From the Editors Archives - Page 127 of 171

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Will the Internet be the Death of Metaphysics?

Thinking Gianni Vattimo through Black Mirror, the ‘Nosedive’ Episode

August 29, 2017 • by Alkim Erol

The philosopher Gianni Vattimo formulated his hermeneutics on ‘Weak Thought’, in his work Art’s Claim to Truth (1979). Weak Thought is “nothing other than the knowledge, acceptance, and recognition that philosophy, after the deconstruction of metaphysics, cannot capture the ultimate essence of its objects but must comply with multiplicity of ...

Will the Internet be the Death of Metaphysics?

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Before Charlottesville There Was Jamestown

An Essay

August 28, 2017 • by Mindy Fullilove, Robert Fullilove, William Morrish and Robert Sember

Nearly 400 years of division have created an apartheid society: we need a new social infrastructure to carry us through the challenges of climate change, decaying physical infrastructure, rapidly evolving jobs, underperforming schools, uneven access to health care and lack of affordable housing. Our central task is to engage as ...

Before Charlottesville There Was Jamestown

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Aristotle on Charlottesville

‘Mixed Actions’ and Exercising Judgement on Violence

August 28, 2017 • by Michael Weinman

In the opening movement of book 3 of his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that, at bottom, each and every human being is responsible for essentially every action they undertake; put another way: there is nothing a human being does for which they ought not to be praised or blamed. This ...

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American Idiot

Rethinking Anti-Intellectualism in the Age of Trump

August 25, 2017 • by Nicholas Baer

“On my arrival in the United States I was surprised to find so much distinguished talent among the subjects, and so little among the heads of the Government.” We may fairly assume that Alexis de Tocqueville would be even more surprised if he were to visit today. For while Tocqueville ...

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On Trump’s Response to Charlottesville

Political Encounters and Ideological Evasions

August 25, 2017 • by Leonard A. Williams

The recent clashes involving “Unite the Right” protestors and counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, cost Heather Heyer her life. Her death and President Trump’s response to it have dominated the news of late. To recount the salient events, fighting broke out between “Unite the Right” protestors (a group of white nationalists, white ...

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A Sign of Resistance; A Symbol of Hope

An Interview with Mateusz Halawa, Head of Social Sciences and Humanities at the School of Form in Poland

August 24, 2017 • by Susan Yelavich

As Polish citizens gathered to protest a bill that signals a national shift away from democracy, thousands of them brandished, clung to, wore, and waved one simple graphic designed by Luka Rayski: a poster saying “Konstytucja”, which means “constitution” in Polish. Colored to emphasize the “ty” (“you”) and “ja” (“me”), ...

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Stolen Valor, MLMs, and Private Roads

Past Present: Episode 96

August 24, 2017 • by Nicole Hemmer, Neil J. Young and Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

In this week's episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate lying about Vietnam, multi-level marketing companies, and the privatization of public roads.

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Turkey One Year After the Coup Attempt

Erdogan has set up an autocracy

August 23, 2017 • by Ahmet İnsel

The proclamation of a state of emergency in Turkey on 20 July 2016, four days after the abortive coup there, has paved the way for the general rule of arbitrariness. The government, by violating the limits imposed by the constitution on the jurisdiction of the state of emergency, has since ...

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Investigating Normal

Sara Hendren

August 23, 2017 • by GIDEST

Is it possible to engineer an inclusive social future? An artist in an engineering school, Sara Hendren's work is driven by questions about human ability in tech-driven cultures. What counts as normal capacity? Which technologies liberate, and which confine? Drawing from disability studies, design research, social practice art, and urban planning, ...

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Daniel Ortega

A Visible-Invisible Dictator?

August 22, 2017 • by Umanzor López Baltodano

A decade has passed since Daniel Ortega regained the Presidency of Nicaragua. The official discourse, as well as the claim of some opponents, is that this second period is a follow-up of the leftist Sandinista Revolution Ortega took part in thirty years ago, and that the nature of this government ...

Education

The New Authoritarianism and the Structural Transformation of the Mediated Public Sphere III

Truth, Politics and the Bifurcated Sphere of Publics

August 21, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

As I have been reporting on the Wroclaw seminar’s progress, in the shadow of the collapse of democracy in Poland, I have been dumbfounded by events in the U.S. since I got back from Poland. President Trump has threatened nuclear war with North Korea, disregarding all expert opinion about the appropriate ...

The New Authoritarianism and the Structural Transformation of the Mediated Public Sphere III

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On Free Speech

An appeal to leverage the 1st Amendment as it stands

August 21, 2017 • by Lisa Aslanian

Don’t shut it down. Don’t look to qualify what is meant and protected by the right to free speech by making an exception to the rule for hate speech. Don’t move to make hate speech illegal. Take a step back and let your cooler head prevail. The First Amendment was written to protect minority ...