Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was an English philosopher and jurist noted for his contribution to Utilitarian philosophy. Utilitarian philosophy asks basic questions, such as: who are human beings and what motivates their behaviors? Human beings are those animals whose bodies dispose to seek pleasure and avoid pain. If you bring noxious stimuli towards the human body, such as fire (heat), pin (prick) the body automatically moves away from it. The body moves away from whatever causes it pain.  Apparently, the body has a built in mechanism (nervous system) that instinctively knows that pain leads to harm, which leads to death. Pain…

Recently, I revisited Western philosophy. I said revisited for as a school boy I was interested in it and studied it but as an adult have had little to do with it. I revisited it and read some of it to see if it would make sense to me. What I found is that though I could allow myself to get lost reading Western philosophical categories when I put a little distance between what I read and think about it I see no use for it. Honestly, I do not see the utility of much of Western philosophy. To me,…

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a Russian Jew turned American popular philosopher. She wrote novels and later founded a movement that she called objectivists hence qualifies as either a philosopher or a religious fanatic or an insane cult leader.  This woman fled Russian communism and came to America. She believed that she saw freedom in America. Everything America, to her, seemed honky-dory, the action of free men. She set out to preach pro-Americanism, the America of her fantasy, not the real America. In real America African-Americas are relegated to second class citizenship but to her that America is heaven on earth.…

Hanna Arendt (1906-1975) was a German Jewish political philosopher. Arendt was primarily interested in the nature of power and freedom and her work would seem to fall under the rubric of political science rather than philosophy. In The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) she seemed to argue that Stalin’s totalitarianism and Hitler totalitarianism have similar roots. She saw both systems rooted in imperialism and anti Semitism. (As a Jew, she saw the world from the prism of her Jewish interests hence she could say such outrageous thing that Russian communism was rooted in anti Semitism; Trotsky, one of the leaders of…

Jurgen Habermas (1929- ) was born in Germany. He is noted for his critical theory or should we say criticism of liberalism. Habermas is a college professor and does what college professors are supposed to do: teach extant knowledge and criticize them and seem to be saying something important but from a distance are saying nothing; they are not contributing new ideas to intellectual discourse. Haberman seems to be trying to show that human beings, that is, Western human beings are rational beings after all and are capable of rational communication with one another and are capable of constructing rational…

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British mathematician and Philosopher. He wrote books on both subjects, books that were well received by the public, including his Principia Mathematica and A History of Western Philosophy. In both books he summarized what was known in the field, sort of textbook fashion, and many students and lay folk benefitted from his writing. In philosophy Russell considered himself an analytical philosopher. Whatever that is, what is evident is that he insisted on a philosophy that gave rise to what latter was called logical positivism, the emphasis on that which is verifiable and also influenced Karl…

Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existential philosopher.  It is difficult to know exactly what Sartre meant by existentialism. His book, Being and Nothingness would seem to explicate the nature of existentialism but made matters worse. Like Heidegger his philosophical writing is difficult to understand (his novels such as No Exit, Nausea etc are easier to understand. I am not sure that Sartre himself knew what he was writing about. I am not sure that he knew what existentialism means. Saying that Existence precedes essence means nothing, it is just a play of words. Instead of worrying about what…

Herbert Marcuse (1878-1979) was a German Jewish sociologist and philosopher. He was a Marxist and wrote what was calculated to appeal to those on the left of the political spectrum. His major works are One Dimensional Man and Eros and Civilization. Basically, Marcuse wrote critiques of the capitalist economy from the perspective of Marxism. This critical approach to the West appealed to the 1960s and 1970s generation and Marcuse was an idol for that generation. He was a campus guru of sorts, invited by many students and colleges to give talks, lectures. These talks were leftist in nature and appealed…

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) was a German philosopher. Heidegger’s fame rests on his book, Being and Time. In it he introduced the concept of Desein.  Heidegger argues that philosophy addresses its self to superfluous issues and forgets to address itself to the real issue that human beings want addressed. People ask: what is being? Building on the philosopher Edmund Husserl, Heidegger argues that philosophy ought to concern itself with actual human beings experience of life on earth. This leads to phenomenological approach to people. In effect, Heidegger criticized philosophy’s tendency to seek abstract answers while not concerning itself with actual human beings…