The Philosophy of Our Time | Boston Review

The Philosophy of Our Time | Boston Review:

Nearly forty years after his death in 1980, the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre is best remembered as the father of existentialism. We are most familiar with him as the theorist of freedom, authenticity, and bad faith in philosophical treatises such as Being and Nothingness (1943) and literary works such as Nausea (1938) and No Exit (1944). But eclipsed in this popular image is an appreciation of the staggering range of his dozens of volumes of published work, especially the fruit of his political activity from the end of World War II until his death—a period marked most notably by a rich and sustained engagement with Marxism.

Far from being consigned to the ash heap of history, the mid-century encounter between Marxism and existentialism remains vital today. As we seek political and philosophical bearings in this time of renewed calls for a socialist alternative to capitalism, postwar efforts to bring Marxism and existentialism together have much to teach us—not only because of the continuing importance of each mode of thought to political thinking and organizing, but also because their interaction in Sartre’s work deepens our understanding of how we exercise agency under conditions we do not control.

The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Existentialist | OUPblog

The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Existentialist | OUPblog:

Sartre’s talk “Existentialism is a Humanism” was an instant legend. The venue was packed, the crowd spilling into the street. Furniture got broken. People fainted and were carried outside. Sartre had to push his way through to the podium, where he delivered a speech entirely off the cuff. Unsurprisingly, in the circumstances, it was rather sketchy and occasionally inconsistent.

Beauvoir’s altogether more coherent account was published a few weeks later as “Existentialism and Popular Wisdom” in the third issue of Les Temps Modernes, the cultural and political journal the pair had founded.
These were the keynotes of their rich programme of talks, articles, plays, and novels, which firmly established the fifth and sixth arrondisements of Paris as the centre of European intellectual innovation.

The Ego and the Universe: Alan Watts on Becoming Who You Really Are – Brain Pickings

The Ego and the Universe: Alan Watts on Becoming Who You Really Are – Brain Pickings:

Watts uses the phrase “little boxes made of ticky-tacky” to describe the homogenizing and perilous effect of the American quest for dominance over “nature , space, mountains, deserts, bacteria, and insects instead of learning to cooperate with them in a harmonious order.” The following year, Malvina Reynolds used the phrase in the lyrics to her song “Little Boxes”, which satirizes suburbia and the development of the middle class. The song became a hit for Pete Seeger in 1963 and was used by Showtime as the opening credits score for the first three seasons of Jenji Kohan’s Weeds.

Yosuke YANASE on TEFL and general affairs: Keywords for Prof. Alastair Pennycook's Critical Applied Linguistics #3

Yosuke YANASE on TEFL and general affairs: Keywords for Prof. Alastair Pennycook's Critical Applied Linguistics #3: "Keywords for Prof. Alastair Pennycook's Critical Applied Linguistics #3
1.2 Hisitorical / political terms

1.2.1 Enlightenment

A dictionary definition of the Enlightenment is 'a philosophic movement of the 18th century characterized by an untrammeled but frequently uncritical use of reason, a lively questioning of authority and traditional doctrines and values, a tendency toward individualism, and an emphasis on the idea of universal human progress and on the empirical method in science.' (Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary)."

phislosophical definitions, with useful web links. Includes liberalism, Marxism, feminism -- good summaries