February 2016 – Huenemanniac

February 18, 2016

Haig Khatchadourian (1925-2016)

I learned yesterday through Facebook that one of my teachers, Haig Khatchadourian, has passed away. He was a warm and generous man, and a philosopher with such broad knowledge and penetrating intellect as to both intimidate and inspire those of us lucky enough to be in his classroom. I remember the blue exam books he… Continue reading

Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff, This & that in the life of CH

February 13, 2016

Idealism and contingency

(Reading Terry Pinkard’s marvelous German Philosophy 1760-1860: The Legacy of Idealism) It may be that the tenability of idealism comes down to the question of history. A resolute idealist discovers that the most fundamental framework of existence is expressed as dynamic relations among concepts: the I, the not-I, the striving of the I to take… Continue reading

Books, Kant and/or Hume, Metaphysical musings

February 12, 2016

John Dee’s books, magic, and ruling the world

There’s a great little essay here by Brooke Palmieri on the JHI blog, which I’m reposting here mainly so that I don’t forget to go back and study in more detail. Excerpt: No wonder Dee could argue so forcefully in General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect arte of navigation (1577), and his other… Continue reading

Historical episodes