Feature Archives - Page 72 of 150

Feature

How Populists Become Popular

The speculative shift in politics

April 3, 2018 • by Péter Csigó

In the past decades, we have all learned to see politics as a popularity contest where politicians use polls to detect the position of the popular majority and try to sell this position in their media appearances. There is a common tendency to see populist figures like Donald Trump or ...

Blue Monday

Backlash Blues

A reflection on democracy in the streets of Sacramento

April 2, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington On the evening of Sunday, March 18 Stephon Clark was shot to death by officers of the Sacramento Police Department responding to a report that a young black man had been seen vandalizing cars in ...

Education

The Parthenon as a Mediator between Greek Mathematics and Liberal Education

An excerpt from Michael Weinman and Geoff Lehman’s latest book

April 2, 2018 • by Michael Weinman and Geoff Lehman

We propose here to pursue a method of speculative reconstruction to detail what can be learned about the “state of the art” in the early development of “liberal education” in ﬁfth-century Greece. One needs to be cautious in speaking about such a development at such a time, which predates ...

The Parthenon as a Mediator between Greek Mathematics and Liberal Education

Feature

Is Alex Israel for Real?

Sun, sincerity and simulacra in SPF-18

April 2, 2018 • by Nicola Sayers

The campy, nostalgic, Hollywood-inspired works of young(ish) artist Alex Israel would not be out of place as the scenery for a nineties-California-themed party, yet they regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars – sometimes more – and he has had solo exhibitions in prestigious galleries globally. Israel’s first major ...

Feature

In Love’s Shadow

Reflections on love at the Night of Philosophy

March 31, 2018 • by Rossen Ventzislavov

In the title track from his album Station to Station, at the junction where the music resolutely picks up pace, David Bowie sings: “It’s not the side effects of the cocaine. I’m thinking that it must be love.” [1] In contrast to the accelerating beat, the lyric is riddled with irresolution. Is love ...

Feature

The Radical Center and The Politics of the Gray

Notes on the implications of the social condition for an understanding of politics

March 30, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Over the past three months, I have been publishing weekly Gray Friday posts, reflecting on the events of the day and enduring human problems, and considering how contributions to Public Seminar inform my appreciation of the beauty of the gray. Today, I will begin to explain the political implications I ...

The Radical Center and The Politics of the Gray

Feature

Courage Before the Break

Agnes Heller’s Theory of “Radical Needs” Revisited

March 30, 2018 • by Max L. Feldman

“Good persons exist, how are they possible?” With this question, inimitable Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller outlines her philosophical territory. As readers of critical theory, it is hard to know how to begin expressing our admiration for the energetic grande dame of our tradition. One anecdote might suffice: Heller’s mentor, the great, but ...

Education

Dear NRA, We Are Here to Stay

A reflection on gun violence, teenage political passion, and possibility

March 30, 2018 • by Margo Pedersen

I struggled very much with writing a piece about National Walkout Day. I have so many thoughts and opinions swirling in my head about this action and the subsequent events that I am almost afraid to put them down on paper, for fear I will leave something out. I also ...

Feature

Stoicism and Love, Not a Contradiction

Symposium on Love

March 30, 2018 • by Massimo Pigliucci

Plato’s Symposium, written between 385 and 370 BCE, is one of the classics of Western philosophy, and indeed is a sheer pleasure to read. Not only we are treated to a fun (if utterly non factual!) story by the playwright Aristophanes on the origin of the idea of soul mates, ...

Feature

People Falling All Around Us

Why the killing of Marielle Franco?

March 29, 2018 • by Marianna Poyares

On the night of the 14th of March, elected councilwoman for the city of Rio de Janeiro, Marielle Franco, was shot dead in her car while returning from an event dedicated to black women’s empowerment. Nine gunshots were fired against the car, four of which hit Marielle directly in the ...

Feature

Symposium on Love

Intermezzo sub species aeternitatis

March 29, 2018 • by Chiara Bottici

It is 5.30 am, that time of the night when the darkness awaits for the light, like an intrepid lover, who has been alone for too long. It is a time of passage, when everything is still dark, but we can already hear the noise of the day break. Day ...