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The Tricky Thing With Humanism, This Book Implies, Is Humans

Jennifer Szalai The New York Times
Sarah Bakewell’s sweeping new survey of the philosophical tradition, “Humanly Possible,” says that putting your faith in human behavior means confronting complacency and nihilism — but it can be worth it.

The Joy of the South: We Were Not Born To Suffer

Javier Tolcachier Pressenza
We were not born to suffer, neither Argentines, nor French, nor any other human being on this earth. We were born precisely for the opposite, to free ourselves increasingly from all pain and suffering by humanising the world, which should be the central goal of our existence.

How Philip K. Dick Redefined What it Means to Be (In)Human

James Burton The Conversation
No being – whether mammal, robot, computer, bird, slug, stone, or star – that is excluded from the category of humanity on the basis of its physical nature. Conversely, each and any being may qualify as human by demonstrating empathy for other beings.

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Can Science Justify Itself?

Ada Palmer Harvard Magazine
At a time when the attack on reason as such is the stuff of everyday news, Steven Pinker reminds us of an important aspect of our society's intellectual legacy.

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Franz Kafka: In His Times and Ours

Alan Wald Against the Current #188
For the author of the work under review--much heralded by the reviewer--Czech novelist Franz Kafka was no chronic pessimist or dour, fatalistic misbeliever in human emancipation, but a consistent partisan artist siding with the humiliated.

Sanitizing Socialism and Needing to Create a New Kind of Capitalism With a Conscience!

Beth Lamont Portside
Socialism can mean what we citizens wish for it to mean, by exercising our People Power! Hooray for Bernie Sanders! His vision and his rousing passion for the plight of the people is the greatest remedy for the painful ills of humankind that fear and greed have brought us. I warily approve of Hillary Clinton and would want for her "negotiating experience" to prevail. I've been joking for some time now about him teaching her, and teaming up. This would be powerful.
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