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Nietzsche, Shakespeare, etc.

Newsletter on Philosophy & Literature
The newsletter (known as Phlit) is released every 2-8 weeks. Click here for the latest issues.

Everything Is Connected
I spoke recently to a woman who, with her boyfriend’s help, had built a house with her own hands. Neither of them had ever built a house before, and neither of them had much carpentry experience. It was to be a small, simple house, but for them, it was a big project. Continue

From Conversations With Great Thinkers:
The Philosophy of Today is both a religion and a philosophy; it satisfies both spiritual needs and intellectual demands. It has given up on traditional religion, monotheistic religion. It doesn’t believe in a Creator God, a Ruling God, a Judging God. But it also is wary of atheism because it believes that the universe is suffused with energy, power, mystery, even a kind of consciousness. Continue
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Reader Reactions to Conversations With Great Thinkers:
Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of Int’l Relations, U. of Pennsylvania: “A unique and fascinating book, a rare modern example of philosophy the way it was written before professionalization.”

Dong Leshan, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: “I read the book at one breath, and liked it very much. Every chapter contains flashes of wisdom. It’s the product of wide reading and deep thinking.”
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Dispute With Analytic Philosophers
In September, 1994, I began using the Internet. I joined a group called PHILOSOP, which described itself as a “Philosophy Discussion Forum.” Most of the members of the group were philosophy professors. After I had been in PHILOSOP a few days, I posted the following message:  Continue

Philosophy Talks on YouTube
Click here for a series of videos on the Philosophy of Today.

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See what others have said about this website. Send your own feedback. Continue

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Decadence and Renaissance
(Chapter 14 of Conversations With Great Thinkers)

Seven Theses

1. Organisms have life- and death-instincts.

2. Society is an organism.

3. Society has life- and death-instincts.

4. When the life-instinct is predominant in a society, the result is a renaissance-type society; when the death-instinct is predominant in a society, the result is a decadent society.

5. When the death-instinct in a society reaches an extreme, it turns into its opposite, the life-instinct.

6. Decadence, or the death-instinct, has now reached an extreme in most Western societies.

7. The death-instinct, having reached an extreme in most Western societies, will now turn into its opposite, the life-instinct. Thus, most Western societies are at the start of a renaissance. Continue

Travels & Memoirs
A Connecticut Yankee in the Land of the Dragon
Ten Days in France
Two Weeks in England
Two Weeks in Italy
Two Weeks in Prague & Germany
Summer on Nantucket
Nantucket Notes
Yafei
Dad
My Youth in China, by Yafei Hu and L. James Hammond
A Baby From China
Caribbean Notes
A Week in Saint Martin
A Caribbean Cruise
The Inca Trail
When I Was A Girl: The Memoirs of Louisa Ashley Hammond, 1831-1912
Trail Notes

History & Current Events
Ukraine
Donald Trump: A Dialogue
Biden
Greeks & Romans
9/11
Jihad Philosophy: Qutb & Shariati
Who Shot John F. Kennedy?
Chappaquiddick
Leo Strauss and George W. Bush
The Weekly Standard

Social Media
I don’t Tweet, but I post pictures on Facebook, and I have a Patreon account.

A Philosopher’s Notebook: Quotations and Commentary
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. --Emerson

Proust Passages from Proust, arranged by subject

Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher, best known for his Essays

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), emperor of France; these selections are from books on Napoleon

Ortega José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), Spanish philosopher, best known for his Revolt of the Masses

Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American philosopher, best known as the author of Walden

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