Dr. Cornel West: Philosophy in Our Time of Imperial Decay | The New School

Watch American philosopher, political activist, social critic, and educator Dr. Cornel West's public lecture, "Philosophy in Our Time of Imperial Decay."
Dr. West was The New School's 2021-2022 Presidential Visiting Scholar and is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects -- including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. He is the author of 20 books on race, politics, social justice, and Black history, is a regular guest on broadcast television, and has appeared in over 25 documentaries.
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[@0leander410]

Next time you imagine that Philosophy is a pointless endeavor, remember this man. It may be the only discipline worth anything.

[@sirfortesque8757]

Is any living human being gonna try to tell me that you couldn't listen to Dr West talk about any topic for hours on end and just feel better about your life and want to hug somebody. Who else can seamlessly melt Philosophy, Literature, History, Music, Religion, Politics, Ethics together in such a manor that you smile for no reason while challenging your beliefs. The vast knowledge from so many diverse fields and a computer like memory mixed with the outpouring and nonjudgmental LOVE just envelops me every time i hear this world treasure speak. This is the sort of Christian warrior that even as an Atheist i find so mesmerizing. He can critique anything without being condescending or mean spirited. I feel honored to be able to watch this man.

[@fjvet8513]

Totally agree. Couldn't articulate it better.

[@traininglime5559]

Dr. West is a master at bringing a diverse room together in solidarity.

[@TylerPresents]

I’ll always happily listen to whatever Dr. West has to say.

[@fjvet8513]

I listen to him all the time as well. Seems to be one of a few moral voices today.

[@davidsambora8924]

"Truth often is blasphemy in America!" "TRUTH often is BLASPHEMY in AMERICA!!" "TRUTH OFTEN IS BLASPHEMY IN AMERICA!!! "

[@kevinjohnson9533]

For thirty years of reading and listening to West I am always amazed over how he ranges over a1000 years of Western culture, high and low, and comes out with the right answers. What a teacher, the best.

[@sonnetsandtruth1642]

We love you brother west. Please don’t ever leave us. I wish I had the words to honour this wordsmith , this poet , this truth teller , this exceptional human being being but I would never be able to do him justice. How lucky we are that you are in the world. 💕

[@forrestgossett]

Dr. West is a treasure. His passion is uplifting. His breadth of knowledge is astonishing. Thank you.

[@michaeldodson8810]

Listening to brother Cornel West is church for me. It enriches my soul, and moves me to do better!

[@lukedoesbutter]

As an artist listening to Cornel West gives me passion for my work

[@chelseaphilice7458]

Hallelujah

[@jennifersilves4195]

Abiding love of John Coltrane and Jesus Christ. He had my heart when he asked Sean Hannity "What about the precious Palestinian babies?"

[@addisondraper3574]

Dr. West you give me hope. Thank you. All power to the people!

[@simplelogic3178]

Dr Cornell is an awesome human being and exceptional man. One of my most respected men in my time.

[@XenonDiosmitide]

This reminds me of going to church on Sunday. The only difference is that this firebrand doesn't preach dogma, hate, and self-loathing, but love, community, and truth.

[@winjenk]

Made me think of Nina Simone. A dignity in her voice.

[@deloreswillis9224]

Yesssss amen

[@whoever6458]

Brother West, you have no idea how much I needed this today. Thank you from the blues deep down in my soul!

[@goldenvulture6818]

A soul is a myth aka a fantastic lie

[@scrubjay93]

@@goldenvulture6818 Who cares? You don't have to share a person's beliefs to be inspired by their wisdom and intellect.

[@notanemoprog]

Love Dr. West!

[@barrancab]

Thank you, Cornell West. I listened to your words early this morning. They, the blue words, started my day on the path that makes sense.

[@juanRodriguez-pj1gd]

What a magnificent lecturer/speech!!!

[@mimimouse2810]

I could listen to him all day!

[@cooper662jc]

Thanks Bro West. You are such an awesome, and Inspiring teacher and a Soothing messenger.

[@sionafrancesca]

Such a moral force in the world! Thank you, Dr. West, for being a voice of goodness and wisdom and love.

[@theneedlessopinion]

What an absolutely excellent talk

[@erickechegar]

Thank you Dr. West !!!

[@MichaelConway1308]

I can't get enough watching these videos; Incredible and inspiring.

[@megasalexander927]

Great Cornel West!

[@logicsaves99ways]

Brilliant.

[@darrellhayward6673]

For of bringinger all together my beautiful spirit brother as we are one yet separating us for hundreds of yrs to believe otherwise yet TRUTH not a game it's as real as its gets Ty for sharing spirit brother keep up the great fight 🌱🌳❤3love TRUTH is are power y3 are power we trust as we heal the flow

[@MarkbyMarkAFosterPhD]

I wanted to get my Ph.D. at the New School. Unfortunately, due to a moratorium, it wasn't accepting any new applicants in 1979. (It had something to do with an unfavorable full-time to adjunct ratio way back then.) Heck, I would still like to go to the New School, but it wouldn't make sense anymore.

[@consciousness5061]

Oh, wow, great 👍 👌 👏 Thank you ❤️

[@poupous5454]

Sheer fortitude of moral action...can allow us... in our quest for truth...we go down swinging!

[@cryptocop4026]

I absolutely love to hear my Brother from another mother Dr. West speak. I'm a white man and a 26 year career police officer in a big city. May God give my Brother West a long and extended life to keep preaching the truth. Because the truth shall set EVERYONE free and may we all be treated and looked at as the same one day. God Bless Dr. West...

