Paul O'Mahoney | University of Limerick (original) (raw)
Papers by Paul O'Mahoney
The European Legacy, 2024
Response invited by the journal editors to a paper appearing in the same volume, which argues for... more Response invited by the journal editors to a paper appearing in the same volume, which argues for the influence of Sextus' 'Outlines' on Descartes' sceptical approach, philosophical methods and terminology. Contends that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Descartes knew Sextus or the Outlines directly: motivations and import of Descartes' arguments are more different than any phrasing is similar, and apparent knowledge of Pyrrhonist scepticism on Descartes' part might have been derived from intermediary, secondary sources, including contemporaries and correspondents of Descartes.
Hermathena, 2024
An interpretation of Hesiod's enigmatic injunction Works and Days 750-752 μηδ' ἐπ' ἀκινήτοισι κα... more An interpretation of Hesiod's enigmatic injunction Works and Days 750-752
μηδ' ἐπ' ἀκινήτοισι καθίζειν, οὐ γὰρ ἄμεινον,
παῖδα δυωδεκαταῖον, ὅτ' ἀνέρ' ἀνήνορα ποιεῖ,
μηδὲ δυωδεκάμηνον· ἴσον καὶ τοῦτο τέτυκται
Identifies akinētoisi as boundary markers that may also be grave markers/cenotaphs, using Early Irish and Roman comparators. Interprets the stricture speculatively as relating to a ritual transfer of ownership/inheritance, advising roughly not to suffer transfer of a land/household to a male heir who is too young to steward it.
The Lancet VOLUME 399, ISSUE 10324, P517, 2022
At the heart of Marilynne Robinson's little masterpiece 'Housekeeping' are twinned enigmas. The f... more At the heart of Marilynne Robinson's little masterpiece 'Housekeeping' are twinned enigmas. The first concerns two girls: not our narrator Ruthie or her sister Lucille, but rather their mother, Helen Stone, and her sister, the girls' distrait and transient aunt, Mrs Sylvia Fisher. The second enigma is a material matter, without any of the psychological difficulties of the first: What happened to derail the passenger train crossing the bridge in Fingerbone, on board which the girls' father was working? The enigmas are twinned not only because the girls' troubles are connected to the loss of their father. Their true connection is that they have the same solution: the train was derailed by the effect of evasive action taken by the driver to avoid two young girls - Helen and Sylvie - out crossing the bridge at night. Though this is nowhere stated explicitly in the novel, it is clear enough, and is the reason the event casts an inescapable shadow over the lives not only of Helen and Sylvie, but of Ruth, whom Sylvie has told of the matter.
The European Legacy 25.1, 2020
In repeated rejections of the reality of free will, agency, self-consciousness and moral accounta... more In repeated rejections of the reality of free will, agency, self-consciousness and moral accountability, Nietzsche espouses views consistent with “cosmic” determinism. The salient features of determinism all follow from Nietzsche’s own view of organic reality as will-to-power. His position denies also the substance of any ascription of merit or blame, hence any stable ground for the ranking of human ends or types. The crises Nietzsche forecasts, and the demands he makes on humanity, all fundamentally political, arise from this nihilistic stance. It projects the inevitable arrival of an era when Nietzsche’s “deadly truths” are accepted by the great mass of humanity, sketching an essentially posthuman future. The article argues that Nietzsche’s fundamental position is the reality of determinism and rejection of free will and even the coherence of the concept of willing; further, that a Nietzschean age when this is accepted remains to come, and in closing that appreciating these facts permits access to the key conceits of Nietzsche’s philosophy, the will to power, the eternal recurrence and the Übermensch, and to amor fati as his formula for greatness.
The European Legacy 22.6, 687-96, 2017
Hesiod’s fable (ainos) of the hawk and the nightingale, addressed to kings, notoriously has no mo... more Hesiod’s fable (ainos) of the hawk and the nightingale, addressed to
kings, notoriously has no moral. Its depiction of a hawk carrying off
a nightingale, preaching the futility of either resistance or pleading,
appears to communicate the counsel, commonly designated as
“Machiavellian,” that a ruler must know how to imitate a beast as well
as a man. Such instruction—which advises that unjust actions are
justifiable and necessary for a ruler—is clearly at odds with Hesiod’s
explicit exhortations to his brother Perses to work hard and avoid
hubris, and his caution that unjust kings or lords (basileis) will be
punished by Zeus. I argue that Hesiod’s addressing the fable to kings
“who themselves have understanding” explains the lack of a moral. To
substantiate my claim I compare Hesiod’s and Machiavelli’s ranking of
intellects, and illuminate Hesiod’s position with particular reference to
and comparison with Machiavelli’s Prince, and examples drawn from
the Old Testament and Old Irish law.
![Research paper thumbnail of What Is To Be Done? [Žižek and the Migrant Crisis] (Dublin Review of Books, June 2016; open access)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/114102759/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Dublin Review of Books (June 2016)
Rev. Essay: Žižek, Against the Double Blackmail (Penguin, 2016)
The Irish Community Development Law Journal 4.1 (2015)
The article examines provisions governing reciprocal maintenance obligations in Ireland both from... more The article examines provisions governing reciprocal maintenance obligations in Ireland both from a historical perspective and in comparison with contemporary provisions in the EU28. Ireland is in a minority among EU states in lacking any provision in law for the maintenance of elderly, infirm or indigent parents by adult children. Part I of the article, after some preliminary discussion of filial responsibility laws and select comparisons with other international jurisdictions, sets out first in summary form and then with select commentary the presence or absence of statutory or constitutional provisions for reciprocal maintenance of ascendants in the EU28. Part II examines the case of Ireland in depth, and shows that, historically, some form of such provision was the norm. Examination of indigenous archaic legal traditions, up to the pre-independence Poor Relief Act of 1838, outlines the scope and character of such provision. It further provides an account of the traditional philosophical, historical or religious bases for such claims. Considering the contemporary absence of maintenance obligations to ascendants from statute and the Constitution, it is argued that they could only be derived as an unenumerated right; it is further argued however that there is no stable basis for such derivation, and such obligations would never be compellable by a court. It is noted that, while the state commitment to support of the aged is constitutionally enshrined, correspondence shows that the obligations of descendants were assumed by the framers of the relevant Article. Given the choice not to enshrine these obligations, and the fact that no subsequent entity (most recently the Constitution Review Group) suggested their enshrinement, it is concluded that the Irish view has historically been and remains that filial obligations are a natural societal expectation but ought not to require enshrinement in law. In conclusion, it is suggested that such extralegal regulation may in some areas be more efficacious than formalised law and, on that basis, that Ireland has no pressing need to legislate for obligations to ascendants.
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 11.1 (2014)
Classics Ireland Vol. 18 (2011)
This article seeks to explain two of the stranger remarks in Plato’s Symposium. Beginning from th... more This article seeks to explain two of the stranger remarks in Plato’s Symposium. Beginning from the commonly observed Dionysian characteristics of the intruding Alcibiades, it argues that this resemblance between the general and the god is key to understanding both dramatic and philosophical aspects of the dialogue. Alcibiades resembles not just any image of Dionysus, but specifically that of the angered god in Euripides’ Bacchae. Of the two remarks examined, the first occurs in the course of Diotima’s description of the conception of Eros, and alerts us to the absence of Dionysus. The second, more comprehensible after recognising the import of the first, is the last remark of Socrates’ reported by Apollodorus, that the best poet should be an accomplished exponent of both tragedy and comedy. Again, many critics have suspected this remark of providing some clue as to Plato’s intention and the character of the dialogue. It is argued that recourse to the play that furnishes the Dionysian image of Alcibiades illuminates the statement: in its content, Symposium is predominantly comedic, while its form, circumscribing the speeches, mimics that of a tragedy—specifically, Euripides’ Bacchae.
Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 21.1 (2013), 132-60
The article argues that Meillassoux's 'After Finitude' underestimates the nature and profundity o... more The article argues that Meillassoux's 'After Finitude' underestimates the nature and profundity of Hume's sceptical challenge; it neglects the fact that Hume's scepticism concerns final causes (and agrees fundamentally with Bacon and Descartes in this respect), and that in Hume even the operations of reason do not furnish entirely a priori knowledge. We contend that Hume himself institutes a form of correlationism (which in part showed Kant the way to counter the sceptical challenge via transcendental idealism), and sought not merely to abolish the 'principle of sufficient reason' but to salvage it in a weak form, in turning his attention to the grounds for our beliefs in necessity. We argue further that the 'mathematizability' of properties is not a sufficient criterion to yield realist, non-correlational knowledge, or to demonstrate the 'irremediable realism' of the 'ancestral' statement. Finally, we contend that Meillassoux himself relies on a certain 'Kantian moment' which exempts the reasoning subject from otherwise 'omnipotent' chaos, and that ultimately the 'speculative materialist' position remains exposed to the original Humean sceptical challenge.
