Miskatonian

14/06/2024

"So much in the world is there to convince us, if only implicitly, that we are not responsible. Recently, I started looking at the messaging behind many of the basic things and activities in everyday life with this question in mind: In what way does this specific thing make me responsible or irresponsible? The alarming finding is similar to what you discover when you do a McLuhanian tetradic analysis of any specific technology. You discover, to your alarm, that every technology or thing in your world is robbing you of some or another responsibility." ~ Duncan Reyburn

Explore the crisis of narration and the shift in storytelling. Uncover the implications of narratives becoming topical.

06/06/2024

"It is no wonder that the paradoxical moral logic of the Old Testament appealed to Chesterton. Even less surprising is that the concise invocation of its paradoxes in ‘The Sign of the Broken Sword’ should appeal to that other metaphysical romancer, Jorge Luis Borges. That Borges was an admirer of Chesterton is well known. Less well known is the influence that this story, in particular, seems to have had on the Argentine. By my reckoning, no fewer than three stories in Borges’s Labyrinths appear to have their origin in musing on its theme." George Marsden

Delve into the poetic brilliance of G.K Chesterton, a celebrated metaphysical poet, on the anniversary of his 150th birthday.

02/06/2024

"If modernity is built on a refutation of the ancient world, a denial of eternity, of which Beauty was the royal road, and if modernity has arrived at last at some “final truth,” the truth that all values are subjective. Then, at the end of its history, modernity must resemble a “perfect negative” of the ancient world. The shape that the modern world will take at the end of history will be a perfect “cast” of the statue that was the ancient world, and through it, we will get a proper reference to what has been lost: the sublime experience of Beauty." ~ Michael Michailidis

Experience the transformative power of beauty. Join philosopher Roger Scruton as he investigates the impact of beauty in our modern society.

20/05/2024

Perhaps then our closeness will increase, our lust for destruction will be tamed, and perhaps in that peace, we will gain the confidence to, with great enterprise, bring greater life to a neon polytheism, to greater and more complex nights of euphoria, to more evident poetry in the mundane, and cold beers on a summer sunset." ~ Rodrigo Landazuri

Explore the Millennial Manifesto for an Upcoming World. Discover how visual stimulation has shaped the mentality of the younger generation.

11/05/2024

"Sometimes, people are hampered by a certain intimidation factor when it comes to difficult texts. They feel that they are too uneducated, haven’t read such-and-such books that ought to come before, need the for-dummies introductory version, and need someone to hold their hand while offering them a glass of milk." ~ Dr. Dan Sheffler

Conquer challenging texts with ease. Learn valuable tactics for understanding and engaging with complex written material.

03/05/2024

https://miskatonian.com/2024/05/03/who-wants-it-darker-cohen-and-theodicy/
"The end of the song is simply the beginning. The discussion turns back on itself. We get the first verse repeated. The repetition may be for emphasis or to underline the irresolvable nature of the discussion. We end with the same questions we demand. Do we continue to play the game? Are we broken and lame? Is the glory ours or the shame? Is it even a competition between ourselves and God? Must one win only at the other’s expense? In the end we are left waiting for the help, or the love, or the word that has not yet come. We are here, ready for the world to come, whatever shape it may take." Dr. Bernard Wills

Delve into Leonard Cohen's 'You Want It Darker' and its captivating exploration of the divine-human dialogue and the problem of evil.

03/05/2024

The political landscape of Ancient Greece during the period when Aeschylus penned Prometheus Bound was complex and tumultuous. It was marked by significant social upheaval, intellectual ferment, and the emergence of democratic principles that would eventually shape Western political thought. Aeschyl...

02/05/2024

"Progressive modernity says that reality is a dead thing and that what we do is to project our feelings and notions onto it merely. How thrilling it may seem to become like gods, making good and evil for ourselves. You can be whatever you want to be, and the world can be whatever you make it to be. Start from scratch. Blank-slate your way through existence!" ~ Duncan Reyburn

Discover the thought-provoking insights of Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. Reflect on the human experience and the eternal struggle for unity.

01/05/2024

"If you can read a text breezily, in a reclining position, with a cocktail in one hand, and come away with confident assurance that you have understood every single thing the author has said, then that text is probably not worth your time. It might be good as pure, time-filling entertainment, but you may as well watch daytime reruns of soap operas." ~ Dr. Dan Sheffler

Master the art of reading challenging texts. Expand your intellectual horizons by uncovering the depths of difficult readings.

