"The Enemy Within" / is on Nostr

I teach and research philosophy (mainly metaethics and philosophy of perception) at Hebrew University and try to make the world a bit better (mainly by trying to surround myself with anti-occupation activists and then feeling bad about how much better of people they are than me).

Leftist without Adjectives

Last Notes

2025-02-04 15:46:07

"Question Everything" is one of the most common mantras in philosophy. We see it on the top of departmental websites, in blurbs about courses, and so on. (It is probably only surpassed by "Know Thyself", which really doesn't fit a lot of subdisciplines of contemporary philosophy.)
I feel like this really pushes an overly skeptical framing of how to approach philosophical questions, and on top of that it feels atomistic: We look at each proposition and 'question' it, as if any proposition should be defended on its own merits and not in relationship to a broader conceptual/scientific/philosophical framework.
As someone who is trending toward a more holistic and framework-based model of philosophical thinking (not completely, but more than other philosophers both now and in the past), I wonder: Does our mantra "Question Everything" really fit?
Not wanting to just be a critic without offering an alternative, I was kicking around "Consider Everything" or, less eloquently "Consider Everything and its Interconnections".
What do you think, philosofriends?
#philosophy #academia #academicchatter

2024-10-13 19:27:07

Today I'm reading Human Rights Watch's 1995 report on the failures of the UN peacekeeping force in the massacres in Srebenica.
What made me think about a random 1995 report on the failures of a UN peacekeeping force? No comment.
https://www.hrw.org/report/1995/10/15/fall-srebrenica-and-failure-un-peacekeeping/bosnia-and-herzegovina

2024-09-13 07:03:33

New website, feedback welcome!
https://sites.google.com/view/pjwerner

2024-06-22 19:35:30

A very brave colleague of mine, historian and Jewish Israeli at Hebrew University of Jerusalem Lee Mordechai, has written an 80 page report on Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza.
It discusses why he believes Israel's response is gravely disproportionate and constitutes genocide, as well as providing various evidence and documentation concerning (not exhaustively) (a) the famine in Gaza and Israel's contribution to it, (b) the Israeli media's assistance in the continued dehumanization of Palestinians and support for massacres, (c) Human rights violations in the West Bank in part justified by the fighting in Gaza, (d) American involvement in the ongoing ethnic cleansing and war crimes.
It is an incredibly detailed and important document, though there is a helpful summary at the beginning.
Dr. Mordechai will (and probably already has) received death threats, alienation from some of his colleagues, and possibly even academic repercussions. He was not paid by anyone to write this document, but has done it solely from a deep commitment to human rights for all people and all Peoples. Given the great risk he has taken, and the difficult and extensive work he has put into it as a scholar, I think it is incumbent to share it as widely as possible so that his courage and work was not done in vain.
It's called "Bearing Witness to the Israel Gaza War"
You can download it here in English:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MVeJT9TDbEv_KXFjYQsDbW07nmjtQBse/view?usp=sharing
And here in Hebrew (the content is the same in both):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j9OhbOrsTFVeHwqZVl0MM0CG2P2mXTCr/view?usp=sharing

2024-05-24 16:37:22

- reply

Update to all: Here is some evidence (not conclusive, but not trivial either) that the picture is *not* doctored -
https://x.com/ytirawi/status/1794021658237325351