Category Archives: Philosophy

On Religious Tolerance in Rhode Island

Posted on February 14, 2012 by admin

The question of whether religion has a place in civic life has been a constant source of controversy since the emergence of modern liberal-democratic societies—since it was within them that this very notion of civic or public life first came … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Opinion, Religion, Slavoj Žižek | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Margin Call (2011), or a Report on the Banality of Greed

Posted on December 29, 2011 by admin

So far, few movies have been as successful as J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call (2011) in portraying the events of the 2008 economic crisis. In fact, the movie achieves something only a few among the best films in history have … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Evil, Films, Philosophy, Politics, Slavoj Žižek | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Solaris and heaven

Posted on December 20, 2011 by admin

Watching Solaris (2002), the version of Stanislaw Lem’s novel adapted and directed by Steven Soderbergh (there is a previous one by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky), I couldn’t help thinking about Christianity’s philosophically challenging notion of heaven. Briefly, Solaris is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Existentialism, Films, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Deseo y cine

Posted on December 10, 2011 by admin

Žižek comienza su Guía del pervertido para el cine (2006) con una advertencia: el problema que afrontamos los humanos no es que tengamos deseos — de hecho, desear es una parte muy importante de lo que somos —; el problema real es … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Films, Philosophy, Slavoj Žižek | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Tree of Boredom

Posted on November 20, 2011 by admin

Finally, I saw Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life. I must confess that I truly was looking forward to seeing this movie, as I’ve stated a few months ago. And, as it’s usually the case with Terence Malick’s movies, it took … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Existentialism, Films, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On Reading Schmitt

Posted on October 26, 2011 by admin

I’m reading Carl Schmitt’s The Concept of the Political. Although familiar with his ideas, I confess that I have never read this his most-influential work before. And… well, so far I still don’t like it. Everything makes perfect sense, yes! But … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

1911: Bertrand Russell’s Miraculous Year

Posted on October 16, 2011 by admin

A miracle of love At the end of August 1911, Bertrand Russell wrote a letter to his good friend Lucy Martin Donnelly in which he describes his emotional state as “happier than” he has ever been “for many years.” The … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Žižek, Bosteels y Buck-Morss sobre cristianismo, activismo y ética

Posted on October 15, 2011 by admin

Como parte de la conferencia Communism, a New Beginning?, Slavoj Žižek, Bruno Bosteels y Susan Buck-Morss se reunieron hoy en Cooper Union, Nueva York, para discutir la intersección de la ética, la religión y la política en el marco de la … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Opinion, Religion, Slavoj Žižek | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Two Digressions about Borges, Wittgenstein and the Aesthetic Experience

Posted on October 3, 2011 by admin

I. Borges and Shi Huang Ti In his tale “Las murallas y los libros,” Borges tells the story of Shi Huang Ti (or Quin Shi Huang), the Chinese emperor who built the first Great Wall, also remembered for ordering the … Continue reading →

Posted in Aesthetics, Literatura, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Terry Eagleton on faith

Posted on September 5, 2011 by admin

In a recent article, Terry Eagleton takes to task Westerners’ anxiety towards Islam. For him, what scares Western civilization about Islam is not suicide-bombers or building-crashing airplanes but the scandalous apprehension generated by a comeback to a world ruled by (religious) faith. Faith—or rather … Continue reading →

Posted in Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Terry Eagleton | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment