Philosophical Notes to My Friends (Essay Series)

Essays, Prose. In a series of twenty-two thought-provoking notes, or short essays, John Elias presents an original interpretation and analysis of the philosophical crisis of modernity. The book engages a range of themes, from political correctness to debates about the Western canon, from God to meta-narratives such as Christianity, Marxism and Psychoanalysis, from pluralism to deconstruction to the role of the intellectual in contemporary life. Elias' writings encounter Derrida, Sartre, Habermas, Althusser, Hegel, Foucault, Marx, and Nietzche, among other writers, and use explorations of their works as springboards for an eminently humane, humanly inquisitive philosophical essay: these writings embody the idea of essay as attempt. John Elias is originally from Portugal and currently teaches philosophy and humanities in Toronto.