He [Sebastian Franck] makes a distinction between what he calls the church “visible” and “invisible”. The “invisible church” is constituted by the Holy Spirit, through the loving hearts of all men. This conception of the…
Tag: rationality
Glenn Magee on the Hermetic influences in the history of philosophy & science
I consider this work not only a continuation of the tradition of scholarship I have sketched out above but also as a contribution to an ongoing project in the history of ideas pioneered by such…
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Glenn Magee on the divisions of Hegel’s philosophy
The final “Hermetic” period of Hegel’s life is his time in Berlin, from 1818 until his death on November 14, 1831. This is contrary to what one might expect. It might be assumed that Hegel’s…
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Glenn Magee on Hermetic references in Hegel’s writings
There are references throughout Hegel’s published and unpublished writings to many of the leading figures and movements of the Hermetic tradition. These references are in large measure approving. This is particularly the case with Hegel’s…
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Achille Mbembe on postfact world
Neoliberalism has created the conditions for a renewed convergence, and at times fusion, between the living human being and objects, artifacts, or the technologies that supplement or augment us and are in the process transfigured…
Achille Mbembe on security and freedom of movement
A society of security is not necessarily a society of freedom. A society of security is a society dominated by the irrepressible need for adhesion to a collection of certainties. It is one fearful of…
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Achille Mbembe on doubt and microchips
The domain of objects and machines, as much as capital itself, is increasingly presented in the guise of an animistic religion. Everything is put into question up to and including the status of truth. Certainties…
Jodi Dean on Carl Sagan
Fabricated through the process of colonizing terrains of truth previously held by religion, science in the West used claims of skepticism to distinguish its approach to the real. Some scientists today collapse the distinction between…
Jodi Dean on Richard Hofstadter
In an influential essay from the mid-sixties, Richard Hofstadter tries to capture the essence of conspiracy and the “paranoid style” as they have appeared in American politics. I want to stress two of the characteristics…
Jodi Dean on the non-scepticism of debunkers
Some folks have responded to the rise of the virtual with irresponsible paranoia. That is to say, they fail to deal with contemporary indeterminacies and instead repetitively, compulsively, reassert their particular “truth.” Thus, some —…