LIBRARY

Read more about the article Arendt The Life of the Mind
Rembrandt The Philosopher in Meditation

Arendt The Life of the Mind

For the thinking ego and its experience, conscience that "fills a man full obstacles" is a side effect. No matter what thought-trains the thinking ego thinks through, the self that we all are must take care not to do anything that would make it impossible for the two-in-ne to be friends and live in harmony. This is what Spinoza meant by the term "aquiescence in one's self" (acquiescentia in seipso): "It can spring out of reason [reasoning]. and this contentment is the greatest joy possible." Its criterion for action will not be the usual rules, recognized by multitudes and agreed upon by society, but whether I shall be able to live with myself in peace when the time has come to think about my deeds and words. Conscience is the anticipation of the fellow who awaits you if and when you come home. p.191

Continue ReadingArendt The Life of the Mind
Read more about the article Michel Foucault Society Must Be Defended
Mapvienna

Michel Foucault Society Must Be Defended

A right of sovereignty and a mechanics of discipline. It is, I think, between these two limits that power is exercised. The two limits are, however, of such a kind and so heterogeneous that we can never reduce one to the other. In modern societies, power is exercised through, on the basis of, and in the very play of the heterogeneity between a public right of sovereignty and a polymorphous mechanics of discipline.

Continue ReadingMichel Foucault Society Must Be Defended
Read more about the article Ricoeur Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning
Vermeer, Johannes. The Allegory of Painting. c. 1666–1668. Oil on canvas, 120 cm × 100 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Ricoeur Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning

"To understand a text is not to rejoin the author, but to move in the direction of his work, to project oneself before it, to follow the path of the world it opens up."

Continue ReadingRicoeur Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning
Read more about the article Leo Strauss The Argument and Action of Plato’s Laws
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca (formerly known as The Mill), 1648, Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London.

Leo Strauss The Argument and Action of Plato’s Laws

"The Athenian does not question the divine origin of the Cretan and Spartan laws; he accepts it on the authority of his interlocutors. But he immediately asks for the reason or the end for which those laws were established... He asks, in Socratic fashion, what the lawgiver had in mind in establishing the laws." — Chapter I, p. 4

Continue ReadingLeo Strauss The Argument and Action of Plato’s Laws
Read more about the article Habermas Jurgen, Legitimation Crisis
beuysjosephendof20thcent

Habermas Jurgen, Legitimation Crisis

"Under 'democracy,' the conditions under which all legitimate interests can be fulfilled by way of realizing the fundamental interest in self-determination and participation are no longer understood. It is now only a key for the distribution of rewards conforming to the system, that is, a regulator for the satisfaction of private interests. This democracy makes possible prosperity without freedom."

Continue ReadingHabermas Jurgen, Legitimation Crisis