20/04/2024

"Artificial Intelligence also challenges how we make “art” and what is ultimately considered “art” in the two worlds. We need AI because it will accomplish the minor tasks that we need to move on to the bigger and more sophisticated ones. This also means that we shouldn’t be putting huge effort into the little things that AI can already do in a minute. However, we should also have the mandatory skill sets and practical knowledge of application in case AI breaks down (and it will). We have to understand what exactly digital art is and what place it is in the world of the internet."
~ Joe Nalley

Dive into the world of digital art and explore its profound implications for our understanding of reality and the future of human existence.

19/04/2024

"The importance of Strauss for many in the present is in his exceptional classical scholarship and his recognition that in liberalism lay a deep relativism that would exhaust into permissive nihilism. The collapse of moral norms would divide society which was unified by the force of the law under the social contract. With no more external enemy to threaten liberalism, liberalism’s internal contradictions would prove to be its own worst threat. Without the great external foe, liberal polities would grow politically impotent as society relativized itself and liberal states became impotent to act." Paul Krause

Uncover the truth about Leo Strauss, a prominent political philosopher, and his impact on the study of classical political thought.

09/04/2024

Imagine a scene where the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary, where a fleeting moment captures the essence of beauty, art, and the human experience. This is the invitation to our latest exploration—a deep dive into the heart of what makes the mundane magnificent and how the artist's gaze shapes our understanding of beauty.

Our world rushes past the profound, often missing the magic in the mess of the everyday. Yet, in the silence of the artist's mind, beauty is reborn, transcending the transient to touch the eternal. Rodrigo`s latest piece offers a rare glimpse into the internal workshop where artistry and the quest for meaning collide, revealing how true beauty is not a product of luck but a deliberate act of creation.

Through a mesmerizing narrative, we journey from the city's crowded streets at night to the intimate spaces of artistic creation, discovering how the essence of beauty is cultivated in solitude and expressed in the unity of form and content. It's a unique exploration of the psychological and spiritual undertakings that fuel the creative process, inviting us to reconsider our perceptions of art, beauty, and the artist's role in society.

In an era dominated by social media's immediate gratification and the commodification of creativity, this piece stands as a testament to the sacredness of the creative process. It challenges the prevailing norms, urging both artists and consumers of art to prioritize the journey over the destination, the process over the product.

09/04/2024

https://miskatonian.com/2024/04/09/why-privacy-needs-to-be-held-holy-so-beauty-can-reign-supreme/
"Much has been written and commented on about the quality and influence of each artistic discipline, but not that much about the spiritual and psychological processes the individual must undergo in order to deliver."
Rodrigo Arias Landazuri

Delve into the relationship between privacy and beauty. Discover how private moments can be turned into captivating works of art.

03/04/2024

"The answer, in my opinion, would be that it is a resuscitation of sacred fetishism; since everything in this world, regardless of its category, has an attention stream, fetishism is no exception. Sacred fetishism, in this case, would come to be focused on objects, that is, to give them an added value beyond the object itself but, in addition to that, to take this action (which we all perform at some point) to a level of sacredness." ~ Rodrigo Arias Landazuri

Step into the world of collectors' items and retro gaming. Explore a shop filled with original video games and consoles from the past.

03/04/2024

The Hebrew Bible was written to weld the defeated inhabitants of Judah and Samaria together into a unified people.

03/04/2024

"In the last year and a half, and in contrast with my own experience in Poland as a traveler, a student, and an observer of the political reality in a foreign country, I have realized that Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel, Vicomte de Tocqueville and Ernest Che Guevara belong to the same category of thinkers, despite their many notable differences: both were wandering, politically inclined intellectuals, whose main body of (literary) work was directly inspired by his travels." Ugo Stornaiolo

Dive into the intellectual musings of an avid writer studying the works of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and Alexis de Tocqueville.

29/03/2024

"Stepping in the footsteps of Rousseau, the focus on the “inner sentiment,” the awareness and importance of the inner experience, as a guide for our goals steadily increased. With no stable identity embedded in our transcendental, family, and community life, the fragile remains of modern identity have sanctified the inner experience as our highest virtue: to feel happy is to be successful." Daniel De Liever

Loneliness epidemic: A modern-day crisis? Examine the growing problem of loneliness and its implications in today's society.

20/03/2024

As in Orwell’s Oceania, or the pages of Fahrenheit 451, the world of The Mirror is a surveillance society where the state strives to control thought. Like Bladerunner, there are huge and ugly megalopolises, androids, and people who might be androids. Like Logan’s Run (film version), there is a mysterious and romanticized threshold that must be crossed.

