Overcoming the fear of diving into the intensity of life (quote of the day)

"You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it—it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.

But on what? Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you: "It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish."

- Charles Baudelaire

Debut issue of Kabiri: Journal of the North American Schelling Society

First issue titled "The Heritage and Legacy of F.W.J. Schelling," HERE. Interesting article by Tyler Tritten on Schelling's read of Plato's Timaeus (which reminds me of an After Nature post I once wrote, HERE), as well as some other good articles. Everything is Open Access, so no paywall.

One small thing I noticed was that contributions to Kabiri 2 will be by invitation only. My concern is that this will mire Schelling scholarship into its own little perspective-bubble where it is only the members of NASS who end up reading only the work of other members of NASS. The conversation usually ends up being very short-sighted (and self-affirming and self-congratulatory) in cases where that sort of dynamic occurs and so it's sad to see the journal adopt an invitation-only publishing model so early in its career.

My greatest concern is that the journal would go down the road of Open Access journals such as O-Zone (the journal about the make-believe philosophy of Object Oriented Ontology) or Speculations - both of which wound up being horrible parodies of any "blind" peer-review process. Neither journal had any objective peer-review system in place and would dismiss contributions before even receiving them (despite maintaining that anyone was welcome to contribute). I don't think either journal even exists anymore - and thank goodness for it.

Same with the Edinburgh University Press Speculative Realism Series. Zero objectivity, zero blind peer review, total slimy preference and bias for friends irrespective of any quality, which means that the books in that series (or articles in the journals just mentioned) were nine times out of ten just utter rubbish. So, let's hope Kabiri doesn't end up like that.

Interview with Reza Negarestani

Found HERE.

Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Part Two) (Partially Examined Life Podcast mp3)

Second part of The Partially Examined Life Podcast on Plato's forms in the Parmenides is now up, HERE.

Plato’s Forms in the “Parmenides” (Part One)

Another great episode available.

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Episode 198: Plato's Forms in the "Parmenides" (Part One)
// The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

On the most peculiar Platonic dialogue, from ca. 350 BCE. Are properties real things in the world, or just in the mind? Plato is known for claiming that these "Forms" are real, though otherworldly. Here, though, using Parmenides as a character talking to a young Socrates, Plato seems to provide objections here to his own theory. What's the deal?

The Gestation of German Biology: Philosophy and Physiology from Stahl to Schelling (NDPR Review)

NDPR Review, first paragraph and link below.
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The Gestation of German Biology: Philosophy and Physiology from Stahl to Schelling
// Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // 


John H. Zammito, The Gestation of German Biology: Philosophy and Physiology from Stahl to Schelling, University of Chicago Press, 2018, 523pp., $45.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780226520797.

Reviewed by Lenny Moss, University of Exeter

In his 2004 review of both Frederick Beiser's German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism 1781-1801, and Robert Richards' The Romantic Conception of Life and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe,[1] John H. Zammito defines the conversation that shapes the aims and point of departure of his recent book and in relation to which he offers some criteria for assessing its merits. The conversation in question is about critically advancing a new appreciation for the status of German Idealism and Romanticism in relation to contemporary naturalism but even more specifically it's about overthrowing old prejudices against Naturphilosophie and defending its relevance to empirical life science. In the background, but not deep in the background,...


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The Sorrows of Young Nimrod the Toady (Taki's Magazine)

Real life happenings. Those interested in academic politics may wish to read this...
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The Sorrows of Young Nimrod the Toady - Taki's Magazine - 
http://takimag.com/article/the-sorrows-of-young-nimrod-the-toady/#axzz5P5crAVwO
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2018 Biosemiotics Gathering – Video Archive (ht dmf)

Dmf shares quite a large list of videos featured from a recent gathering "Biosemiotics 2018," HERE.

A new meaning for Ernst Juenger's advised "flight to the forest"

"A Malaysian Insta-City Becomes a Flash Point for Chinese Colonialism — and Capital Flight" (New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/magazine/a-malaysian-insta-city-becomes-a-flash-point-for-chinese-colonialism-and-capital-flight.html

Eco-phenomenology and Eco-Cosmology

Interesting issue of Analecta Husserliana, "Eco-Phenomenology: Life, Human Life, Post-Human Life in the Harmony of the Cosmos" HERE.  Too many fascinating articles to discuss in a short blog post such as this one is intended to be, thus if the issue's topic sounds interesting for you head on over to check it out for yourself.

Hegel on the Proofs and the Personhood of God: Studies in Hegel's Logic and Philosophy of Religion (NDPR Review)

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Hegel on the Proofs and the Personhood of God: Studies in Hegel's Logic and Philosophy of Religion
// Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // 


Robert R. Williams, Hegel on the Proofs and the Personhood of God: Studies in Hegel's Logic and Philosophy of Religion, Oxford University Press, 2017, 352pp., $95.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780198795223.

Reviewed by Nicholas Adams, University of Birmingham

This is a book for those interested in the intricacies of Hegel's philosophy of religion. It asks and answers two questions: how can Hegel's accounts of the proofs for God's existence best be understood; in what sense is Hegel's God 'personal'?
The study is split into two halves named in the title. The first part, chapters 1 to 3, treats Hegel's handling of the proofs for God's existence, principally in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (which contains Hegel's defence of Anselm against Kant) and the Lectures on the Proofs for the Existence of God (published for the first time in English in 2007 in a translation by Peter Hodgson). The second part investigates...


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