Author: Alan N. Shapiro

  • The Identity and Anxiety of Colonial Dublin in Joyce’s Dubliners, by James Shapiro

    “Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears…” This line from ‘The Sisters,’ the first story in James Joyce’s Dubliners, establishes from the outset a central theme of the collection.

  • Morality in Europe Today

    “Morality in Europe today,” wrote Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil, “is herd animal morality.” On April 22, 2010, there took place an extraordinary creative event in Dusseldorf, Germany – at the KIT (Kunst im Tunnel) art space – called “Morality in Europe Today” (Zeitgenössische Moralvorstellung in Europe).

  • Questioning Steven Hawking’s Scientific Discourse, by Marc Silver and Simon Schaffer

    Most of this text is an interview-conversation between Professor Marc Silver of the University of Modena and Professor Simon Schaffer of Cambridge University that took place in Cambridge, UK in November 1995. It was originally published in Marc Silver’s book Arguing the Case: Language and Play in Argumentation.

  • Claude Lefort, Political Philosopher, by Alan N. Shapiro

    Politics as it is practiced in America is obsolete. It is a simulation of democracy. It seems to have very little to do with democracy any more. How do we get back to (or, more accurately, move forward to) being a real democracy? Here’s my answer: By understanding the lifework of Claude Lefort.

  • Today is a Sacred Day

    As a New York Jets fans, today is a sacred day. An inspiring day in my life was January 12, 1969. Super Bowl III. I was 12 years old. My brother and I watched the game on a small black-and-white TV. We saw the Jets, who were 19 point underdogs, beat the mighty Baltimore Colts.

  • Conference on Quantum Culture in Venice

    After the conference on Digital Culture in Milan, I arrived in Venice. I took the Vaporetto number 2 towards my hotel. I meditated about how I have had enough of conferences about Digital Culture. During this Vaporetto ride, the answer dawns on me: we need to develop the paradigm of Quantum Culture.