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 11.1 (2013)
Estudios Irlandeses 8 (2013)
Beckett’s “First Love” is in part a literary experiment, being one of his first texts of length w... more Beckett’s “First Love” is in part a literary experiment, being one of his first texts of length written in French. It is a story that is replete with allusions to Freudian psychoanalysis, both general ideas or theories and individual case studies. We argue here that its experimental status extends to this feature. Its incorporation of Freudian motifs represents the beginning of an attempt by Beckett to move beyond or improve upon his previous engagement with Freud in his fiction, with which he was somewhat dissatisfied. The change is signified in his parodic or unserious invocations of Freud, which differ from his earlier stories; while we concede that the approach is not very successful, in literary terms, in terms of Beckett’s corpus and development as a writer it deserves attention. Having identified many of his Freudian sources and the character of his deployment of them, we note the difficulties his chosen approach presents for both writers and readers or interpreters. We close by pointing out the critical shortcomings that must follow on failure to attend to the story’s essentially Freudian framework, exemplified in an essay on the story by Julia Kristeva.
Exceptionally intelligent people tend to be complicated; and complicated people complicate things... more Exceptionally intelligent people tend to be complicated; and complicated people complicate things: they see the nuance and complexity in issues which others had assumed straightforward, and often regard subjects over which ordinary people agonise and demur as eminently simple matters. This is perhaps the easiest way to explain the legacies of Enoch
The Heythrop Journal 54.3 (2013), 371-84
The European Legacy, 2024
The James Joyce Quarterly 47.3 (2010), 383-93
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 19.4 (2011), 603-17
The European Legacy, 2024
Response invited by the journal editors to a paper appearing in the same volume, which argues for... more Response invited by the journal editors to a paper appearing in the same volume, which argues for the influence of Sextus' 'Outlines' on Descartes' sceptical approach, philosophical methods and terminology. Contends that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Descartes knew Sextus or the Outlines directly: motivations and import of Descartes' arguments are more different than any phrasing is similar, and apparent knowledge of Pyrrhonist scepticism on Descartes' part might have been derived from intermediary, secondary sources, including contemporaries and correspondents of Descartes.
Hermathena, 2024
An interpretation of Hesiod's enigmatic injunction Works and Days 750-752 μηδ' ἐπ' ἀκινήτοισι κα... more An interpretation of Hesiod's enigmatic injunction Works and Days 750-752
μηδ' ἐπ' ἀκινήτοισι καθίζειν, οὐ γὰρ ἄμεινον,
παῖδα δυωδεκαταῖον, ὅτ' ἀνέρ' ἀνήνορα ποιεῖ,
μηδὲ δυωδεκάμηνον· ἴσον καὶ τοῦτο τέτυκται
Identifies akinētoisi as boundary markers that may also be grave markers/cenotaphs, using Early Irish and Roman comparators. Interprets the stricture speculatively as relating to a ritual transfer of ownership/inheritance, advising roughly not to suffer transfer of a land/household to a male heir who is too young to steward it.
The Lancet VOLUME 399, ISSUE 10324, P517, 2022
At the heart of Marilynne Robinson's little masterpiece 'Housekeeping' are twinned enigmas. The f... more At the heart of Marilynne Robinson's little masterpiece 'Housekeeping' are twinned enigmas. The first concerns two girls: not our narrator Ruthie or her sister Lucille, but rather their mother, Helen Stone, and her sister, the girls' distrait and transient aunt, Mrs Sylvia Fisher. The second enigma is a material matter, without any of the psychological difficulties of the first: What happened to derail the passenger train crossing the bridge in Fingerbone, on board which the girls' father was working? The enigmas are twinned not only because the girls' troubles are connected to the loss of their father. Their true connection is that they have the same solution: the train was derailed by the effect of evasive action taken by the driver to avoid two young girls - Helen and Sylvie - out crossing the bridge at night. Though this is nowhere stated explicitly in the novel, it is clear enough, and is the reason the event casts an inescapable shadow over the lives not only of Helen and Sylvie, but of Ruth, whom Sylvie has told of the matter.
