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Does language reflect the values of the culture and time it was written in? Therefore, does the current state of language, literature, journalism, etc, reflect the morality and values of our culture? Or, is language seperate from the values of culture? Do words have eternal, or long-standing...

William James’ theory of emotion strikes me as quite interesting and worthy of discussion. What is first: :the physical effects of the emotion?-- or the mental feelings of the emotion? James thought the mental feelings of emotion were a response to the physical effects. Forgive me, but I will...

I am posting a link to a very enlightening article on the transformations of Foucault's ideas on power below. The author of a new book on Foucault utilizes some of his late unpublished lectures, and the often neglected (including by me, mostly as I am not terribly thrilled with his incredibly...

I read this article online this week, and thought it a very fair presentation of many of Nietzsche's core ideas: http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6103 I am also harboring the idea that Nietzsche was the Socrates of the modern era. His written philosophy I think asks...

Thoughts on the candidates? Who will win? The primary process? The future?

Here's a very interesting academic article on the meaning of authenticity, that I hope will spur some discussion. It gives an interesting overview of the meaning of authenticity from Plato to Kierkegaard, to Sartre and Taylor...

Another interesting article on understanding history poetically: http://http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/2363?PHPSESSID=7c14f3ddd66f920052c49aabdd5f42d1 A passage for thought: Here is how the hermeneutical circle functions: my own self-understanding opens up history for me. In turn, when I...

Interesting article on Thoreau's ideas regarding time, and how they differ from Derrida's. http://http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/2305

This is terribly self-serving, but anyway… I am in the midst of a full-blown existential crisis. I know, I know, how pointless: another worthless soul having an existential crisis—who cares? Yes, I agree, I’m a relatively worthless soul (if Plato is correct, and moreover...

Evil, you've said more than once, is growing in power — especially in the last hundred years. Do you think there was ever a golden age, when good was in the ascendancy? Let's say that in my lifetime, certain things have gotten better and other things have grown worse, so much so that latterday...

Descartes' "I think therefore I am," statement fascinates me. As does Cartesian dualism. I dont know of a more contentious, debated, or philosophized about idea. Are many recent philosophers right in totally disregarding and criticizing Descartes? And just what is consciousness? What is...

Really, Philosophy seems like a very self-important genre. Is it? Has it perhaps carved out a niche of inflated importance, when in fact, its not terribly important at all? What are universal moral laws? Theories of Everything? Is there a One of perfection? Can we not better find morality...

Is liberty valuable because it promotes virtuous behavior? Or is liberty merely necessary because, given that there are deep disagreements about what virtuous behavior is, we must agree to leave one another a lot of social space to do as we please, or we shall not have social peace?

A philosophical great died this weekend. A man influenced by pragmatism and analytical philosophy; a man who like his influences (Nietszche, Dewey, Wittgenstein, Heidegger), believed truth and theory to be useless and impossible; a man who urged us to consider problems of the world. And, if not...

What bands are philosophical? Which bands write particularly philosophical and thought provoking lyrics? Are there any bands that evoke a philsophical mood or atmosphere with their philosophical lyrics? Does metal allow for such philosophically inspired bands more so than other genres of...

Are men becoming more like women, and women more like men? Metrosexual male behavior is off the charts--example, male cosmetics have doubled every year and are now a billion dollar industry. Yet masculine female behavior is off the charts as well. Women are foregoing motherhood, and becoming...

Does Psychology/Psychiatry work? Has either discipline made important advances in how the brain works? In understanding behavior and psychological "disorders"? Are there even psychological "disorders"? Do the psychological theories even work? And have the many brain-altering drugs...

One highly interesting but obscure school of ancient philosophy that I believe is relevant today is that of the Cyrenaics. The Cyrenaics were one of the two main schools (the Cynics being the immediate other) that evolved out of the Socratic tradition, under the direction of Aristippus, one of...

A passage concerning whether terror is more powerful than art in todays society (and even dialogue--political, philosophical, personal, etc) from a highly interesting article I read last week: 'Some weeks seem to have been foretold by Don DeLillo. This past one, dominated as it has been by the...

I came across this new book excerpt today by Barbara Ehrenreich, and found it most fascinating. It ties depression to the rise of the individual and the fall of renaissance and classical ideas on man as a small part of a whole order. Hence, depression if you will, is based as much or even...