In the second episode of our series on Hegel as an exemplar of the modern metaphysics, we go with some depth into main points of this metaphysics - the notion of encyclopedia, absolute knowledge and, above all, his attempt to abolish "the given" in identifying essence and appearance. We proceed to point out his relative convergence with Jacob Boehme in an idea of nature as the "body of God" and why this naturally follows from Hegel's Science of Logic and why it is, rather than being an instance of Christian metaphysics, in reality its almost total inversion, ending up with the notion of absolute knowledge as absolutely secular "wisdom of the world". Throughout we give remarks on Hegel's influence and his congeniality with those who were apparent opponents. In the third episode this congeniality in disparity will be the focus of the discussion.

KT presents new series of podcasts on Hegel's speculation as a prototype of modern metaphysics. It will include reflections on some remarkable spiritual forms of modernity and their disturbing congeniality with its "dark side" of totalitarian ideologies, mass warfare and nihilism. The podcast is partially inspired by Glenn Maggee's book "Hegel and Hermetic Tradition" although with reservations due to author's superficial understanding of some thinkers he considers Hegel's predecesors, as we will point out in this episode. Hegel is unique in that he wanted to build the bridge between Tradition and modernity and not simply make a radical, yet superficial, cut more characteristic of Enlightenment and scientism, that are more in vogue nowadays mostly due to dominance of modern Anglo-Saxon culture and mass appeal it still holds. This is the common trait he shares with the greatest minds and artistic talents of past 200 hundred years, especially his German contemporaries and their late 19th and pre WWII successors. However, we'll attempt to show that his unequivocal choice of modernity and its promise of ultimate resolution of the past in the ascension of man to identity with the creative "Spirit of the world" is precisely the "mark of Cain" that cannot be erased and is a taint shared by such diverse figures as Thomas Mann and Alfred Rosenberg; moreover, we'll suggest that this is were the true spirit of modernity should be sought because, after all, the deviation is always primarily inner and only secondarily an external reality - in a word: it is a form of metaphysics. And not all of its fruits are bitter. Its only that they all seem to be poisonous.

"No more great art, no more great figures of art. No more, even, great interest in art. But, above all, no more great writers especially of 'greater than life' variety". This is the lamentation that begs the question, why. In this podcast we'll attempt to indicate why in our day some of the most valued and comprehensible spiritual forms vanished, seemingly, overnight, focusing on the figure of great writer as an exemplar. We propose that dialectical character of modernity, consisting of permanent flux and an attempt to retain stable forms of the flux, eventually dissolves everything formed by modernity into nothing.

Widespread and evermore spreading love and affection for animals - dogs in particular - is understood to be a cultural achievement and a sign of advanced society as opposed to such hellholes where dogs are actually forbidden from participating at the family table.

We on KT beg to differ.

In this ruthless attack on love towards innocent tail wagers we discern how sentimentality as a counterfeit of love is being at work as an ideal for human relations, why children love animals and why it is natural, whereas it is not so natural later on in life and why children are not and never can become wiser than grown ups (except in Spielberg's movies), what is Christian agape and why it has nothing to do with most things we call love today, especially not with sentimentality and how humanization of animals leads to animalization of humans.

Nationalist of all nations unite! Sounds good, doesn't it? Logical too,  bearing in mind that "globalists" are one unified political block, then  all those opposing them should form a unified political block of their  own. Yet unified nationalists of the world is an idea that can exist  exclusively as such - an idea in virtual mindscape. In this podcast  we'll attempt to outline why.

Political debate or, rather, debate about politics can resemble the  labor of Sisyphus - nothing particularly new about that. However, what  if we would claim that in present circumstances, with chatter jamming  all communication channels, conversation is in fact impossible on  principle?

In the second part of our Q&A on corrosive influence of Heidegger,  we turn to actual (not in the sense of presence, but in the sense of  energeia) texts, i.e. to concrete examples of how he misinterprets  Aristole's notions of energeia, kinesis, entelehia. We conclude with overall evaluation of Heidegger's influence and remarks on low grade philosophy found online.

Notes

Quotes used:

On Heidegger's philosophical and philological misrepresentations of fundamental Aristotelian concepts:

Francisco J. Gonzales, "Whose Metaphysics of Presence? Heidegger’s Interpretation of Energeia and Dynamis in Aristotle", in: Southern Journal of Philosophy (2006) Vol XLIV

Francisco J. Gonzales, "Beyond Good and Evil? Heidegger's Purification of Aristotle's Ethics", in Heidegger and the Greeks: Interpretative Essays. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2006), pg. 127 - 156.

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In this episode of our regular q&a podcast we answer reader's  questions about the influence of Martin Heidegger on Internet based  rightist identiterian movements. In the first episode we give an outline  of the current state of Heideggeriana in the mainstream academia which  seems to lead us to conclusion that Internet fringe apparently  understood him far better than his academic followers and interprets.  This was made clear mainly by finalization of Heidegger's Gesamtausgabe and  publication of the so called "black notebooks" - diaries which, judging  by his own evaluation, contained Heidegger's most intimate thoughts and  the central point of his philosophy. As the end result is that it is  now obvious that he was indeed a committed national socialist, at least  in the sense of what he understood as meta-political essence of national  socialism, and that this is also at the very least quite close to his  project of the destruction of traditional metaphysics, the sizeable  chunk of contemporary philosophers now seem to realize how they have  been building their academic houses quite near the entrance of the  underworld, if not even somewhat further down the hole.

In the second part we'll provide focused criticism of some crucial  points in Heidegger's interpretation of traditional metaphysics that  seem to be especially endearing to both average academic Heideggerian or  deconstrutionist and fringe dwelling identitarian.

“You don’t have to be religious … it’s just common sense” – one often sees this kind of preface to arguments against practices sometimes branded as fruits of what is sometimes called “culture of death”. But is this so? Compromise is unavoidable in political struggle, but can there be a compromise between mind and reality? In this two parts essay we’ll argue in favor of the negative answer. We take an example of the most consequent form of advocating for equality of death and life – the advocacy for the institutionalized euthanasia – and attempt to show how it runs directly contrary to primary act of knowledge – that most obvious, yet rarely examined, state of mind we call “being in touch with reality”. In the first part we examine the notion of reality and life as forms of ἐνέργειᾰ and why modern system based thinking, which is the presupposition of most modern and postmodern political debates about religious and metaphysical issues, runs counter to it and can never touch, let alone grasp, it.

Original essay: http://www.en.kalitribune.com/

In this episode we talk about objections to Stoicism and "Stoic  attitude" in our own day. We discuss two seemingly different, but in  fact quite congenial, attacks, i.e. about APA's document Guidlines for  Psychological Practice with Boys and Men" and the survey "Stoicism and  Well Being". In the process we discuss fruit of contemporary  "dissolution mentality", clearly expressed in the first document and lay  out the origin and nature of the pleasure principle which is at the  base of the critique laid out in the second one. Finally, we discuss  Christian evaluation of Stoicism.