John Campbell

Okay but longer than it needed to be.

Revisado: 11-30-20

The course had good content but it could have been delivered in fewer episodes. The delivery was at times repetitious (for example, the segments relating to whether natural law requires the existence of God as a given and the segment on the Intelligent Design movement). The PDF outline and bibliography was very helpful.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Farewell Caesar! Hail Strauss!

Revisado: 07-30-20

Great story telling with good discussion of wider historical context. Narrator was good too.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Game Explanation of Why Marxism Still Matters

Revisado: 07-27-20

British literary critic and theorist Terry Eagleton sets forth why Marxism still matters and continues to wield great explanatory power of the world around us. Each chapter in the work is a refutation of a common centrist or right wing objection to Marx--i.e. Marxism is tied to the 19th century, Marxism has nothing to say about contemporary problems of race or gender, Marxism ineluctably leads to totalitarianism, and so on. I don't think Eagleton knocks down all the arguments equally well (For example, the idea that the classical liberal general suspicion of power is a an excessively tender-minded reification that is not justified where power is used for 'emancipatory' reasons is a real blind spot. Another blind spot is the idea that problems of power and acquisitiveness will disappear once a material 'sufficiency' is attained). That said, Eagleton does a great job expounding on the core dialectical principles of Marxism, the debts contemporary schools of thought owe to it, and its insights into how economic power is used and abused in a capitalist order. And Eagleton's writing style is pithy, accessible, and humorous. The reader was fine but the plummy English accent may not be to everyone's taste. I didn't become a Marxist after listening to this book, but it did make me rethink a lot of the rah rah triumphalism that often comes with defenses of capitalism.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

Much wisdom and insight into the human condition

Revisado: 07-13-20

I heard this book on Audible. The author was a psychiatrist who was swept up in the Nazi genocide against the Jews, lost just about all of his family (including his expectant wife) and after improbably surviving Auschwitz, had to rebuild something of a life. The narrator had a pleasant and we'll modulated voice, calm without being soporific. Structurally, the work is in two parts, the first being an account of Dr Frankl's ordeal (no word does his experience justice) in the Nazi extermination camps, and how he came to survive both physically and mentally. He explains he he came to find meaning. The second part is a more general discussion of the psychiatric school of thought that he pioneered--logotherapy--which encourages patients to self-strengthen by finding meaning. It's not a long work, but it still contains much hard-earned understanding of human beings in all their complexity and potential for both heroism and depravity. Most strikingly, he takes an attitude of 'tragic optimism', rejecting nihilism and determinism (either of which would have been perfectly understandable given his experience).

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña