Pythagorean Myths: Classical and Contemporary Pythagoras is one of the most elusive and intriguing figures in the history of Western philosophy. He is the rumored source of many of the core doctrines of Platonism such as the idea that the soul is immortal and reincarnates after death, that our empirical world constitutes a harmonious cosmos …
Having grown up in a Christian family, I am familiar with the fact that spiritual teachings can come in the form of letters. Every week we would go to church and hear sermons derived from epistles (letters) said to be written by apostles such as Peter, Paul, or John. Rather than being confined to a …
Just as Marcellius was aware of something rotten in the state of Denmark when Hamlet exited the stage to confer with the ghost of his murdered father haunting Elsinore castle, so too are we aware of a rot growing at the core of the neo-liberal order. As the body politic decays, and the social fabric …
Pythagoras’ miracle of the fish I have been re-reading ancient accounts of the life of Pythagoras and was struck by a story about a miracle he performed regarding fish. Porphyry, a Neo-Platonic philosopher, recounts this story in the context of others which speak of the sage’s ability to commune with animals (e.g. petting a bear …
Americans are finally beginning to reckon with the damaging effects of Evangelical purity culture. The publication of books like Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free, Damaged Goods: New Perspectives on Christian Purity, and Shameless: A Case for not Feeling bad about feeling good (about …
Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy has been neglected by most Anglo-American philosophy departments. It is not unusual for students to come away from their undergraduate degree in philosophy with the basics of Russell, Quine, Kripke, and whatever else is marketed to be fashionable at the moment, but little to no exposure to the classical texts …
Note: I’m a philosopher, not a mental health professional. These reflections are my personal opinions and none of them should be construed as professional advice regarding the diagnosis or treatment of mental illness. Problems for Therapy as it is Traditionally Construed Despite branding efforts to the contrary, psychotherapy remains a human endeavor (and more an …
Thanks to the legacy of Bernays and his proteges, our culture continues to be permeated by a broadly existentialist view of human nature, a view in which the universe is valueless apart from human consciousness.[1] Value is instead created, on this picture, by individual human subjects attempting to come to terms with an indifferent cosmos; …
The emergence of “quit lit” over the last several years has done much to reveal the deep distress of academics in the corporate university. The articles that compose this genre often take the form of a now familiar Bildungsroman about the lost illusions of academic life: A naïve young scholar is lured into academia by …