“Rapid innovations in communications technology and new media have made it so that any individual can access more knowledge at their fingertips than prior generations could have by traveling to the world’s most esteemed centers of learning.”
Author: Matt McManus
How ‘Ideology’ Can Hold Us Stuck in Place
“What it means is that when we begin to coordinate our lives according to an ideological worldview, it begins to generate a social world that can look a lot like the image presented by the ideology.”
Developing a Progressive Theory of Rights: A Preview of Liberalism and Liberal Rights
“Finally, even a thinker as cynical and sharp as Michel Foucault invoked the language of rights to discuss the ‘right to intervene’ to liberate suffering individuals from the imposition of tyrannical sovereignty.”
A Chapter from Our Forthcoming Book Critiquing Jordan Peterson
“Peterson consistently invokes the Schopenhauerian-Nietzschean trope that the most important thing is to strengthen the self against the suffering of the world. The stronger one becomes, the greater and more worthy of respect and emulation by those around him.”
The Driver of the Trumpian Movement: Resentment?
“But the more interesting argument Nietzsche puts forward is that resentment was at the base of many of the West’s egalitarian philosophies.”
Where Did Post-Modernism Come From?
“In this short essay, I will argue that there were three factors, which contributed to the emergence of post-modern culture.”
Yoram Hazony, Russell Kirk, and the Conservative Fascination with “Order”
“By contrast, Kirk insists that progressives are the real fools in thinking that unbridled reason alone can provide us with an adequate sense of meaning in the world.”
Identity Politics, Coleman Hughes, and the Left: A Reply to Samuel Kronen
“We should be aspiring to establish a far more egalitarian society in accordance with principles of fairness. But this cannot come at the expense of respecting alternative doctrines which have a right to political expression.”
Review: Axel Honneth’s “The Idea of Socialism: Towards a Renewal”
“While this may be a fair criticism of socialist intellectuals, it isn’t obvious to me that all socialists were as myopically economistic as Honneth suggests.”
Answering Slavoj Žižek’s Question: Kant’s Unpopularity
“In his book, Žižek analyzes why Kant and his progeny have been struggling philosophically in recent years, while offering a partial defense of their views.”
How Slavoj Žižek Can Help Us Understand Climate Change
“There have been several assaults on this conceit before in the Western world; the philosopher Slavoj Žižek directs our attention to three in particular.”
A Brief History of Viktor Orbán
“Lendvai believes that we should never underestimate the role that ‘personalities’ play in politics.”
Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories
“The paradox of believing in conspiracy theories is that—despite the distrust and paranoia reflected in them—adherents often deeply desire a sense of order in the world.“
The Roots of Totalitarianism
“The totalitarian movements offered the promise of not just belonging, but total belonging. The individual would be swallowed into the movement, becoming a single homogenous mass with one’s fellows.”
Dostoevsky, Milton, and the Changing Definition of “Meaning”
“In the case of our current crisis of meaning, it was only in the 19th century that sensitive figures truly began to grasp the profound changes which had transformed societies.”