Peter E. Gordon

Never Again, Once Again

Invoking the memory of Jewish persecution to denounce the assault on immigrants today is not an offense but a moral imperative. 

Secular Priests

In its efforts to define religion, modern sociology has also sought to define itself.

Music and Memory

After the Holocaust, classical composers explored music’s capacity to commemorate historical trauma without permitting horrific events to take on the allure of facile beauty.

In Search of Recognition

The philosopher Axel Honneth argues that the act of recognizing one another forms the scaffolding of our personal and social world.

Max Weber’s Agon

Max the Fatalist

Why Historical Analogy Matters

A past that is utterly different is more than merely past; it has no claim on my knowledge and it might as well blink out of existence altogether. This is more than merely a matter of logic; it has political consequences.

Adorno’s Utopian Promise, 50 Years On

Too often, the various heroes of Continental philosophy are invoked as talismans for some undifferentiated thing called “Theory,” alongside other avatars such as Nietzsche and Foucault, Derrida and Heidegger, as if they were all authorities belonging to a catechism beyond criticism or questioning. Can Adorno be redeemed from this fate?

Kierkegaard’s Rebellion

The bicentennial of Kierkegaard’s birth in 1813 has brought him surging back into view

Heidegger & the Gas Chambers

Heidegger in Black

Heidegger was one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era. He was also a convinced Nazi.