Category: Discourse

Discourse Michel Foucault Philosophy

Interview with James I. Porter: Nietzsche, Foucault, & Classical Studies

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

My interview with Prof. James Porter started with a discussion about his concerns with clarity and the importance of maintaining a connection between language and life. Then I asked him Porter about how his interest in Nietzsche began and about his interpretation of Nietzsche’s concept of the Dionysian, which relates to metaphysics and an awareness of the desires underlying our metaphysical projects. We discussed how the unity of authorial voice or identity (e.g., in the…

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Discourse General Psychology philosophy of science

What Is Science? Science versus Scientism

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

The 2018 volume, On Hijacking Science, edited by Edwin E. Gantt and Richard N. Williams, provides a good starting point in thinking about general questions about science, e.g., What is science? What are the differences, if any, between science and scientism? Why are there tensions between a scientific (scientistic) worldview and those grounded in older cultural traditions, such as religions? In this post I will only draw on three passages taken from the editors’ introductory…

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Culture Discourse

On Atheism

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Most discourse about atheism that I have heard comes from within a theistic paradigm. And a theistic paradigm that hasn’t yet engaged with atheism is incapable of understanding it. Think of the typical, impulsive set of questions that are raised when someone encounters atheism for the first time: So, what is the point of living [without God]? What is the meaning of life [without God]? Why be moral [without God]? These impulsive and defensive questions…

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Discourse Psychoanalysis Repetition

Repeating, Remembering, & Working Through

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

The title of this post is a slightly altered version of an essay title by Sigmund Freud, “Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through,” in which he briefly describes the development and the task of analysis. With regard to development, he writes about replacing the method of hypnosis with more appropriate methods, including free association and dream interpretation. With regard to the task, Freud describes the process of working through transference. Working through transference is essentially working…

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Discourse Memory

Learning with Grief, Learning with Joan Didion

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Sometimes after recording a video I end up feeling I completely failed to say the most important parts of what I had planned. How could the very parts that motivated the video in the first place slip through my fingers? And how could I let that happen? Why didn’t I re-take the video? What I have in mind isn’t just about forgetting to say something, although that can also happen. But sometimes I say something…

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