Pop Culture and philosophy

Il ticchettio del pendolo. Il paradosso del "Tempo" nella filmografia di C. T. Dreyer

by Emanuele Murra

The grandfather clock ticking. the "Time paradox" in C. T. Dreyer filmography

Published in "Idee", 1/2 2011 Nuova Serie, pp. 85-102, ISSN 0394 3054

What is time? Why is it so simple to measure and so difficult to define? Do times of different quality exist? And if... more What is time? Why is it so simple to measure and so difficult to define? Do times of different quality exist? And if they do, how can we represent them?
These questions are the doubts of, and reason for writing the present article. In it, the Author shows how it is possible to define time thanks to the double path of the philosophical concept of saturated phenomenons (in J.L. Marion's perspective) and the transcendental moviemaking style of the director C.T. Dreyer.
The Author claims that time is a saturated phenomenon and that the philosophical language has to accept its failure to provide a complete definition, leaving space – beside the philosophical language – for a non-conceptual language, such as film, to give a more complete understanding of what time really is.

Feminist Music By Gina Messina-Dysert

by Feminism and Religion

Last week Caroline Kline shared the article “Feminist Films” and discussed the Bechdel Test as a way to identify... more Last week Caroline Kline shared the article “Feminist Films” and discussed the Bechdel Test as a way to identify whether or not a film is feminist.  It left me wondering – can we identify music as feminist in the same way?  Music generally does not offer dialogue between two women.  But there are instances where we find two women singing together about feminist issues like the 80’s classic “Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves.”  There are also women singing about or to women, like Juliana Hatfield’s “My Sister.” And there is music that acknowledges women’s struggles as women like Ani Difranco’s “I’m No Heroine,” No Doubt’s “I’m Just a Girl,” and Pink’s “Stupid Girls”.    But is this the only way to identify feminist music? 

Jihad VS McWorld: A Dialectic Civilization

by Surya Awangga

Jihad dan McWorld bertindak dengan kekuatan yang seimbang dalam posisi yang berlawanan. Yang satu (Jihad) digerakkan... more Jihad dan McWorld bertindak dengan kekuatan yang seimbang dalam posisi yang berlawanan. Yang satu (Jihad) digerakkan oleh kebencian parokial, yang lain (McWorld) digerakkan oleh pasar-pasar global. Yang satu menciptakan kembali subnasional lama dan batas etnis dari dalam dirinya, yang lain membuat batas nasional mudah ditembus dari luar.  Definisi Jihad – McWorld sebagai ‘kekuatan’ merupakan hal yang menarik sebab keduanya memang berupa daya yang menggerakkan dan dapat termanifestasi dalam bentuk yang beragam. Dalam menerangkan relasi Jihad-McWorld, Barber menggunakan istilah “dialektika” yang dipinjamnya dari kosakata filsafat Hegel. Berber menyebutkan bahwa dialektika McWorld adalah suatu studi yang memiliki alasan tertentu untuk menghormati perbedaan radikal yang memisahkan. Jihad dan McWorld mengetahui kekuatan serta saling ketergantungan yang paradoks satu sama lain. Dialektika adalah suatu pola dialog, saling menangkal dan dengan demikian saling membenarkan dan memajukan, bukannya dimengerti dalam pola tesis-antitesis-sintesis saja.

Cuestiones relativas al relativismo

by Rafael González del Solar

Published in Diógenes (1997) Nº 11, pp. 22-24, far away and long ago... but I still kind of like the article.

Should John Connor Save the World?

by Peter Fosl

In The Terminator and Philosophy, edited by Richard Brown (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2009), 218-35; ISBN 978-0470-44798-7.

Uses Stanley Cavell's account of the moral claims of language, principally in "The Claim of Reason" (1979),... more Uses Stanley Cavell's account of the moral claims of language, principally in "The Claim of Reason" (1979), to resolve the moral moment Terminator protagonist John Connor faces when he is asked to save the world.

The Immorality of Morality

by Peter Fosl

In Metallica and Philosophy, edited by William Irwin (Malden, MA: Basil Blackwell, Ltd.. 2007), 74-86; ISBN 978-1-4051-6348-4. Also published on www.secularhumaism.org. Reprinted in Introducing Philosophy through Pop Culture: From Socrates to South Park, from Hume to House, edited by William Irwin and David Kyle Johnson (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming).

Explores the extent to which Metallica's music expresses themes like those to be found in the work of Nietzsche and... more Explores the extent to which Metallica's music expresses themes like those to be found in the work of Nietzsche and Marx.

Picky Eating is a Moral Failing

by Matthew J. Brown

(2007). In Dave Monroe & Fritz Allhoff (eds.), Food & Philosophy: Eat, Think, and Be Merry. Blackwell.

Common wisdom includes expressions such as “there is no accounting for taste'’ that express a widely-accepted... more Common wisdom includes expressions such as “there is no accounting for taste'’ that express a widely-accepted subjectivism about taste. We commonly say things like “I can’t stand anything with onions in it'’ or “Oh, I’d never eat sushi,'’ and we accept such from our friends and associates. It is the position of this essay that much of this language is actually quite unacceptable. Without appealing to complete objectivism about taste, I will argue that there are good reasons to think that there will be fairly wide agreement between experienced palates on aesthetic preferences, and that this result will not necessarily agree with unexperienced and unreflective opinions on the matter. Subjectivism about aesthetic preference can be taken to justify the practice of picking eating (after all, who is better to say what I’ll enjoy than me?), while the position of this paper is that such picky eating is a moral failing. To be a picky eater is to have a significant lack of openness to new experiences. It involves an irresponsible level of fallibilism with respect to taste. Never venturing into new aesthetic landscapes leads to a sort of repetitiveness, which in turn leads to a life full of blandness and banality.

'Soglitude' - Introducing a method of thinking thresholds

by Tatjana Barazon

published in Conserveries Mémorielles, 2010

‘Soglitude’ is an invitation to acknowledge the existence of thresholds in thought. A threshold in thought designates... more ‘Soglitude’ is an invitation to acknowledge the existence of thresholds in thought. A threshold in thought designates the indetermination, the passage, the evolution of every state the world is in. The creation we add to it, and the objectivity we suppose, on the border of those two ideas lies our perceptive threshold. No state will ever be permanent, and in order to stress the temporary, fluent character of the world and our perception of it, we want to introduce a new suitable method to think change and transformation, when we acknowledge our own threshold nature. The contributions gathered in this special issue come from various disciplines: anthropology, philosophy, critical theory, film studies, political science, literature and history. The variety of these insights shows the resonance of the idea of threshold in every category of thought.

Valuing and Evaluating Popular Music

by Theodore Gracyk

Invited contribution to a Special Issue of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 57:2 (Spring 1999), pp. 205-20.

Argues that popular music possesses aesthetic value. Argues that popular music possesses aesthetic value.

On the Genealogy of a Rivalry

by Nolen Gertz

Red Sox and Philosophy, ed. Michael Macomber. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 2010, pgs. 169-182

Adventures in Formalism

by Nolen Gertz

Canon Magazine, Language & Culture Issue, Spring 2007, pgs. 35-42