Postmodern tragedy is also rooted in Freud: For Freud, the id desires but is blocked and opposed by the superego. The ego negotiates, and finds ways for the id to express itself without violating the standards of the superego. This is reasonable, submission to the reality principle. But it is also tragic, because desires cannot be fulfilled. Civilization requires superego and suppression of id, but civilization is inherently tragic. Read more

Evangelicals these days are positively giddy about worldview. For many, developing a Christian worldview is the answer to all or most of the ills that plague the contemporary church. When I see a bandwagon, however, I tend to wonder why they are heading in that direction, and this contrarian bias set me to wondering about the genealogy and implications of the concept of “worldview.” For starters, there are all the practical questions. Is this concept of “worldview” adequate to deal... Read more

To what extent does Platonism arise out of fear of contaminants, of miasma, of impurity? On Derrida’s reading, Plato dreams of an uncontaminated origin and presence that can never be arrived at or achieved, and he sees every supplement as an unhappy contamination of the purity of the origin. That sounds a lot like a rarefied philosophical version of Pharisaism. Perhaps Porter’s book on Miasma and Greek conceptions of uncleanness would shed some light. One could probably write an entire... Read more

Back to reflections on post-modernism: It seems that Freud, not Nietzsche, is the really grandfather of the movement, though, not unexpectedly, some sons and grandsons efface his memory and resist his influence (not all, of course). Read more