The European Legacy 25.1, 2020
In repeated rejections of the reality of free will, agency, self-consciousness and moral accounta... more In repeated rejections of the reality of free will, agency, self-consciousness and moral accountability, Nietzsche espouses views consistent with “cosmic” determinism. The salient features of determinism all follow from Nietzsche’s own view of organic reality as will-to-power. His position denies also the substance of any ascription of merit or blame, hence any stable ground for the ranking of human ends or types. The crises Nietzsche forecasts, and the demands he makes on humanity, all fundamentally political, arise from this nihilistic stance. It projects the inevitable arrival of an era when Nietzsche’s “deadly truths” are accepted by the great mass of humanity, sketching an essentially posthuman future. The article argues that Nietzsche’s fundamental position is the reality of determinism and rejection of free will and even the coherence of the concept of willing; further, that a Nietzschean age when this is accepted remains to come, and in closing that appreciating these facts permits access to the key conceits of Nietzsche’s philosophy, the will to power, the eternal recurrence and the Übermensch, and to amor fati as his formula for greatness.
The European Legacy 22.6, 687-96, 2017
Hesiod’s fable (ainos) of the hawk and the nightingale, addressed to kings, notoriously has no mo... more Hesiod’s fable (ainos) of the hawk and the nightingale, addressed to
kings, notoriously has no moral. Its depiction of a hawk carrying off
a nightingale, preaching the futility of either resistance or pleading,
appears to communicate the counsel, commonly designated as
“Machiavellian,” that a ruler must know how to imitate a beast as well
as a man. Such instruction—which advises that unjust actions are
justifiable and necessary for a ruler—is clearly at odds with Hesiod’s
explicit exhortations to his brother Perses to work hard and avoid
hubris, and his caution that unjust kings or lords (basileis) will be
punished by Zeus. I argue that Hesiod’s addressing the fable to kings
“who themselves have understanding” explains the lack of a moral. To
substantiate my claim I compare Hesiod’s and Machiavelli’s ranking of
intellects, and illuminate Hesiod’s position with particular reference to
and comparison with Machiavelli’s Prince, and examples drawn from
the Old Testament and Old Irish law.
Dublin Review of Books (June 2016)
Rev. Essay: Žižek, Against the Double Blackmail (Penguin, 2016)
The Irish Community Development Law Journal 4.1 (2015)
The article examines provisions governing reciprocal maintenance obligations in Ireland both from... more The article examines provisions governing reciprocal maintenance obligations in Ireland both from a historical perspective and in comparison with contemporary provisions in the EU28. Ireland is in a minority among EU states in lacking any provision in law for the maintenance of elderly, infirm or indigent parents by adult children. Part I of the article, after some preliminary discussion of filial responsibility laws and select comparisons with other international jurisdictions, sets out first in summary form and then with select commentary the presence or absence of statutory or constitutional provisions for reciprocal maintenance of ascendants in the EU28. Part II examines the case of Ireland in depth, and shows that, historically, some form of such provision was the norm. Examination of indigenous archaic legal traditions, up to the pre-independence Poor Relief Act of 1838, outlines the scope and character of such provision. It further provides an account of the traditional philosophical, historical or religious bases for such claims. Considering the contemporary absence of maintenance obligations to ascendants from statute and the Constitution, it is argued that they could only be derived as an unenumerated right; it is further argued however that there is no stable basis for such derivation, and such obligations would never be compellable by a court. It is noted that, while the state commitment to support of the aged is constitutionally enshrined, correspondence shows that the obligations of descendants were assumed by the framers of the relevant Article. Given the choice not to enshrine these obligations, and the fact that no subsequent entity (most recently the Constitution Review Group) suggested their enshrinement, it is concluded that the Irish view has historically been and remains that filial obligations are a natural societal expectation but ought not to require enshrinement in law. In conclusion, it is suggested that such extralegal regulation may in some areas be more efficacious than formalised law and, on that basis, that Ireland has no pressing need to legislate for obligations to ascendants.
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 11.1 (2014)
Classics Ireland Vol. 18 (2011)
This article seeks to explain two of the stranger remarks in Plato’s Symposium. Beginning from th... more This article seeks to explain two of the stranger remarks in Plato’s Symposium. Beginning from the commonly observed Dionysian characteristics of the intruding Alcibiades, it argues that this resemblance between the general and the god is key to understanding both dramatic and philosophical aspects of the dialogue. Alcibiades resembles not just any image of Dionysus, but specifically that of the angered god in Euripides’ Bacchae. Of the two remarks examined, the first occurs in the course of Diotima’s description of the conception of Eros, and alerts us to the absence of Dionysus. The second, more comprehensible after recognising the import of the first, is the last remark of Socrates’ reported by Apollodorus, that the best poet should be an accomplished exponent of both tragedy and comedy. Again, many critics have suspected this remark of providing some clue as to Plato’s intention and the character of the dialogue. It is argued that recourse to the play that furnishes the Dionysian image of Alcibiades illuminates the statement: in its content, Symposium is predominantly comedic, while its form, circumscribing the speeches, mimics that of a tragedy—specifically, Euripides’ Bacchae.
Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 21.1 (2013), 132-60
The article argues that Meillassoux's 'After Finitude' underestimates the nature and profundity o... more The article argues that Meillassoux's 'After Finitude' underestimates the nature and profundity of Hume's sceptical challenge; it neglects the fact that Hume's scepticism concerns final causes (and agrees fundamentally with Bacon and Descartes in this respect), and that in Hume even the operations of reason do not furnish entirely a priori knowledge. We contend that Hume himself institutes a form of correlationism (which in part showed Kant the way to counter the sceptical challenge via transcendental idealism), and sought not merely to abolish the 'principle of sufficient reason' but to salvage it in a weak form, in turning his attention to the grounds for our beliefs in necessity. We argue further that the 'mathematizability' of properties is not a sufficient criterion to yield realist, non-correlational knowledge, or to demonstrate the 'irremediable realism' of the 'ancestral' statement. Finally, we contend that Meillassoux himself relies on a certain 'Kantian moment' which exempts the reasoning subject from otherwise 'omnipotent' chaos, and that ultimately the 'speculative materialist' position remains exposed to the original Humean sceptical challenge.
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 11.1 (2013)
Estudios Irlandeses 8 (2013)
Beckett’s “First Love” is in part a literary experiment, being one of his first texts of length w... more Beckett’s “First Love” is in part a literary experiment, being one of his first texts of length written in French. It is a story that is replete with allusions to Freudian psychoanalysis, both general ideas or theories and individual case studies. We argue here that its experimental status extends to this feature. Its incorporation of Freudian motifs represents the beginning of an attempt by Beckett to move beyond or improve upon his previous engagement with Freud in his fiction, with which he was somewhat dissatisfied. The change is signified in his parodic or unserious invocations of Freud, which differ from his earlier stories; while we concede that the approach is not very successful, in literary terms, in terms of Beckett’s corpus and development as a writer it deserves attention. Having identified many of his Freudian sources and the character of his deployment of them, we note the difficulties his chosen approach presents for both writers and readers or interpreters. We close by pointing out the critical shortcomings that must follow on failure to attend to the story’s essentially Freudian framework, exemplified in an essay on the story by Julia Kristeva.
Exceptionally intelligent people tend to be complicated; and complicated people complicate things... more Exceptionally intelligent people tend to be complicated; and complicated people complicate things: they see the nuance and complexity in issues which others had assumed straightforward, and often regard subjects over which ordinary people agonise and demur as eminently simple matters. This is perhaps the easiest way to explain the legacies of Enoch
The Heythrop Journal 54.3 (2013), 371-84
The European Legacy, 2024
The James Joyce Quarterly 47.3 (2010), 383-93
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 19.4 (2011), 603-17
International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2024
Leo Strauss' best student, the American classicist Seth Benardete, reflecting on the transformati... more Leo Strauss' best student, the American classicist Seth Benardete, reflecting on the transformative experience of the encounter with Strauss he and others had at the University of Chicago from the 1950s on, intimated that part of what made Strauss so remarkable was the range of his learning: 'Well, you have this very funny spiral, in which he began with Jewish things, and kept on spinning back to antiquity. So, everybody always felt that the framework he had was much larger than anything that we had; we felt we didn't really understand what he was saying' (Benardete 2002, 43). This collection of essays, spanning 1937-1972, serves first of all as testament to the extraordinary scope of Strauss' scholarship, which engages with figures from ancient Greek, through medieval Islamic and Jewish to modern European thought, and informs other essays containing more direct statements on contemporary issues of moral and political concern. For completeness' sake, the editors include certain essays in their original forms that were later incorporated into and therefore superseded by longer essaysa questionably useful decision beyond the concern for completeness, in cases such as 'A Note on Lucretius', reproduced here, which was incorporated into the much longer 'Notes on Lucretius', published in Strauss' collection Liberalism, Ancient and Modern (1968)-as well as essays that previously had portions or abridged forms collected. The arrangement is chronological rather than thematic, which has some jarring effects: the essays 'On Walker's Machiavelli' and 'Machiavelli and Classical Literature' are separated by eighteen other pieces in the volume (and seventeen years); one of Strauss' first publications, 'The Spirit of Sparta and the Taste of Xenophon', on Xenophon's Constitution of the