#historyofphilosophy — Public Fediverse posts

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

“They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche’s Critique of the Englishman’s Philosophy

Nietzsche had a sharp and often contemptuous view of what he called “English psychology” and the broader tradition of British empiricist and utilitarian moral philosophy. His critique is scattered across several works — Beyond Good and Evil, Twilight of the Idols, On the Genealogy of Morality, and The Gay Science — but forms a coherent attack on a whole intellectual temperament.

1. The Critique of Utilitarianism and the “Herd Morality”

Nietzsche’s most sustained target was Utilitarian ethics — chiefly Bentham and Mill’s reduction of morality to the calculation of pleasure and pain, and the maximization of happiness for the greatest number.

• He found this mediocre and life-denying: it privileges comfort, safety, and the average over excellence, risk, and greatness.
• Utilitarianism, for Nietzsche, is the philosophical expression of the herd — a morality that flattens hierarchy and punishes the exceptional individual.
• “Man does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does,” he quipped in Twilight of the Idols — meaning that making happiness the supreme value is a parochial, petit-bourgeois illusion.

2. The Attack on British Empiricism and Its Psychologists

In Beyond Good and Evil (Part I) and On the Genealogy of Morality (Preface), Nietzsche attacks English moral psychologists — figures like Spencer, Hume, and their successors — for:

• Lacking historical sense: They projected modern values (utility, sympathy, altruism) backward onto all of human history, as if these had always been the basis of morality.
• Flatness of soul: They could only explain the origin of moral concepts mechanistically — habit, utility, association — and missed the deeper question of the value of values themselves.
• “They are no philosophical race”: Nietzsche says this explicitly in Beyond Good and Evil (§252), charging that the English lack the instinct for genuine philosophy. They are capable of great industry and data-gathering but not of the bold, creative, self-overcoming thought he demands of a philosopher.

3. Darwin and the Problem of “Survival”

Nietzsche had a complicated relationship with Darwin, but largely rejected Social Darwinism and the popular English interpretation of evolution:

• The “survival of the fittest” was vulgarized into a justification for mediocrity — it is the most numerous, the most adaptable, the most average that survive, not the highest.
• Nietzsche argued that nature often sacrifices the species for the sake of the exceptional individual — the reverse of what the Darwinian moralists claimed.
• Evolution, in the English reading, pointed downward toward conformity; Nietzsche wanted to point upward toward the Übermensch.

4. Critique of Sympathy and Altruism (Spencer & the “Comfortable” Ethics)

Herbert Spencer attempted to merge evolution with utilitarian ethics, grounding morality in social cooperation and sympathy. Nietzsche despised this:

• Sympathy (Mitleid) — “feeling with suffering” — was for Nietzsche a form of weakness and even a contagion of suffering, not a virtue.
• Altruism as a supreme value he traced (in the Genealogy) to slave morality — the resentful inversion of aristocratic values by the weak.
• Spencer’s “evolution toward happiness” was, to Nietzsche, a comfortable lie told by a civilization in decline.

5. The Deeper Charge: Mediocrity of Philosophical Spirit

Beyond specific doctrines, Nietzsche’s critique is temperamental and cultural:

“They are not a philosophical race — the English: Bacon represents an attack on the philosophical spirit generally, Hobbes, Hume, and Locke an abasement and a depreciation of the idea of a ‘philosopher’ for more than a century.” — Beyond Good and Evil, §252

The English philosopher, in Nietzsche’s portrait, is:

• Too empirical — chained to facts, unable to think beyond them
• Too Christian in disguise — utilitarian altruism is secularized Christian morality without the honesty of its theological roots
• Too comfortable — philosophizing in service of stability, society, and contentment, rather than danger, solitude, and transformation

Summary Table

A Fair Assessment

Nietzsche’s critique, while brilliant and penetrating, is also polemical and sometimes unfair. Hume, in particular, is a far deeper thinker than Nietzsche credits. And Nietzsche himself borrows more from the British tradition than he admits — his psychological method of unmasking morality owes something to precisely the “English psychologists” he mocks. The critique is best read not as sober scholarship, but as Nietzsche’s philosophical war cry against a particular vision of what life and thought are for.

