The Myth of the Individual: ‘I’ is a Plural
Jung, Nietzsche and the population of the underworld
Why is it that, so often, when we commit to being the best version of ourselves, we succumb to embodying a cliché, a person seemingly far from who we think we should be. For example, [...]
Jordan Peterson’s Shadow
And why he was wrongThe Postmodern Neo-Marxism Conspiracy Theory
Postmodern Neo-Marxism. It’s one of the terms Jordan Peterson is most famous for. It’s a term that galvanises the ire of his fanbase and sends the anti-Peterson crowd into a veritable apoplexy. It is impossible [...]
Why Baudrillard Hated the Matrix
And why he was wrong
“The Matrix is surely the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce.” These were the infamous words that Jean Baudrillard used to break his silence on The [...]
What is Metamodernism?
The era that follows postmodernity
“Let’s just say it: it’s over” Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernity Metamodernism might be the most important idea you encounter this year. In a world that is growing increasingly fractured and complex, Metamodernism is [...]
Modernism vs. Postmodernism
Our Two Warring Worldviews
“Postmodernity definitely presents itself as Antimodernity.” This statement describes an emotional current of our times which has penetrated all spheres of intellectual life. It has placed on the agenda theories of post-enlightenment, postmodernity, even of [...]
What is Structuralism? | Continental Philosophy
Lévi-Strauss, Barthes and Piaget
Structuralism was a school of philosophy that was at the forefront of the Continental philosophical tradition for a few short years in the 1960s. This time at the cutting edge, although brief, was critical; it [...]
Do We Live in a Simulation? | Jean Baudrillard
The meaning of simulation from Baudrillard's Simulation and Simulacra
Are we all living in a simulation? If you were to ask the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard this question, his answer would be a resounding yes. Although what he means by simulation and what [...]
What is a Paradigm? | Thomas Kuhn
The meaning of paradigm from Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas Kuhn's work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one of the most referenced academic works in history and one of the most influential and controversial books of the 20th century. Its release in 1962 [...]
What is Phenomenology?
The Philosophy of Husserl and Heidegger
Phenomenology is a school of philosophy that originated in the late 19th century and early 20th century with the writing of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl. It was a radical new development in philosophy. What [...]
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“God is Dead” — What Nietzsche Really Meant
Not a statement of atheism but a warning of nihilism
“God is dead,” surely Nietzsche’s notorious soundbite (in a portfolio of notorious soundbites). It’s a statement that has saturated society as a cultural watershed moment. But the true meaning and power of Nietzsche’s dynamite phrase [...]
Semiotics of Spirituality
What Zen Masters Know that We Don’t
In last week’s article, we looked at Ferdinand de Saussure’s pioneering work on the structure of languages — a field which he called Semiology but is nowadays more commonly known as Semiotics. As we explored [...]
What is Semiotics?
Ferdinand de Saussre's Linguistic Revolution
Semiotics is one of the cornerstones of so-called Continental Philosophy. No tradition other than Phenomenology had more influence on shaping the landscape of this tradition in the 20th century. Semiotics is the study of signs [...]
The Life of Plato
The Biography of Philosophy's Father
Alfred North Whitehead once famously described the history of philosophy as being a series of footnotes to Plato. The breadth of topics and subjects that Plato birthed is second to no other thinker. And yet, [...]
What is Empiricism?
The Philosophy of Locke, Berkeley and Hume
A few centuries before philosophy schismed between Analytic and Continental Philosophy, it was schismed between another two schools. The setup is much the same — the Anglophones and the “Europeans”. Only back then, in the [...]
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Ne te quæsiveris extra.” Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate; Nothing to him falls early or [...]