Athens Corner

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Heidegger's masterpiece is Being & Time, and any understanding of postmodern philosophy requires a serious reading of the text. Here I introduce the text by an in-depth exploration of the first part of his introduction of the text. With an eye toward the most important themes still to come in the text, I provide readers with the requisite amount of knowledge leading up to the second part of the introduction regarding the "deconstruction" of the Western tradition of metaphysics that I will take up in a forthcoming lecture.

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This is possibly the most important topic for understanding the relationship between poetry and philosophy. I go into great detail regarding the discovery of "nature" presented by Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey. At issue is not whether or not poetry is philosophy or vice versa but, rather, a much more thoughtful understanding of what is meant by both poetry and philosophy.

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This is the first in a series of lectures on the meaning of nihilism. I begin with the relationship between Jünger and Heidegger: their letter correspondences and the essays they dedicated to each other. At issue is the way in which Modern nihilism has manifested in technology. I explore the issue as it is addressed by Jünger in the essay he dedicated to Heidegger on his 60th birthday entitled "Across the Line."

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An amazingly rich discussion of HP Lovecraft with Justin Gottschaulk.

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A discussion of the change of regimes in book 8 of Plato's Republic. 

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In this recording my good friend Alejandro (@engeignos) provides an entire reading with invaluable historical and philosophical commentary throughout of Kant’s famous essay “What is Enlightenment?”

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Nietzsche's critique of Plato is well known, but it is not well known how indebted Nietzsche is to Plato's student Aristotle. Here I discuss the way in which much of Nietzsche's most important insights can be understood as appropriating Aristotle. On one hand, there is Aristotle's account of tragedy in the Poetics. On the other hand, there is Aristotle's account of the virtue of greatness of soul in the Nicomachean Ethics. With an eye toward both those accounts, I present an entryway into Nietzsche's thought beginning with his late preface to his first book, The Birth of Tragedy.

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The relationship between Nietzsche and Aristotle is extremely important but seldom acknowledged. Here I provide an entryway into Nietzsche by way of his invocation of Shakespeare and how that suggests Aristotle's account of the virtue of greatness of soul.

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Here I'm joined with my friends @ProdigalThe3rd and Alex Priou to discuss the crisis in American schools, from secondary education through graduate school. We cover everything parents and students need to know. Alex also provides some great insights into Bloom's classic "The Closing of the American Mind." This is the first of two discussions we have where we go into great detail about the text, along with its various criticisms.

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In this space I'm joined by Alex Priou and my good friend Ancient Philosophy to discuss everything encompassed in approaching the thought of Heraclitus. We discuss the everything from the difficulties of translating the Greek to even understand Heraclitus to the consequences of understanding him on a whole host of fronts: Plato, Nietzsche, Modern science, etc