by James Landes | Nov 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
In the face of even unbearable stupidity and evil, the contemplative path retains an essential relationship to truth before any accidental or derivative considerations.
Civilization ultimately rests not upon the transient, but rather upon the permanent things.
For this very reason, the role of the contemplative, unlike that of the ideologue, is essential to civilization.
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Dante und Vergil begegnen dem Grafen Ugolino in einem vereisten Sumpf, als dieser sich an Erzbischof Ruggiero von Pisa rächt: ‘So schlug der Obere ein da seinen Zahn, wo das Gehirn sich anfügt an den Nacken’ (Inf. 32/33,p.145) by Luigi Sabatelli (Künstler_in) – Albertina, Austria – Public Domain.
https://www.europeana.eu/item/15508/1438
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by James Landes | Oct 31, 2022 | Uncategorized
What on earth has happened to ‘good disagreement’? Where has it gone?
On the proper end of disagreement and the present crisis in thinking in the West.
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Two doctors aloof from one another in disagreement. Wood engraving after J. Leech. by John Leech – Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom – CC BY.
https://www.europeana.eu/item/9200579/sxcugqyx
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by James Landes | Aug 18, 2022 | Uncategorized
On the need of common sense, as a counter to ideology and the groundless thinking of our time. Reflections inspired by Samuel Johnson, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton.
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Two men crossing a stream by night. The first is barefoot, wearing cloak and walking stick and crosses safely, while the second one, who is elegantly dressed and gazes dreamily in the sky, is about to step in the water with shoes and stockings; representing Common sense and Genius. Etching by C. Heath after T. Stothard. by Thomas Stothard – 1820 – Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom – CC BY.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200579/yfynxzay
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by James Landes | Jun 30, 2022 | Uncategorized
For modern man, the all-too-often shunned option of living in truth, in the sense of engaging reality, rather than fleeing from it into his own ideas, offers a choice that amounts to a desperately needed conversion in a profound philosophical sense. By conversion here one speaks of the act of restoring the connection between thinking and reality.
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Bekering van Paulus – Rijksmuseum, Netherlands – Public Domain.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_OB_67_543
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by James Landes | May 16, 2022 | Uncategorized
A meditation on the modern rejection of transcendence. Consideration of Nietzschean nihilism, and the rash judgment of the present generation. Belloc, not Nietzsche, was correct about the trajectory of modern thinking and civilization. On the need for a return to a philosophy grounded in being and objective truth.
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Embleem: moeras – Rijksmuseum, Netherlands – Public Domain.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/90402/RP_P_OB_44_852
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by James Landes | Mar 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
The rejection of objective truth leads to tyranny. The modern reduction of ontology has left Western thought dangerously adrift.
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Gruppenbild “Robespierre unter den Jacobinern” – Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – Austrian National Library, Austria – Public Domain.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/92062/BibliographicResource_1000126104138
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by James Landes | Feb 4, 2022 | Uncategorized
Consideration of reason in relation to common sense, sanity, and the intellect, with the aim of addressing intellectual maladies of the present generation.
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Aristotle refusing the hemlock (?). Oil painting by a painter in the circle of Johann Carl Loth. by Johann Carl Loth – Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom – CC BY.
https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200579/brtv5v3q
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by James Landes | Oct 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
The tenuous relationship to truth in modern thought, considered in relation to the lack of moral courage in the present age.
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by James Landes | Aug 18, 2021 | Uncategorized
Prudence helps one to maintain sobriety and sanity in the face of “scientism” and other ideological nonsense. Tradition, with its focus on the permanent things and on the eternal dimension of being, allows us to maintain thinking itself in the true sense of philosophy.
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by James Landes | Jun 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
Sober pessimism is our defense against the extremes of both despair and the folly of utopian thought.
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