“Kant for Children” out this Month

Imagine if you had produced somewhere in the range of 40 volumes of philosophy books, novels, short stories, and poetry, and yet nobody knew who you were. Up to now, that has been the fate of Salomo Friedlaender. My hope is that the first published English translation of his Kant for Children will begin to move Friedlaender into a spotlight he deserves. Helping me in the task has been a group of distinguished scholars: Paul Mendes-Flohr, Sarah Holtman, Robert Louden, Kate Moran, Krista Thomason, and Jens Timmermann.

New Issue of “Evental Aesthetics”

The journal’s editors inform me that the latest issue is now available for download. The significance of the journal is reinforced as I read through Octavian Esanu’s Mimesis, Expression, Construction, a book that attempts to capture Fredric Jameson’s seminar on Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory.

Capitalism Adopts Transubstantiation

In today’s “Money Stuff” at Bloomberg, Matt Levine describes a way that the wealthy have found to “transmute” interest income into capital gains. Why? Because the tax rate on interest income can be as high as 37%, while tax on capital gains is around 20%.

“We spent seven years figuring out how to do this,” said Wesley Gray, the ex-Marine and chief executive officer of Alpha Architect. “My job is just to deliver all the value I possibly can to my shareholders, within the law.” It’s that last prepositional phrase that ought to give pause. Whenever someone feels the need to add “within in the law,” it often suggests, let’s just loosely say – though we could say it literally –, the fashioning of a Gray area.

Art Economy = Cats

What does it take to get a high price on a painting? The Financial Times tells the story.

Living Small is $600,000?

From a New York Times story about “living small.”

Flying Ashtrays

It’s possible to love Errol Morris, if only for this one line from a recent interview when asked whether he’d be interested in filming a certain Republican 2024 presidential candidate: “I need to make a film to learn this guy is shallow?”

While fun and learned, Morris can also be prickly, evidence for which can be found in a recent interview in the New York Times. It’s no wonder Morris’s grad advisor once threw an ashtray at him.

photo by Bridget Laudien

Should You Pray for Others without Their Consent?

Thanks to Tom Furse and the other editors at the Blog of the Journal of the History of Ideas for publishing my essay about Hans Blumenberg’s view regarding prayer and the need for consent.

Hans Blumenberg’s “Readability of the World”

Thanks to the people at the Los Angeles Review of Books for publishing my review of The Readability of the World.

Remarque-able

Thanks to the workers at Literary Hub for publishing my piece about All Quiet on the Western Front and Salomo Friedlaender.

Quotation of the Day

Until Liz Truss, no one had ever thought to try Larping as a system of government. — John Lanchester, London Review of Books