A French deconstructivist and a British empiricist on the menu. Observe the differences and the similarities.
Listen to philosopher Robert Rowland Smith explaining and defending Jacques Derrida’s ideas about forgiveness on Philosophy Bites — Derrida argued that forgiving the forgiveable is not really forgiving. And to John Dunn (University of Cambridge) giving a general summary of John Locke’s advocacy of religious toleration on another Philosophy Bites podcast.
I cannot resist. A recent call for papers for Drive Culture, a new on-line journal based at Temple University in Philadelphia, is asking for submissions on the following topic:
In a kind of perversion of the spirit of Wikipedia, Drive Culture wants to create an encyclopedia that actively aims at a non-totalization of knowledge. Such an encyclopedia would make no pretense to objectivity, but would instead amplify the subjective by allowing multiple entries on single topics. Our hope is that the more we add to it, the less we will know. For our first issue, we would like to start with the letter “A”. We are especially on the lookout for subjects that have escaped Wiki’s radar. Entries should be no more than 750 words and should not hesitate to depart from the objective, didactic approach of the standard encyclopedic entry through humor, absurdity or sarcasm. Any “A” word is acceptable, but here is a list of suggestions to encourage multiple responses to the same subject:
abyssinia
acephale
Amazon
American
amputee fetish
apolitical
appendix
petit a
autological words
avatar
I do not know if I should cheer, laugh, or cry. Maybe this indecision is the first step to non-totalising knowledge.
