Chris Horner teaches, studies and writes about philosophy and many other things. He is the co-uthor (with Emrys Westacott) of the CUP book ‘Thinking Through Philosophy’. He has studied at the University of Sheffield, University of East Anglia, Goldsmiths and Roehampton University and has a PhD, the subject of which was Hannah Arendt and Kant’s Theory of Reflective Judgment. He has a strong interest in politics, history, literature, the visual arts and music. He is a keen landscape photographer. Email: chris.horner2 [at] btinternet.com
by Christopher Horner Here’s an imaginary conversation, based on real ones that I’ve heard or taken part in. The names I use mainly relate to the USA and UK, but the points apply more widely than that. All these mugs voting for Trump, or Reform, Le Pen and so on. They either don’t know the…
by Christopher Horner Existentialism was my introduction to the world of philosophy. I was first drawn in by its core idea, that individuals forge their own identities through their actions and, through the values they embrace. This notion held appeal for a young man searching for identity beyond family ties, a philosophy both romantic and…
by Christopher Horner Appearances can change. This can be because the thing you are viewing has changed, or because you have moved, so what was there anyway now looks different. In a ‘parallax shift’ an object’s position appears to change when viewed from a new vantage point. This latter is what is happening in the…
by Chris Horner What does it mean to live a Good Life in the secular west? Good can mean more than one thing, of course: apart from moral good – doing the right or ‘good’ thing, there is the idea of ‘good’ as flourishing, being happy, fulfilled. The latter matters to us a lot, judging…
by Chris Horner In daily life we generally get by without invoking explicit moral positions or judgements. This is because, for the most part, the norms and taboos of the quotidian life are just embedded in what we do or say. This isn’t to say we all adhere to them all the time – far…
by Christopher Horner Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last – Dr. Johnson. Where are the authors of yesterday? And where will today’s be tomorrow? Look for some principle of sorting, some logic to the winnowing process that consigns this to the bin and that to perpetual presence. You won’t find it. I wish…
by Christopher Horner In daily life we get along okay without what we call thinking. Indeed, most of the time we do our daily round without anything coming to our conscious mind – muscle memory and routines get us through the morning rituals of washing and making coffee. And when we do need to bring…
by Chris Horner Things we don’t want to know that we know. Donald Rumsfeld’s famous distinctions between knowledge and ignorance: [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are…
by Christopher Horner Insist on your self; never imitate. —Emerson How can a man of consciousness have the slightest respect for himself? —Dostoevsky The key promise of the modern world was the freedom of the individual. It was the motivating cry of the great revolutions of the modern age, meaning two things, at least: first,…
by Christopher Horner Become That which You Are —Nietzsche. What is it to lead a free life? Perhaps it is doing what we want with the minimum of external constraints, so we can follow our desires. Also to be free from anything within us that would prevent us from choosing wisely and acting effectively. I…
by Christopher Horner Immediacy itself is essentially mediated —Hegel Look at that desk in front of you right here, now. Isn’t it just there, a bare existence, a simple immediate thing right in front of you? The senses register its presence. This, at least, is a bare fact that you know. But look again at…
by Chris Horner Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death —Wittgenstein The anaesthetic from which none come round —Phillip Larkin What can we do with the thought of death? Nothing can be done about death: you, me, everyone will die. Thinking can’t remove the fact. But the thought…
by Chris Horner Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason… —Keats. To become mature is to have regained the seriousness one had as a child at play. —Nietzsche Why do we want to know ourselves? Self knowledge seems like…
by Chris Horner You can’t always get what you want But if you try sometime you might find You get what you need —Jagger/Richard Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. —Robert Frost Life can be full of obstacles to getting what we want. But sometimes we get it, we get…
by Christopher Horner Why do we value art? I am going to suggest that a large part of the answer is to do with its unique power to disclose and convey areas of our lives unavailable to us though other means. Art, on this account, is a kind of communication, and kind of act: something…
by Chris Horner Imagine you are put in regular close contact with someone who regularly makes your life difficult. This could be at work, or a flat share, anything. They leave you to finish the chores they start, invade your space, and generally act in an inconsiderate way. You’d like to put some space between…
by Chris Horner if often he was wrong and, at times, absurd, to us he is no more a person now but a whole climate of opinion under whom we conduct our different lives —W. H. Auden ‘In memory of Sigmund Freud’ Undead Freud and psychoanalysis seem to be in a state resembling Schrodinger’s famous…
by Chris Horner What should we look for in literature? And in the arts and humanities in general? It’s a large question with many answers, some better than others: entertainment, edification, elevation – and much more. A more limited question might be: what is the point of studying it? Let’s stick with literature as our…
by Chris Horner The general terms ‘true’ and ‘good’ or ‘wisdom’ and ‘virtue’, with which stoicism is stuck, are on the whole undeniably uplifting, but because they cannot in fact end up in any kind of expansion of content, they quickly start to become tiresome. —Hegel [1] Stoicism seems to be everywhere at the moment,…
by Chris Horner The illusion of rational autonomy The world is full of people who think that they think for themselves. Free thinkers and sceptics, they imagine themselves as emancipated from imprisoning beliefs. Yet most of what they, and you, know comes not from direct experience or through figuring it out for oneself, but from…