Emilio Uranga (1921-1988) articulates what we could call Existentialism “a la Mexicana”, Mexican existentialism, or (M)existentialism...It does not escape Mexican philosophers that a thinking of totality, a thinking that transcends contingency and place, has been the hallmark of philosophy since it’s naming by the Greeks.
The life choices that had led me to be sitting in a booth underneath a banner that read “Ask a Philosopher” – at the entrance to the New York City subway at 57th and 8th – were perhaps random but inevitable. I’d been a “public philosopher” for 15 years, so I readily agreed to join … Continue reading Three Philosophers Set Up a Booth on a Street Corner: Here’s What People Asked
Existentialism: The idea that all philosophical thought must begin with the experiences of the individual, and it is up to the individual to give meaning and authenticity to their own existence.
Simone de Beauvoir is rightly best known for declaring: ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.’ A less well-known facet of her philosophy, particularly relevant today, is her political activism, a viewpoint that follows directly from her metaphysical stance on the self, namely that we have no fixed essences.
What is art for? "L'art pour l'art" wrote Théophile Gautier as a slogan in 1835. And today's bohemians continue to repeat the creed "Art for art's sake." It's a catchy slogan, still what most people unreflectively tell themselves when confronted with the question: "What is the purpose of art?"
Feral Philosophy 