Lacedaemonians, is the third essay, while 'Greek Historians', a long review essay doubling as a reflection on Greek methods of historiography, focusing primarily on Xenophon's Hellenica, is one of the last. In its favour, however, is the fact that chronological arrangement lets the reader appreciate better the unfolding in time of Strauss' thought and the evolution of his chief insights and preoccupations. Strauss is most notorious for the thesis of esotericism, the claim that philosophical writers from antiquity until roughly the eighteenth century commonly practised an art of careful writing that allowed them to communicate their true thoughts somewhat 'between the lines' of their works. Xenophon was for Strauss a particularly accomplished practitioner of such careful writing, and the pieces here join On Tyranny (1948), Strauss' exhaustive study of the short Xenophontic dialogue INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES
Ernst Jünger is best known, internationally and to readers of English, for his metaphysicallyshad... more Ernst Jünger is best known, internationally and to readers of English, for his metaphysicallyshaded reflections on the experience of war and explorations of the individual and communal changes wrought by technological modernity. Storm of Steel (1920) is his arresting account of
Dublin Review of Books, 2022
Martin Wight (1913-1972) is recognised as the leading proponent of the approach that defined the ... more Martin Wight (1913-1972) is recognised as the leading proponent of the approach that defined the "English School" of international relations theorya label that made its first appearance in a polemical 1981 essay by Roy E. Jones, but has since attached itself without polemical connotation to a multigenerational ensemble of historians and political theorists
![Research paper thumbnail of When He Was Good [UNPUBLISHED] Review of Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/86735678/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Review of Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey, Jonathan Cape, 898pp €36.00 ISBN 978-022409... more Review of Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey, Jonathan Cape, 898pp €36.00 ISBN 978-0224098175
Dublin Review of Books, 2019
On Enoch Powell on International Relations, Economics, Immigration, Europe, NI and more.
Dublin Review of Books, 2019
Review of Seamus O'Mahony: 'Can Medicine Be Cured? The Corruption of Profession' (Head of Zeus 2... more Review of Seamus O'Mahony: 'Can Medicine Be Cured? The Corruption of Profession' (Head of Zeus 2019).
O'Mahony's book charts the corruption of medicine and medical research: the ceding of power to Big Pharma, rise of perverse incentives in research and practice and decline of the standards of research, exemplified by the current replication crisis. Much-needed reform of both medicine and relevant politics is not very likely, save in the face of a crisis like the rise of an untreatable pandemic or catastrophic environmental degradation.
The review examines the book's central claims, highlights the affinity of its criticisms of the medical vision of the human being (as 'homo infirmus') with Nietzsche's portrait of the 'last man', and suggests that a Nietzschean politics might be the spur to reform. Contrary to assumptions, it is ferocity of a judicious kind, and not compassion, which may be the key to securing our common future.
Dublin Review of Books, 2017
On Hitler’s Mein Kampf: The Poetics of National Socialism, by Albrecht Koschorke, MIT Press, 78 p... more On Hitler’s Mein Kampf: The Poetics of National Socialism, by Albrecht Koschorke, MIT Press, 78 pp, €11, ISBN: 9780262533331
International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2017
International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2017
Stress and Freedom, by Peter Sloterdijk, translated by W. Hoban, London, Polity Press, 2016, vi +... more Stress and Freedom, by Peter Sloterdijk, translated by W. Hoban, London, Polity Press, 2016, vi + 60 pp., £9.99 (pbk), ISBN 978-0-745-69929-5
Lilah Grace Canevaro, Hesiod's Works and Days: How to Teach Self-Sufficiency (Oxford: Oxford Univ... more Lilah Grace Canevaro, Hesiod's Works and Days: How to Teach Self-Sufficiency (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) pp. xiv + 269, £55.00, ISBN 9780198729549 (hbk) Canevaro's study developed from a 2012 thesis at Durham University, conceived of as an interpretative commentary; as such it follows and takes direction from previous major commentaries (in particular West, Verdenius and Ercolani), but it treats the poem nonsequentially and via thematic units. It thereby attempts to capture and to explicate both the spirit and the intent of the poem -indeed, Works and Days is claimed to take us 'as close as we can get in an archaic poem to an idea of authorial intention (whether genuine or projected)' (p. 5, see pp. 33-4, 42).
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 23.4 (2015), 612-18
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 22.5 (2014), 783-8
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21.4 (2013), 631-36
Polis 30.1 (2013) pp. 149-57
International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21.2 (2013), 301-7
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 9.2 (2012), 2012
Polis 28.2 (2011), 344-49