Applications are invited for the post of temporary 48-month Postdoctoral Research Associate within #UCD School of #Philosophy. Further details, along with a link to apply, may be found at www.ucd.ie/philosophy/n.... #PhilJobs #PhilSky #MoralPhilosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #BMoral #IrishResearch

ERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the...

The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

Start

“1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

If you want to continue: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2025/07/29/diskurs-der-philosophie/

#Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

Start

“1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

If you want to continue: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2025/07/29/diskurs-der-philosophie/

#Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

Start

“1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

If you want to continue: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2025/07/29/diskurs-der-philosophie/

#Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

The #discourse of #philosophy - a short #journey through the #history of #philosophy

Start

“1st stop - at the old #Greeks in Athens and surroundings”, “2nd stop - at the meditating #Descartes in Ulm”, “3rd stop - in Königsberg at #Kant, who sees the light”, “4th stop - short detour to Nice to the all-negating #Nietzsche” and then finally “5th search for another #station”.

If you want to continue: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2025/07/29/diskurs-der-philosophie/

#Philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #MichelFoucault #DiscourseAnalysis #Science #Humanities #CriticalThinking #ThinkingAboutTheFuture #SocialChange #Essay #ThinkingAboutChange #Humanities #AcademicThinking #Interdisciplinarity #ResearchAndTeaching

Me:

> Karl Marx coined the term "capitalism" by analogy with feudalism

A couple of comments have challenged this claim, which I thought I'd got from a few sources, including David Graeber, Dmitry Kleiner and c4ss org. Fact-checking myself produced inconclusive results so far.

Although it does suggest Marx wrote mostly in German, which makes it seems less likely he coined an English term, although his translators may have.

Can anyone clarify?

(1/2)

#MeaCulpa #history #HistoryOfPhilosophy

We are advertising a temporary, part-time teaching position in the history of modern #philosophy / theoretical philosophy for the academic year 2025-2026 and possibly beyond. All details here: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000B9QP

#Groningen #HistoryOfPhilosophy #TheoreticalPhilosophy #Job #GetFediHired #Vacancy

https://youtu.be/dvddaXvTKT0

It is rare that I get to review a condemnation that doubles as an introduction. And it works fine both ways

#TheHeirsLair #review #BookReview #philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #Cioran #Nazism #Interbellum

The monotheistic religions made it normal to squash people: "I think there is something really special about the Bible [...] which is precisely this idea that the revelation of truth comes through the suffering of the weak." (Matthieu Poupart)

Then the Renaissance made it easier to blame the victim: With modernity, "it is the person who takes no initiative who is seen as responsible for the emergence of sexual promiscuity." (Matthieu Poupart)

#EstelleSays #longThread 🧶

#truth #revelation #believe #beliefs #empathy #feminism #quotes #blameTheVictim #maleSupremacy #manliness #patriarchy #misogyny #relationships #sociology #religion #catholic #christianity #jewishness #jewish #squash #flatten #crush #agressions #agressive #agressivity #supremacy #rapeCulture #brutalization #modernity #Renaissance #history #intellectualHistory #historyOfHumanThought #historyOfPhilosophy #normal #normality #heteronormativity #weak #weakness #incest #incestCulture

The monotheistic religions made it normal to squash people: "I think there is something really special about the Bible [...] which is precisely this idea that the revelation of truth comes through the suffering of the weak." (Matthieu Poupart)

Then the Renaissance made it easier to blame the victim: With modernity, "it is the person who takes no initiative who is seen as responsible for the emergence of sexual promiscuity." (Matthieu Poupart)

#EstelleSays #longThread 🧶

#truth #revelation #believe #beliefs #empathy #feminism #quotes #blameTheVictim #maleSupremacy #manliness #patriarchy #misogyny #relationships #sociology #religion #catholic #christianity #jewishness #jewish #squash #flatten #crush #agressions #agressive #agressivity #supremacy #rapeCulture #brutalization #modernity #Renaissance #history #intellectualHistory #historyOfHumanThought #historyOfPhilosophy #normal #normality #heteronormativity #weak #weakness #incest #incestCulture

