Third Wave

Leo Strauss and the Three Waves of Modernity

An introduction to Leo Strauss's categorization of the "Three Waves of Modernity". 

The Third Wave of Modernity: Nietzsche's Critique of Historicism 

Lecture for a course on "Time and Narrative in Prose Fiction" (2020) -- covering the historical context of the "Third Wave" of modernity in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche.  Nietzsche's critique of historicism in "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life" (1874) is discussed in relation to his overall philosophy concerning: the Death of God, the History of Nihilism and the "completion" of the latter in the affirmation of the Eternal Return. 

Modernism: An Introduction  

An introduction to the intellectual roots of "Modernism" in such thinkers as Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. Finally, an introduction to some of the aesthetic movements of literary modernism -- in particular how Modernism's exploration of the "fragmentation" of meaning and experience was connected with Cubism in the visual arts. 

World War I and Literary Modernism

An introduction to the intellectual roots of "Modernism" in such thinkers as Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. Finally, an introduction to some of the aesthetic movements of literary modernism -- in particular how Modernism's exploration of the "fragmentation" of meaning and experience was connected with Cubism in the visual arts.

Nihilism: An Introduction

Lecture slides introducing the history of the concept of nihilism. Various types of nihilism are discussed: epistemological (Academic Skepticism); political (Turgenev); Ethical - Existential; and historical (Nietzsche). Nietzsche's diagnosis of the crisis of nihilism (the death of God) and of the history of nihilism with its completion in the affirmation of the eternal return are also discussed. Finally, various 20th century interpretations of Nietzsche's nihilism are discussed: Heidegger, Existentialism (Camus) and Post-structuralism (Derrida).

Overcoming Nihilism

A follow up lecture to the introductory lecture above, exploring possible responses to the challenge of nihilism. First the "question of meaning" is addressed, using the example of linguistic meaning. Next, I discuss the problem of contemporary philosophical approaches, undertaken in the shadow of the nihilism of postmodern deconstruction. The lecture asserts that the commonplace notion that nihilism frees us to create our own values is seriously flawed. Finally, while not a final answer to the question of the "meaning of life", the lecture points to the wisdom of the "great books" as a source for answers to the challenge of nihilism -- namely four central epics of the Western tradition: the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid and Paradise Lost.