Author: Stephen J. Gallagher
Stephen J. Gallagher is an essayist who lives and works in North Carolina. His work has appeared in Free Inquiry, The Humanist, American Atheist, and the Journal of Philosophy. An accomplished playwright, his plays have been performed in Boston, Raleigh, and New York City.
The Manic Triumphalism of Richard Rorty
Some philosophers are not safe to approach until one is quite certain they are dead. American neo-pragmatist Richard Rorty is one of them; like Jacob Marley, he is most assuredly and unequivocally dead. Five years in his grave and the man has lost little of his power to intimidate. The sheer breadth of Rorty’s oeuvre, …
Plato’s Ancient Error Leads to Modern Tragedy
This was it: graduation day. Comet Hale-Bopp was 122 million miles away, the closest it would ever come to Earth. The people inside the house began executing “The Routine,” a well-rehearsed s et of instructions detailing how team members would help each other wash down barbiturate-laced applesauce with vodka. Despite the work in front of …
Absurdism Is a Type of Humanism
Jean-Paul Sartre was not a tranquil personality. When he found himself disagreeing with other intellectuals of his time—which was often—his first instinct was to dash off an amphetamine fueled essay in defense of his position. One such essay, “Existentialism Is a Humanism,” was written in 1946 during one of his attempts to unseat Martin Heidegger …
Against Tolerance
A few years ago, the word tolerance was out of fashion. It reeked of musty antiquity, reminiscent of the days before 1968. Yet today, tolerance enjoys new life in rhetoric regarding American attitudes toward Islam and Euro pean attitudes toward recent immigrants. What prompted this renaissance? After September 11, “tolerance” was supposed to pour healing …