Bridge and Door: Georg Simmel on How Separation Inspires Human Connection
Offering a fresh perspective and a hope for connection amidst the closed doors of social distancing, Georg Simmel is emerging as a thinker for our contemporary cultural moment.
Simone de Beauvoir on The Ethics of Ambiguity and Existential Courage
Born in 1908 in Paris, France, the French philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir, developed as a writer, intellectual, and activist with radical existential courage.
Simone Weil on the Generosity of Attention in Gravity and Grace
In Gravity and Grace, Simone Weil offers supernatural insight on attention and suffering and how to live in contradiction.
Walter Benjamin on the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Cultural criticism from Immanuel Kant to Walter Benjamin to Martin Scorsese stems from a high view of art and a low view of human cognition.
Ray Bradbury on the Seduction of Space in The Rocket Man
In his 1951 short story, The Rocket Man, Ray Bradbury explores the seduction of the open sky that inspires Elton John’s iconic song by the same name.
Rudolf Otto on the Fearful and Fascinating Mystery of the Holy
In Idea of the Holy, philosopher and theologian, Rudolf Otto shows the numinous, the fearful and fascinating mystery of the holy, evokes deep worship.
Barn Burning on Intuition and the Banality of Evil
Barn Burning is written by Haruki Murkami is loosely based on William Faulkner’s story and explores themes of evil, intuition, metaphor, and memory.
Mircea Eliade and The Myth of the Eternal Return
In his 1949 book, The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade explores the role of repetition, imagination, and participation in creating history.
Gaston Bachelard and Mircea Eliade on the Existential and Cognitive Functions of the Imagination
The phenomenology of Gaston Bachelard inspired the work of Mircea Eliade on the cognitive and existential functions of the imagination.
Rethinking the Winchester Mystery House
According to legend, the erratic architecture of the Winchester Mystery House was designed to confuse the spirits who haunted Sarah Winchester.
Kojin Karatani on the Will to Architecture
Kojin Karatani’s “will to architecture” surfaces in disciplines ranging from literature and psychoanalysis to anthropology and mathematics.
Paul Valery on the Common Material of Poets and Philosophers
Paul Valery challenges the arbitrary divide between the poet and the philosopher while considering the intellectual rigor of the poet.
Susanne Langer on Creative Philosophy in a New Key
In Susanne Langer’s 1942 book, Philosophy In a New Key, the first American female philosopher challenges thinkers to embrace a new creative philosophy.
The Invisible in Haruki Murakami’s Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
In Haruki Murakami’s short story, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, he offers insight into the phenomenology of sound taught by Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Walter Benjamin on Explosive Reading and the Storyteller
Walter Benjamin considers The Storyteller an artistic observer capabale of seeing and communicating beauty in a way that transforms readers and listeners.