From Plato to Postmodernism
Greg Johnson
San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2019
220 pages
About From Plato to Postmodernism
Greg Johnson’s From Plato to Postmodernism collects essays and lectures on philosophical, political, and cultural themes in Plato, Aristotle, Vico, Rousseau, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Yeats, Husserl, Heidegger, Jünger, Cassirer, Camus, and Kojève. Written in a lucid and lively style and illustrated with examples from ordinary life and popular culture, these essays and lectures are ideal introductions to some of the most profound and influential thinkers of the West.
Praise for From Plato to Postmodernism
“I wish I had read Greg Johnson’s From Plato to Postmodernism when I was in college. True to its title, it takes the reader on a journey from Plato’s Republic to the postmodern ‘end of history,’ with a focus on themes from philosophical psychology, political philosophy, and the philosophy of history. This book is especially useful to today’s Rightists, who often fail to get beyond modern nihilism because they owe too much to it. Greg Johnson is our Dr. Johnson, only better.”
—James O’Meara, author of Magick for Housewives
“The essays in From Plato to Postmodernism will at once provide something of a liberal education for their readers and reveal the philosophical depth of the struggle in defense of Europe’s sons and their civilization—a struggle in which Dr. Johnson occupies an important place. This is my favorite Greg Johnson book so far.”
—F. Roger Devlin, author of Alexandre Kojève & the Outcome of Modern Thought
Contents
Foreword – iii
1. Introduction to Plato’s Republic – 1
2. The Myths of Plato – 25
3. Introduction to Aristotle’s Politics – 42
4. Our Marx, Only Better: Vico & the New Right – 68
5. Rousseau as Conservative – 83
6. Notes on Philosophical Dialectic – 97
7. Why Read Hegel? – 116
8. A Hole in Being: Notes on Negativity – 129
9. Notes on Nihilism – 133
10. Yeats’ Pagan Second Coming – 142
11. A Leveling Wind: Reading Camus’ The Stranger – 147
12. Alexandre Kojève & the End of History – 152
13. Postmodernism, Hedonism, & Death – 169
14. The Beginning & the End of History – 173
15. A Little Death: Hegelian Reflections on Piercing & Tattoos – 178
16. Postmodernism vs. Identity – 181
17. Why We Meet as We Do: Thoughts on Liberal Education – 193
Index – 201
About the Author
Greg Johnson, Ph.D., is Editor-in-Chief of Counter-Currents Publishing Ltd. and Editor of North American New Right, its webzine (https://counter-currents.com/) and occasional print journal.
He is the author of ten other books: Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2010; second, expanded ed., 2016); New Right vs. Old Right (Counter-Currents, 2013); Truth, Justice, & a Nice White Country (Counter-Currents, 2015); In Defense of Prejudice (Counter-Currents, 2017); You Asked for It: Selected Interviews, vol. 1 (Counter-Currents, 2017); The White Nationalist Manifesto (Counter-Currents, 2018); and Toward a New Nationalism (Counter-Currents, 2019).
Under the pen name Trevor Lynch, he has published Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies (Counter-Currents, 2012), Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies (Counter-Currents, 2015), and Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies (Counter-Currents, 2019).
He has also edited many books, including North American New Right, vol. 1 (Counter-Currents, 2012); North American New Right, vol. 2 (Counter-Currents, 2018); Dark Right: Batman Viewed from the Right (with Gregory Hood) (Counter-Currents, 2018); and The Alternative Right (Counter-Currents, 2018).
His writings have been translated into Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.