[@winjenk]

Made the think of Nina Simone's dignity in her voice.

[@matthewkopp2391]

My path in philosophy really started with Carl Jung and then moved on to all of his influences and those adjacent to him. Even though Jung was somewhat „conservative“ in his politics, his thought revolved around serious human issues. From Jung I read Freud, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Arendt, Tillich, Sartre, Camus, Kierkegaard, Marx, etc. The problem I see with philosophy in places of higher learning, is that philosophy is used as a sophist rhetoric regardless of political affiliation. In other words it is used as rhetoric to make a person‘s political agenda „sound smart“ rather than using great ideas to think through human problems and challenging one’s own ideas and development of a coherent perspective. And this attitude today has created some of the worst online political pundits imaginable. I don’t always agree with West, but what I deeply admire is capacity to put human solidarity at the center regardless of disagreement. This dialectical way of engagement is very interesting to see. But it also places what benefits humanity first as a core value. So many don’t.

[@solgato5186]

our percieved innocence --> Parenti's "Myths of Empire"

[@helloitsme98]

West is a national treasure and I was also a fan of Rush Limbaugh. I appreciate his unique perspective although I struggle to understand it. Maybe somebody can help describe it. Is it Christian socialism....?

[@XenonDiosmitide]

What?

[@donnagjoka2587]

Pedia*DrWest. After listening every time.. my soul goes to Nina Simone.. Feeling Good*. True ☺️ and *you have to trust ..and trusted to be survive in life*. .. me Q it's what you don't like ?and why? ..if your don't likes abuse from others ? Even your highly race?..so you see we are not perfect..All ..just Me*. With wisdom..thank you ..give every day some lecture please. ..for younger generation..it's the next to come .. soon..

[@mata2nz]

My Brotha.

[@gregoryallen0001]

awesome analysis love dr west ♥️ also at 50:00 is an awesome WOKE discussion

[@earugo2531]

Lifting voices not echoes. . . .

[@pollyannakarina]

God's trombones.

[@goldenvulture6818]

A deity is a myth aka a fantastic lie

[@sathingtonwilloughby2347]

When was this talk recorded?

[@thenewschool]

Last Thursday, 3/24/2022

[@sathingtonwilloughby2347]

Thank for the reply, and thanks for posting the video. The inspiration I get from Cornell is beyond words. I'm a heavy equipment operator with a high school diploma. When I watched the 2015 conversation between Cornell and Chris Hedges I cried at the end. Beacons of hope. Just wanted you to know your content is deeply appreciated, and viewed by Blue collar folks building forestry landings on an island in the Pacific, far from academia. 😊❤️

[@kbyrne2011]

Around 30:00 weirdly prescient

[@42Mrgreenman]

@@sathingtonwilloughby2347 Now that Chris Hedges and other luminary voices are basically being erased from the net, I feel we are in a time of great trials. Our humanity is being tested by forces of anti-spirit and anti-solidarity...Powerful entities harness the products of scientific curiosity to threaten annihilation. So, from my blue collar to yours I send this small message of solidarity, though I may die and we may fail, we cannot give up on our humanity as long as we draw breath, for it is our only bulwark against hatred, apathy, and the indifference of a vast dark universe...

[@FoxSt3v3]

good shit Cornel

[@EsqueDollar]

Love it

[@acajudi100]

You are loved Dr. West! Thank you so mich. I have always loved Mexico, especially Acapulco, but earthquakes were the deal breakers for beautiful Acapulco. I moved to safe, beautiful and clean Queretaro, Mexico at 79.. There are brown people in Mexico, and all brown towns. Just because people share the same color does not mean they love each other, or the genocides would not be happening for over 60 years! Stay safe sir. Please do not go to nightclubs, malls, pump gas, get pregnant, sit on your porch, sit in your home, with all these evil and deranged demons. Use Smacks instead of bullets. Smacks..You live! Bullets..You die. God is watching all of us, and this is genocide all over the USA and the world, as USA helps others, while you are homeless, with our tax dollars. They are stealing folks, and are they are super GREEDY. A wode to the wise is sufficient. Put a d before anger, and you get danger Read the poems IF and MYSELF by Rudyard Kipling and Edgar A. Guess. You kill bodies, but you release souls who will watch you forever. Karma never lose an address. You will reap what you have sown. THINK!

[@superdupeninja8149]

My old school lol

[@patrickholt2270]

I hope he revisits that simplistic take on Ukraine that implicitly validates US interference in Ukraine that empowered and armed neo-Nazis to provoke Russia and which seeks to bleed Russia in a war that US policy makers aim to prolong as long as possible regardless of the cost in lives, as they did with Syria and Afghanistan and Iraq.

[@ricodundun125]

think

[@user-vj7vk1oc6v]

They watch. They listen. They poke and they prod. Then when you get angry they act like they're not. I'm the victim. Not you. You're evil. You too.

[@JJTMStudio]

Democracy can only survive when EVERYONE agrees on truths.

[@bubscat2984]

How are "Russian practices" different from all other "1st whirled powers?"

[@benhaith9056]

What happened at this year's Academy Awards, signals that It's time to end "Black on Black Crime." in the United States.🙏

[@carolinaquanonne597]

Bit coin rapping soul train word dance American band stand dress code

[@acajudi100]

Dr. Thomas Sowell.