19/03/2024

Every month, our Editorial staff selects the most authentic educational project that significantly contributes to the world of ideas.

This month, Michael Millerman has pleasantly surprised us with a new website design which makes his courses and teaching even more engaging and enjoyable. However, at a point, we thought that could hardly be possible.

We highly recommend that you secure your place on the courses. The ideas Michael teaches are essential for anyone undertaking a severe intellectual expedition.

You can find your courses and read the whole story by visiting the Millerman School on the link below👇
https://millermanschool.com/

18/03/2024

"Where some would notice the transformation of live wood into dead lumber as part of what was needed to make the world more pleasant to live in, for furniture and fire, Hoydel saw only death in that lumber; how he saw changed what he saw. His carpentry had been, for him, an endless reminder of death as he chipped away at that wood. He missed the miracle of life itself. He took and took and became a murderer." Duncan Reyburn

Discover the captivating tale of Hoydel: a story about letting go and finding redemption in the most unexpected places.

14/03/2024

"From the study of highly specific cases of conflict, both past and present, we can establish the facts of what happened as best we can: what were the causes and conditions of each conflict as well as its impact on societies at the time and in the legacy it left (or spoiled) for humanity in the periods that followed? But when it comes to its ends, aside from the violence and destruction it inevitably brings, we should ask ourselves whether there are or could be any universal criteria for when war is justifiable and when it is not." Brian C. Harris

Delve into the ethical teachings of Augustine and Aquinas regarding war and gain valuable insights for our current society.

13/03/2024

Following the classical literature, we could say that liberal education differentiates a free man from a slave (passions). The full understanding of the meaning of liberal education can be found, for example, in the literature of Plato (The Laws and The Republic), Aristotle (Politics), and Xenophon (Education of Cyrus), as stated precisely in a passage found in Plato's Laws: "liberal education is education from childhood in virtue, and which inspires the ardent desire to become a perfect citizen who knows how to govern and how to be governed with justice." Eduardo Hernando Pieto

Unravel the crisis of liberal education and its significance in shaping political philosophy and the challenges of mass democracy.

12/03/2024

Uncover the darkness and promise of metaphysics. Dive into its freeing nature and its future in its own realm.

12/03/2024

"On the other hand, if metaphysics is the discipline of reality itself, then the individual's metaphysical formation will influence his well-being and contribute to weaving the web of metaphysical constructs around him into a focus of authenticity and freedom from the neurotic anxieties of concerted reality. The world will be in free fall, but in that fall, there will be a cascade of possible worlds, personalized cosmologies, and spirituality turned into a gift as an endless spring to quench the existential thirst of the individual."

Rodrigo Arias Landazuri

Uncover the darkness and promise of metaphysics. Dive into its freeing nature and its future in its own realm.

11/03/2024

"This year's big loser in the Oscars was Greta Gerwig's Barbie, a film with deep cultural implications."

Learn about the deep cultural implications of Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, and its association with Sigma cinema.

11/03/2024

"It’s hard to explain what I saw. I love a film that does not follow the cliche of what it’s supposed to do. In the same way, I love a “novel” that tries to be anything but it. You can’t dance while you see Merzbow perform live. But you can rock your head and thrash as if it were metal. Watching Polia & Blastema makes me feel the film is attacking me." Joe Nalley

Discover the enigmatic world of Edmund Elias Merhige's films. Explore the avant-garde nature of Polia & Blastema: A Cosmic Opera.

07/03/2024

"To know what this means, to know what this feels like, to walk into a dark room and, if you’re not stuck in a phase of rolling blackouts as I often am here in South Africa, flick that light switch. Day erupts inside a room, and night is chased into its various corners. The entire environment is altered. McLuhan adopts this as a metaphor for what any and every technology does. You don’t just get what the technology is intended for; you get a whole new world." Duncan Reyburn

A thoughtful look into the philosophical aspects of technological waste and garbage and its impact on human beings.

27/02/2024

Aleksandar Todorovski, the Editor in Chief of the Miskatonian, had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Stephen Hicks and covered topics such as the recent development of disruptive technologies and their impact on education, the business world, and the future of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. Stephen Hicks

Discover how disruptive technologies are reshaping education and the business landscape. An exclusive interview with Professor Stephen R.C. Hicks provides valuable insights.

20/02/2024

“Young people, Goldman points out, must first be educated in the basics and values of our culture before they are introduced to questioning it” Rodrigo Arias Landazuri

Questioning conventional wisdom: Goldman's article explains why the Socratic method can have unintended consequences in contemporary education.