Existential Comics

24 May 2021 18:30

Socrates Through Time - Existential Comics

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17 May 2021 18:30

Kierkegaard Goes to Therapy - Existential Comics

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10 May 2021 18:30

Sartrean Freedom - Existential Comics

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03 May 2021 18:30

"Also, wasn't Western Civilization already destroyed by Elvis Presley's gyrating hips?"

Existential Comics

26 Apr 2021 18:30

"But Dumbledore, how does that make us the good guys?"
"Don't you know anything, Harry? The good guys are the ones to preserve the oligarchic status quo."

Existential Comics

19 Apr 2021 18:30

This is actually why there was a ministry of silly walks in Monty Python, because they live in an alternate universe where Hobbes's theory of Leviathan became the dominant political text of the 20th century.

Existential Comics

12 Apr 2021 18:30

Also has anyone tried running really fast away from capitalists and getting them to chase you over a cliff? Could work.

Existential Comics

05 Apr 2021 18:30

"But what really does it mean to be the best? It fuckin' rules, that's what it means."

Existential Comics

29 Mar 2021 18:30

Of course Hobbes was named after Thomas Hobbes, but Bill Watterson was too much of an intellectual coward to have the majority of the comics be based around the Leviathan.

Existential Comics

22 Mar 2021 18:30

"Actually Wittgenstein there is a clear difference, enchiladas have sauce on top and are eaten with a fork."
"Ahhh, well, nonetheless though..."

Existential Comics

15 Mar 2021 18:30

"See this is why the ideal republic has a horde of simpletons, who we lie to and they do all the hard work for us."

Existential Comics

08 Mar 2021 18:30

to be fair looking at stuff and writing down what you see is a pain in the ass

Existential Comics

01 Mar 2021 18:30

Karl Marx's concept of commodity fetishism (fetish here meaning "to imbue with mystical properties", it has nothing to do with sexual fetishes), goods sold in the marketplace under capitalism obscure the relationship between workers who create them for their use value. Despite believing that communism would ultimately do away with marketplaces, Marx actually loved the ideal of the marketplace as described by capitalist economists, wherein workers produce various things that are useful to other people and exchange them using money as a mediator, organically organizing labor for everyone's benefit. In theory, the baker would produce bread for everyone and the carpenter would build things, and the amount of labor put in would indicate the price of the good (this is called the labor theory of value, which he got from Adam Smith). For example, if people noticed that carpenters were making twice as much money as bakers, more people would become carpenters, diluting the market and eventually the amount of labor and money earned would equalize over time (it turns out some prices can't be explained this way, but it does explain a lot). The problem was, this marketplace doesn't exist, because there is a third person: the capitalist. Not only that, but he owns and controls everyone's labor. So commodities actually end up not being produced for use by other people at all and exchanged in a fair marketplace, they are produced solely for the capitalist's profit, and this only loosely corresponds to the wants and desires of the consumers. For example, supermarkets will throw away food that is expired, and actively guard the discarded food to prevent people from eating it (we saw this just recently in Portland during a Blizzard, where the police were preventing people from "looting" food that had been thrown away). This is completely irrational behavior, because the entire purpose of growing food was for human consumption. So why do they do it? Because it is "rational" for maximizing their profits: it keeps the price higher for the goods on the shelf (it's also irrational to want higher prices, rationally we should all want cheaper goods, but again the capitalist's interest is directly against that of society here). The market is distorted, and the goods themselves become distorted because capitalists (and even consumers in the end) only see the goods as having exchange value, in other words, I can exchange 80 oranges for 1 chair. Lost in all this, however, is why the oranges and chairs were produced to begin with. The capitalists themselves don't even care why they were produced, they only care if they will turn a profit, so the goods and services become mere abstractions to them. In this way, the rational market, which organizes specialized labor in a way to exchange it for other specialized labor to satisfy all of our needs can never, and will never exist under capitalism. At least according to Marx.

Existential Comics

01 Mar 2021 18:30

Communism Store - Existential Comics

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22 Feb 2021 19:30

Utopian theories only have one small problem, which is that no one ever wants to live there.

Existential Comics

17 May 2021 18:30

"I'll give you some techniques to use whenever you are having thoughts about gnawing void at the heart of our existence."

Existential Comics

10 May 2021 18:30

"But I could have equally thought it was great. Fifty fifty really."

Existential Comics

03 May 2021 18:30

A lot of right wing people have this strange idea that "postmodernism" is destroying, or possible has already destroyed, Western Civilization™. They seem to define postmodernism as a kind of relativity where "everything is as true as everything else", and has infected every school and institution. This is quite clearly divorced from reality in several important ways:
1. postmodernism has a minor influence on American intellectual and cultural institution, at best.
2. no one in history, postmodern theorists included, has believed that "everything is as true as everything else".
3. perhaps most importantly, postmodern theorists thought "postmodernism" was bad. They weren't advocating for it!
Jean François Lyotard, who coined the term, saw a broad movement in the culture where the majority of the intellectuals and the population at large no longer believed in "grand metanarratives". That is to say, people no longer believed that history was moving towards one great goal for all of humanity, whether that was a sort of scientific and philosophical enlightenment offered up by Hegel, or something like communism. Instead, the goals of society were becoming increasingly fractured, and even the production of knowledge itself was becoming fractured. Many scientific theories were becoming increasingly specialized and focused on industry, and becoming incommensurable with other theories (that is to say scientists in one specialty couldn't even communicate or translate their theories into a language that could be understood by other specialists).
If you are interested in understand what Lyotard actually believed, rather than what right wing conspiracy theorists claim, you can read The Postmodern Condition. Nah, I'm just kidding, don't read it. He is a terrible writer and it's extremely difficult to read. The best way to understand it is to have an extremely french woman read it for you and explain it to you.

Existential Comics

03 May 2021 18:30

A Postmodern Villain - Existential Comics

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26 Apr 2021 18:30

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Question - Existential Comics

Existential Comics

19 Apr 2021 18:30

Hobbes, Locke, and Very Silly Hats - Existential Comics

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12 Apr 2021 18:30

Communist Brainstorming - Existential Comics

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05 Apr 2021 18:30

Philosophy at the Olympics - Existential Comics

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29 Mar 2021 18:30

Calvin and Thomas Hobbes - Existential Comics

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22 Mar 2021 18:30

The History of Philosophy From the Perspective of Chicken Enchiladas - Existential Comics

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15 Mar 2021 18:30

Philosophers Rebuild Society - Existential Comics

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08 Mar 2021 18:30

Galileo and the Empirical Technique - Existential Comics

Existential Comics

01 Mar 2021 18:30

The collapse of the Soviet Union: explained.

Existential Comics

22 Feb 2021 19:30

Thomas More's Utopia describes his vision of a fictional land that represents the ideal way to organize a society for him. While there were many shocking ideas for the time, like the complete elimination of private property, and democratic rule, which seem to benefit everyone, he couldn't help doing what most Utopian visionaries do as well: imagining that everyone lives drab, moralizing lives. He
thought there wouldn't be any ale-houses, fashion, or really any form of vice at all, and people would be perfectly content to spend their time reading philosophy (what is it with philosophers who think the ideal life for everyone is reading philosophy? Have you considered that maybe that's just what you like to do?) Even stranger, slaves were still a large part of the society. Although he
envisioned very human criminal justice reforms (at the time thieves could be put to death, a position he argues against), you could still be sentenced to slavery for crimes. Even weirder, he said that people from foreign lands would volunteer to be slaves in Utopia, because it was so great there. Seems unlikely.

Existential Comics

22 Feb 2021 19:30

Thomas More's Utopia - Existential Comics