Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations hypothesis has attracted both appreciation and criticism. Considered to be a seminal social science work of recent times, Huntington’s theory places international conflicts at the level of civilizations as opposed to smaller identifiers like nation-states, religions, ethnicity, linguistic differences, etc. Huntington reckons that the qualifier of civilization is the broadest…
Category: Philosophy
What role does culture play in Western Marxism?
One of the major contributions of the Frankfurt School is the spawning of critical theory, the term first being coined by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt. One other leading intellectual of the Frankfurt School (which was founded in 1923), is Max Horkheimer. In his 1937 essay titled ‘Traditional and Critical…
My Personal Philosophy in Life
An element of my personal philosophy of life is related to the dynamics of ‘contentment’. Since the whole canon of Western Philosophy is centered on the causes, states and conditions of contentment, it is fair to say that my contribution through this narrative is a minuscule one. Yet, I would like to voice my assessment…
Existential inquiry in ‘Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ by Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce’s short story titled An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is one of the classics of the art form. The story could be read from three different angles. First, the political angle provided by the American Civil War of the 1860s. Second is the cultural angle, whereby the unique flavors of the American South…
Why can Buddhism be considered “psychological”?
Buddhism is a major religion in current times, but its origins goes back thousands of centuries. Having originated in North Eastern India, it had spread far and wide in the Eastern hemisphere, making it a dominant religion in the Asian continent. Buddhism has been in existence even before the rise of Judeo-Christians, making it stand…
How does neo-Marxist or post-Marxist theories of ideology differ from the classical Marxist tradition?
In a recent BBC online poll for finding the greatest thinker of the Millenium, Karl Marx came first. That Marx beat Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking among other leaders in their fields amounts to a big statement of Marx’s relevance in the new millenium. The relevance of the results is magnified when we…
Overview of Orientalism by Edward Said
Orientalism as a geo-political and sociological concept has attracted much controversy. It remains author Edward Said’s definitive work, alongside other titles such a The Question of Palestine and Covering Islam. Orientalism as a scholarly work is the combined study and analysis of Oriental “philology, linguistics, ethnography, and the interpretation of culture through the discovery, recovery,…
Max Weber’s views on bureaucracy
Sociologist and philosopher Max Weber has contributed significantly toward our understanding of social and political institutions’ role in everyday situations. If economists such as John Kenneth Galbraith and, more recently, Joseph Stiglitz have brought clarity to the study of dominant institutions, it was Weber who paved the way for this field of study. Weber’s work…
Is Max Weber’s analysis of the rise of modern society a “debate with the ghost of Karl Marx”?
Intellectuals such as Karl Marx and Max Weber have proposed important theories toward understanding the dynamics of societies. Marx’s ideas in particular have profoundly affected later generations of sociologists, including his compatriot Max Weber. Marx’s achievement lies in attempting to explain social situations and problems from the point of view of economic class of constituent…
How did Humanism affect Christian beliefs during the Renaissance?
Humanism is a school of thought in philosophy that is based upon established and emerging facts about human nature. Humanism, which flourished during the Italian Renaissance is largely secular in its composition, making no references to the unknown and the supernatural. But in the centuries that have gone by, it has been adopted into various…