest movements. Throughout the last decade, social protest movements have filled our TV screens and newsfeeds. From Occupy and the Arab Spring, to the Yellow Vests, Extinction Rebellion, the Women’s Marches and Black Lives Matter, people power is as alive as ever. Sadly, it also remains as controversial as ever, …
James Alexander finds Alain Badiou guilty of horrors but sometimes worth reading. It is always a pleasure to read a review by one established philosopher of another. In the Times Literary Supplement of 31 August 2012, Roger Scruton reviewed The Adventure of French Philosophy by Alain Badiou (b.1937). Badiou is one of those ‘New Left’ …
Ji Young Lee and Andrea Bidoli discuss how artificial womb technology will shape the abortion rights discussion. Abortion is the deliberate termination of a pregnancy. In current practice, this involves the death of the foetus. Consequently, the debate on whether those experiencing an unwanted pregnancy have the right to abortion is usually dichotomized as a …
Elad Uzan argues that although it may well be, this doesn’t necessarily justify a warlike response. In July 2020, then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden put Russia and others on notice. “If any foreign power recklessly chooses to interfere in our democracy”, he said, “I will not hesitate to respond as President to impose substantial and …
Gerard Elfstrom asks what such creatures, if they exist, would be like and how much it matters morally. For much of Western history, we have been confident that human beings are persons but no other creatures have that status. These beliefs matter because personhood has often been deemed a necessary requirement for possessing moral value. …
Charlotte Curran tells us precisely why fat shaming is unethical. Fat people are perhaps the most openly stigmatized individuals in our society: there is data which suggests that weight stigma is more pervasive and intense than even racism and sexism. There is certainly a well-documented social and cultural bias against fat people, particularly in the …