July 13th, 2024

A Philosophy Professor's Final Class

Richard J. Bernstein, a philosopher known for his energetic teaching style, explored American pragmatism and Hannah Arendt's works in his final classes at the New School for Social Research. Despite health challenges, he continued teaching via Zoom, emphasizing dialogue and intellectual inquiry.

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A Philosophy Professor's Final Class

In his final classes at the New School for Social Research, philosopher Richard J. Bernstein explored American pragmatism and the works of Hannah Arendt, a close friend. Bernstein, known for his energetic teaching style and ability to bridge philosophical traditions, emphasized the importance of engaging with different perspectives. His career was marked by a commitment to dialogue and intellectual inquiry, rather than aligning with specific philosophical camps. Bernstein's seminar on Arendt, conducted via Zoom, delved into her life and writings, prompting discussions on freedom, politics, and social issues. Despite health challenges that landed him in the hospital, Bernstein continued teaching, demonstrating his dedication to his students and the subject matter. His personal connection with Arendt and his contributions to philosophical discourse reflect a lifelong pursuit of understanding complex philosophical concepts and fostering intellectual growth.

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By @erulabs - 4 months
Somewhat related, I fell in love with a pretty obscure philosophy lecturer who uploaded his old Princeton lecture series to YouTube, dr Micheal Segrue. Genuinely the best overview of various philosophers I’ve ever seen. Highly recommended. I left a comment on a video with 4K views and he liked it.

Two weeks later a message was posted on his channel by his daughter that he had passed away.

We need to listen to old folks a bit more than we do. The latest isn’t always the greatest.

By @twoWhlsGud - 4 months
Thanks for posting that - great read. And reading it took me back when I was lucky enough to take Richard Rorty's class (entitled something like Philosopy from Kant to 1900) my freshman year at Princeton. I remember the impact of his lectures about James and pragmaticism - I was a bit of a smart alek - convinced that there was only one right way of looking at the world and I (of course! :) knew what it was. James' Pragmatism and his concept of the cash value of ideas - the idea that you could ask how thinking and believing about the world in some particular way might be valuable to someone (in particular) as a part of measuring its "objective" value (it was a long time ago and I may be not giving a fully accurate report here of what James/Rorty actually said) had a big impact on me.

Rorty left the Philosophy department (for Virginia, I think) pretty soon after that class - due to the kind of disagreement between the analytical philosophers and him rumored to be at the root of the Bernstein/Yale break (Rorty didn't believe that logic was the core of philosophy).

And Rorty was a gifted lecturer with an extremely dry sense of humor. I think I laughed more often in that class than in any other that was to follow.

By @ViktorRay - 4 months
I feel like philosophers were better before social media and the internet.

Nowadays people like this philosopher would have gotten sucked into the time vortex of Twitter, Mastadon, Reddit, etc and wasted their lives away.

But back then they spent all their time in libraries actually reading important stuff. Much better for the brain and intellectual development. Not just the brain development of children but adults too

By @throw0101d - 4 months
By @voisin - 4 months
By @twoslide - 4 months
In addition to a touching personal tribute, this article also illustrates the jobs crisis for PhD graduates. Someone who started his career in the 1950s works into his eighties, teaching from hospital, and dies less than a week after retiring. This is not a good model, and a good argument for mandatory retirement ages.
By @voisin - 4 months
(2023)