The monotheistic religions made it normal to squash people: "I think there is something really special about the Bible [...] which is precisely this idea that the revelation of truth comes through the suffering of the weak." (Matthieu Poupart)

Then the Renaissance made it easier to blame the victim: With modernity, "it is the person who takes no initiative who is seen as responsible for the emergence of sexual promiscuity." (Matthieu Poupart)

#EstelleSays #longThread 🧶

#truth #revelation #believe #beliefs #empathy #feminism #quotes #blameTheVictim #maleSupremacy #manliness #patriarchy #misogyny #relationships #sociology #religion #catholic #christianity #jewishness #jewish #squash #flatten #crush #agressions #agressive #agressivity #supremacy #rapeCulture #brutalization #modernity #Renaissance #history #intellectualHistory #historyOfHumanThought #historyOfPhilosophy #normal #normality #heteronormativity #weak #weakness #incest #incestCulture

The monotheistic religions made it normal to squash people: "I think there is something really special about the Bible [...] which is precisely this idea that the revelation of truth comes through the suffering of the weak." (Matthieu Poupart)

Then the Renaissance made it easier to blame the victim: With modernity, "it is the person who takes no initiative who is seen as responsible for the emergence of sexual promiscuity." (Matthieu Poupart)

#EstelleSays #longThread 🧶

#truth #revelation #believe #beliefs #empathy #feminism #quotes #blameTheVictim #maleSupremacy #manliness #patriarchy #misogyny #relationships #sociology #religion #catholic #christianity #jewishness #jewish #squash #flatten #crush #agressions #agressive #agressivity #supremacy #rapeCulture #brutalization #modernity #Renaissance #history #intellectualHistory #historyOfHumanThought #historyOfPhilosophy #normal #normality #heteronormativity #weak #weakness #incest #incestCulture

The monotheistic religions made it normal to squash people: "I think there is something really special about the Bible [...] which is precisely this idea that the revelation of truth comes through the suffering of the weak." (Matthieu Poupart)

Then the Renaissance made it easier to blame the victim: With modernity, "it is the person who takes no initiative who is seen as responsible for the emergence of sexual promiscuity." (Matthieu Poupart)

#EstelleSays #longThread 🧶

#truth #revelation #believe #beliefs #empathy #feminism #quotes #blameTheVictim #maleSupremacy #manliness #patriarchy #misogyny #relationships #sociology #religion #catholic #christianity #jewishness #jewish #squash #flatten #crush #agressions #agressive #agressivity #supremacy #rapeCulture #brutalization #modernity #Renaissance #history #intellectualHistory #historyOfHumanThought #historyOfPhilosophy #normal #normality #heteronormativity #weak #weakness #incest #incestCulture

Come work for us!

Two 3-year #Postdoc Positions at @universityofgroningen in #Kant and/or Kantian #Ethics in Pauline Kleingeld's Spinoza Project

Application deadline: Wednesday 26 February
Starting date: 1 September 2025

all details here: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000B44P

CC @UnivGroJobs

#philosophy #moralphilosophy #historyofphilosophy #job #getfedihired #academicchatter #groningen

Come work with us! For a project of @LisaHerzog , we are offering a 2-year #postdoc position in #PoliticalPhilosophy with a focus on #work and the #HistoryOfPhilosophy. All details here:
https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/work-with-us/job-opportunities/?details=00347-02S000AZGP (application deadline: 2 feb 2025)

#getfedihired #philosophy #job #academicchatter #academicjob #vacancy

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

https://library.hrmtc.com/2024/12/20/leo-strauss-and-nietzsche-2/

#8906PoliticalPhilosophy #book #FriedrichNietzsche #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900 #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900Biographies #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PoliticalAndSocialViews #HistorySurveysModern #HistoryOfPhilosophy #LaurenceLampert #LeoStraus #LeoStrauss #LeoStrauss18991973Biographies #LeoStrauss18991973 #ModernWesternPhilosophy #PhilosophyPhilosophyOfSociety #plato #PlatoPoliticalAndSocialViews #PlatonPenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #PoliticalAndSocialViews #PoliticalScienceClassicPoliticalThought #PolitiekeFilosofie #review #TPolyphilus

