Via Aeon (2 min video): ‘Falsification Ruled 20th-Century Science. Does It Need Revision In The 21st?‘
I’d say we’re still navigating the wreckage of ‘scientific’ socialism, and the radical and revolutionary elements finding safe harbor within most Western institutions…
As posted:
From Edward Feser: ‘Jackson on Popper on materialism‘
‘Popper’s World 3 is in some respects reminiscent of Plato’s realm of the Forms, but differs in that Popper takes World 3 to be something man-made. As I noted in the earlier post just linked to, this makes his positon at least somewhat comparable the Aristotelian realist (as opposed to Platonic realist) view that universals are abstracted by the mind from the concrete objects that instantiate them rather than pre-existing such abstraction.’
Quite a comment thread over there…
Encyclopedia Of Philosophy Entry On Eliminative Materialism…
Bryan Magee Via Youtube: ‘Miles Burnyeat On Plato’…Repost: From the Cambridge Companion To Plato-T.H. Irwin’s “Plato: The intellectual Background’
Richard Epstein at Forbes: ‘Trump’s Big Move On Dakota Access Pipeline:‘
‘Anyone who cares to review the overall public record in depth will realize that the earlier permitting history of the pipeline, which I have discussed here and here in my capacity as an advisor to the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, or MAIN Coalition, reveals a grim picture of obstruction and delay by the former Obama Administration spurred on by the SRST.’
Amy Payne At The Foundry: ‘Morning Bell: Obama Administration Buries Good News on Keystone Pipeline’
As posted: Within A Bank Of Modern Fog-Another Link To Robert Hughes On Jeff Koons
—————
There’s always been a bit of the showman about Jeff Koons; the kind of young man who could put on a bow tie and try to give many museum-goers their time/money/aspirations’ worth at the membership desk.
This blog forgives people trying to explain what their art ‘means,’ exactly, but confesses to pleasure in seeing Koons put on the spot under the suspicious eye of an ornery old Robert Hughes.
I don’t fault Koons for finding himself firmly within modernism, searching for universal forms and broader historical context within those confines, but I admit it’s nice to see him held to account for his bullshit, and perhaps the broader, deeper bullshit he shares with many modern and postmodern artists: Pursuing novelty and recognition and thus making art into a business and often commercializing it, aiming for celebrity while offering meta-critiques on celebrity, making the personal and private very public (masturbation into social commentary, sex into meta-critques of religious shame, ‘culture’ and pornography).
Two quotes by Hughes that stood out:
‘Religion is diminished into celebrity..a kind of reverse apotheosis.‘
‘This alienation of the work from the common viewer is actually a form of spiritual vandalism.’
It’s tough to say that art is really about religion (though much clearly is), but rather more about an experience Hughes wants as many people as possible to have, and that such experiences can elevate and expand.
Aside from the above, there’s something that strikes me as not just late 20th century-modern about Koons, but also very American.