Tag Archives: Arendt

Surviving the Age of Gloom

Reflections on Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, Trumpism and the War in Ukraine

The post-truth zeitgeist relentlessly haunts us as meaning becomes ever more detached from representation, as signs now refer not to conceptually settled ‘signified’ meanings but only to other signs, vanishing in an endless chain of time-worn signifiers devoid of inherent intelligibility. Such languishing fragmentation profoundly weakens the unity of signs and their capacity to anchor […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2024). Surviving the Age of Gloom: Reflections on Hannah Arendt, Totalitarianism, Trumpism and the War in Ukraine. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/surviving-the-age-of-gloom/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Call for Papers: Eichmann in Jerusalem at 60

Open Philosophy (www.degruyter.com/view/j/opphil) invites submissions for a topical issue on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, edited by Trip McCrossin (Rutgers University, United States). Hannah Arendt’s report on the 1961-62 trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann for crimes against humanity appeared in […]

Amazing Grace

Jesus Meets Karl Marx in the Trenches of the Culture Wars

(Photo via Midwestern Marx) The purpose of this article is to outline very briefly some of the positions held by the Mexican theologian Jose Porfirio Miranda, regarding his provocative claims about Christianity and communism. I will concede at the outset that I have been persuaded by Miranda’s general thesis that the worst thing that could […]

Full Citation Information:
McLaren, P. (2023). Amazing Grace: Jesus Meets Karl Marx in the Trenches of the Culture Wars. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/amazing-grace/

Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren is Emeritus Professor at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. From 2013-2023 he served as Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Co-Director and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice, The Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University, USA.

Article Feature Image Acknowledgement: Photo via via Midwestern Marx (https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/christianity-marxism-and-the-death-of-reason-in-the-ancient-world-by-thomas-riggins)

Philosophical Journalism in Fragments

Learning from Arendt

[This is an experiment that takes a series of related tweets (in italics) and amplifies them through a series of fragments from the scholarly literature … and philosophical journalism. N.B. Twitter can be used to think philosophically! (Ed.)] I. There is room and a need for academic or philosophical journalism that records and reflects on […]

Full Citation Information:
Peters, M. A. (2022). Philosophical Journalism in Fragments: Learning from Arendt. PESA Agora. https://pesaagora.com/columns/philosophical-journalism-in-fragments/

Michael A. Peters

Michael A. Peters (FRSNZ, FHSNZ, FPESA) is a globally recognised scholar whose interdisciplinary work spans philosophy of education, political economy and ecological civilisation. He holds the distinction of Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.), Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University (P.R. China), and Research Associate in the Philosophy Program at Waikato University (New Zealand).

Previously, he served as Distinguished Professor of Education at Beijing Normal University (2018–2024) and held prestigious appointments including Personal Chair at the University of Auckland (2000), Research Chair at the University of Glasgow (2000–2006), Excellence Hire Professor at the University of Illinois (2005–2011), and Professor of Education at the University of Waikato (2011–2018).

A prolific author, Professor Peters has written over 120 books and 500 articles, shaping discourse in educational theory, philosophy, and critical policy studies. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Educational Philosophy and Theory for 25 years and founded multiple international journals, cementing his role as a leader in academic publishing.

His contributions have been honoured with fellowships in the Royal Society of New Zealand (FRSNZ, 2008) and the Humanities Society of New Zealand (FHSNZ, 2006), alongside honorary doctorates from State University of New York (SUNY, 2012) and the University of Aalborg (2015).

His latest research explores post-apocalyptic philosophy and ecological futures, including the forthcoming Civilisational Collapse and the Philosophy of Post-Apocalyptic Survival (Peter Lang, 2025). He is currently editing the Handbook of Ecological Civilization (Springer, 2025), advancing critical dialogues on sustainability and global transformation.

For more on his work, visit: https://michaeladrianpeters.com/

The mainstreaming of totalitarianism

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world, the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true.… The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that … one could make people believe the most fantastic statements […]

Eric J. Weiner

Eric J. Weiner is an Associate Professor in the department of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University, New Jersey, U.S.A. He writes about a range of issues from the perspectives of critical pedagogy, semiotics, aesthetics, sociolinguistics, and sociological theory. His work focuses on the intersection of meaning and power in everyday life. Recent books include: Deschooling the Imagination: Critical Thought as Social Practice (2015, Routledge); The Theater of Educational Possibility: Where Teachers Learn How to Think Critically and Act Creatively (2012 Peter Lang); Private Learning, Public Needs: The Neoliberal Assault on Democratic Education (2005 Peter Lang Publishers).

 

 

Article Feature Image Acknowledgement: Photo by Jørgen Håland on Unsplash

“Me and Socrates, we are tight friends”

Co-constructing a polis of teachers and philosophers of education

Cara E. Furman with Christine Sparkes
book lot on black wooden shelf

Cara E. Furmana with Christine Sparkes (Public School Teacher) aUniversity of Maine at Farmington, ME, USA   Abstract It is an educational truism that reflection helps teachers to be more effective and ethical. Building on John Dewey’s assertion that we learn by doing and reflecting, and Hannah Arendt’s that reflection is strengthened through discourse among […]

Full Citation Information:
Furman, C. E. (2021). “Me and Socrates, we are tight friends”: Co-constructing a polis of teachers and philosophers of education. ACCESS: Contemporary Issues in Education, 41(1), 36-51. https://doi.org/10.46786/ac21.8287
Article Feature Image Acknowledgement: Photo by Giammarco on Unsplash