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

https://library.hrmtc.com/2024/12/20/leo-strauss-and-nietzsche-2/

#8906PoliticalPhilosophy #book #FriedrichNietzsche #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900 #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900Biographies #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PoliticalAndSocialViews #HistorySurveysModern #HistoryOfPhilosophy #LaurenceLampert #LeoStraus #LeoStrauss #LeoStrauss18991973Biographies #LeoStrauss18991973 #ModernWesternPhilosophy #PhilosophyPhilosophyOfSociety #plato #PlatoPoliticalAndSocialViews #PlatonPenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #PoliticalAndSocialViews #PoliticalScienceClassicPoliticalThought #PolitiekeFilosofie #review #TPolyphilus

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

https://library.hrmtc.com/2024/12/20/leo-strauss-and-nietzsche-2/

#8906PoliticalPhilosophy #book #FriedrichNietzsche #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900 #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900Biographies #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PoliticalAndSocialViews #HistorySurveysModern #HistoryOfPhilosophy #LaurenceLampert #LeoStraus #LeoStrauss #LeoStrauss18991973Biographies #LeoStrauss18991973 #ModernWesternPhilosophy #PhilosophyPhilosophyOfSociety #plato #PlatoPoliticalAndSocialViews #PlatonPenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #PoliticalAndSocialViews #PoliticalScienceClassicPoliticalThought #PolitiekeFilosofie #review #TPolyphilus

Leo Strauss and Nietzsche

https://library.hrmtc.com/2024/12/20/leo-strauss-and-nietzsche-2/

#8906PoliticalPhilosophy #book #FriedrichNietzsche #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900 #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900Biographies #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #FriedrichWilhelmNietzsche18441900PoliticalAndSocialViews #HistorySurveysModern #HistoryOfPhilosophy #LaurenceLampert #LeoStraus #LeoStrauss #LeoStrauss18991973Biographies #LeoStrauss18991973 #ModernWesternPhilosophy #PhilosophyPhilosophyOfSociety #plato #PlatoPoliticalAndSocialViews #PlatonPenseEPolitiqueEtSociale #PoliticalAndSocialViews #PoliticalScienceClassicPoliticalThought #PolitiekeFilosofie #review #TPolyphilus

My article about #Haeckel, his #Monism and his #protestant interpretation of natural sciences and nationalism is online available as an #opensource document. Published in Acta Historica #Leopoldina. Check it out.;)
#historyofreligions #historyofphilosophy
#biology #EvolutionaryBiology
@histodons
https://levana.leopoldina.org/receive/leopoldina_mods_00826

My supervisor co-wrote this very lovely article on the science of mechanics in the middle ages: https://aeon.co/essays/how-medieval-thinkers-did-physics-without-knowing-it
#philosophy #historyofphilosophy #medievalphilosophy #mechanics #sciencehistory

Peter Adamson's "History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps" is now well into its third decade, 400th episode (in the mainstream podcast), and the 16th century (Jean Bodin). I rank it after West's effort only because I feel West can use the advocacy more. Both podcasts are excellent, Adamson is well supported through a tenured faculty position and institutional funding. Older philosophy provides insights into the development, and history of ideas, including (many, many, many, many) false starts and wild-goose chases, but also often startlingly modern thinking in ancient times. Having caught up with the full back-catalogue, I've returned to the beginning for a second listen.

https://historyofphilosophy.net/

#HistoryOfPhilosophy #PeterAdamson #Podcasts #Recommendations

3/

Dred's 2022 Podcast Recommendations

My top three, well, four (though the fourth is a few hundred) podcasts of the year.

Deets follow separately.

