On Arthur Schopenhauer's essays, "On Authorship and Style," "On Thinking for Oneself," and "On Genius" (all published 1851). Is the best way to do philosophy (or any art) to self-consciously build on the work of others to advance the genre? Schopenhauer says no! Geniuses are solitary, original, authentic, naive thinkers. They write because they have something to say, not Continue Reading …
Episode 94: Schopenhauer on Reading, Writing, and Thinking
On Arthur Schopenhauer's essays, "On Authorship and Style," "On Thinking for Oneself," and "On Genius" (all published 1851). Is the best way to do philosophy (or any art) to self-consciously build on the work of others to advance the genre? Schopenhauer says no! Geniuses are solitary, original, authentic, naive thinkers. They write because they have something to say, not Continue Reading …
Topic for #94: Schopenhauer on Reading, Writing, and Thinking
First, a sad story: on 4/27, we recorded a discussion of Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia with Slate's Stephen Metcalf. It went fairly well (Stephen was impressed, and gave us a nice traffic bump by promoting us on his Culture Gabfest podcast), but within the next couple of days, the hard drive on which my part and much of the guest's part were recorded on went Continue Reading …
Heidegger on TV
During the podcast, I mentioned some video of Heidegger from television back in the 70s. I think I uncharitably characterized him as being a bit out of touch with a broader audience and arrogant. You be the judge: (This is an excerpt from a longer piece which is (I think) in full available on YouTube, but broken into two parts, only the first of which is translated. Continue Reading …