In the early twentieth century, Uchiyama Gudō, Seno’o Girō, Lin Qiuwu, and others advocated a Buddhism that was radical in two respects. Firstly, they adopted a more or less naturalist stance with respect to Buddhist doctrine and related matters, rejecting karma or other supernatural beliefs. And secondly, they held political and economic vie…[Read more]

“Biopolitics” has become a popular concept for interpreting the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the term is often used vaguely, as a buzzword, and therefore loses its specificity and relevance. This article systematically explains what the biopolitical lens offers for analyzing and normatively criticizing the politics of the coronavirus. I argue that…[Read more]

This mini-essay was published as part of a “dossier” of authors discussing various forms of “queer inhumanisms.” In my piece, I address the relations between queer studies and post/humanist studies through the lens of Michel Foucault’s 1981 interview, “Friendship as a Way of Life.” These relations are tied together in critique but also in various…[Read more]

An article (20 p., PDF) about the claims and reality of traditional spiritual and rational philosophy, how they have set back, damaged, and obstructed improvements of the human condition, and how we can overcome these impediments to a thriving existence and find a new beginning.

Für ein Gespräch über die Themen Political Correctness, Identitätspolitik, Streitkultur und die Rolle der politischen Bildung kamen im Juli 2021 Saba-Nur Cheema von der Bildungsstätte Anne Frank und Dr. Karsten Schubert von der Universität Freiburg in einem Zoom-Raum zusammen. Die Fragen stellten Prof. Dr. Beate Rosenzweig und Petra Barz, beide…[Read more]

Identity politics is subject to similar critiques in contemporary public debate and political theory. A central topos of this critique is that identity politics is essentializing: it fixes subjects to their social position and resorts to a politics of
particularity that leads to divisions in national citizenship and democratic discourse (the…[Read more]

Die Debatte um die politische Differenz stellt Kontingenz und Konfliktualität als fundamentale Eigenschaften des Politischen heraus. Dies birgt ein Problem für die postfundamentalistische Demokratietheorie, die auf Augenhöhe mit dieser Debatte argumentieren will: Durch die Kontingentsetzung aller normativen Begründungen ist zunächst unklar, welc…[Read more]

A down-to-earth exposition of the work by Martin Janello on the Philosophy of Happiness. It introduces the fundamental notions that happiness is of existential importance for individuals and humanity – and that we each have it within our power to improve our lives and make this a better world in the process. It also spells out that our success in…[Read more]

Happiness is a universal human objective. We all want to be happy. But how we define, pursue, and maintain happiness often seems vague and elusive. That is why we need a personal philosophy of happiness.

This presentation lays out the underlying considerations and examines why other avenues of securing happiness are not succeeding. And it…[Read more]