1. "Philosophize This" by Stephen West: https://www.philosophizethis.org/
2. "History of Philosophy (Without Any Gaps)" by Peter Adamson: https://historyofphilosophy.net/
3. "Complexity" from the Santa Fe Institute: https://www.santafe.edu/culture/podcasts#Complexity
4. "The New Books Network", edited by Marshall Poe https://newbooksnetwork.com/

#PhilosophizeThis #StephenWest #HistoryOfPhilosophy #PeterAdamson #ComplexityPodcast #SantaFeInstitute #NewBookNetwork #MarhsallPoe #Podcasts #Recommendations #Tootstorm

1/n

A longer list of research interests relevant to #RedEnlightenment

#education #consciousness #psychedelia #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #meditation #mindfulness #enlightenment #radicalenlightenment #decolonising #decolonizing #historyofphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #indianphilosophy #AncientPhilosophy #IslamicPhilosophy #spinoza #anthropology #utopianism #historyofscience #dialecticalmaterialism #deleuze #guattari #postmodernism #Bogdanov #ContemporaryArt #mysticism #activism #markfisher

A longer list of research interests relevant to #RedEnlightenment

#education #consciousness #psychedelia #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #meditation #mindfulness #enlightenment #radicalenlightenment #decolonising #decolonizing #historyofphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #indianphilosophy #AncientPhilosophy #IslamicPhilosophy #spinoza #anthropology #utopianism #historyofscience #dialecticalmaterialism #deleuze #guattari #postmodernism #Bogdanov #ContemporaryArt #mysticism #activism #markfisher

A longer list of research interests relevant to #RedEnlightenment

#education #consciousness #psychedelia #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #meditation #mindfulness #enlightenment #radicalenlightenment #decolonising #decolonizing #historyofphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #indianphilosophy #AncientPhilosophy #IslamicPhilosophy #spinoza #anthropology #utopianism #historyofscience #dialecticalmaterialism #deleuze #guattari #postmodernism #Bogdanov #ContemporaryArt #mysticism #activism #markfisher

A longer list of research interests relevant to #RedEnlightenment

#education #consciousness #psychedelia #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #meditation #mindfulness #enlightenment #radicalenlightenment #decolonising #decolonizing #historyofphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #indianphilosophy #AncientPhilosophy #IslamicPhilosophy #spinoza #anthropology #utopianism #historyofscience #dialecticalmaterialism #deleuze #guattari #postmodernism #Bogdanov #ContemporaryArt #mysticism #activism #markfisher

A longer list of research interests relevant to #RedEnlightenment

#education #consciousness #psychedelia #ChristianSocialism #engagedbuddhism #meditation #mindfulness #enlightenment #radicalenlightenment #decolonising #decolonizing #historyofphilosophy #ChinesePhilosophy #indianphilosophy #AncientPhilosophy #IslamicPhilosophy #spinoza #anthropology #utopianism #historyofscience #dialecticalmaterialism #deleuze #guattari #postmodernism #Bogdanov #ContemporaryArt #mysticism #activism #markfisher

@WhollyHollye I'll occasionally venture into these topics (often through podcasts such as #HistoryOfPhilosophy and #PhilosophizeThis).

There's also @Gotterdammerung, that I'm aware of.

@philosophy

This Friday, I am going to start #teaching a four-week #lecture series “Is mental conflict possible? Akrasia as a touchstone of ancient moral philosophies” at the Department of #Philosophy in #Oxford. The course covers treatments of #akrasia (weakness of will / lack of control / incontinence) in #AncientPhilosophy (Greek and Roman traditions), covering #Socrates, #Plato, #Aristotle, and (as always, if there is time) the #Stoics.

Question: what interesting treatments of this phenomenon in other philosophical traditions / the later #HistoryOfPhilosophy could I read up on to also mention to my students to more fully introduce and motivate the course?

For more on the Sophists, see the Stanford Online Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sophists/

I'd also recommend the HoP episode:

https://historyofphilosophy.net/sophists
Audio: https://hopwag.podbean.com/mf/feed/6qa8mu/HoP_014_Making_the_Weaker_Argument_the_Stronger___the_Sophists.mp3

References:
J.M. Dillon and T. Gergel, The Greek Sophists (London: 2003).

G.B. Kerferd, The Sophistic Movement (Cambridge: 1981).

#sophists #sophistry #philosophy #HistoryOfPhilosophy #podcasts