political theory / philosophy / hermeneutics / aesthetics / rare sciences
 

Frederick M. Dolan's
Home Page




ON THE MANNER OF ADDRESSING CLOUDS

Gloomy grammarians in golden gowns,
Meekly you keep the mortal rendezvous,
Eliciting the still sustaining pomps
Of speech which are like music so profound
They seem an exaltation without sound.
Funest philosophers and ponderers,
Their evocations are the speech of clouds.
So speech of your processionals returns
In the casual evocations of your tread
Across the stale, mysterious seasons. These
Are the music of meet resignation; these
The responsive, still sustaining pomps for you
To magnify, if in that drifting waste
You are to be accompanied by more
Than mute bare splendors of the sun and moon.

-- Wallace Stevens

Welcome to my home page.  I'm Professor of Humanities at the California College of the Arts, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, where, from 1988-2006, I taught in the Department of Rhetoric.

My interests include the relationship of modern political theory to the philosophical and religious traditions (and their critics), the nature of modernity, American political theory and ideology, hermeneutics, and aesthetics. I'm currently working on a book called Heidegger for Artists (and Others).

Here are two earlier books:

"Allegories of America" book cover"Rhetorical Republic" book cover


I've also edited (with Simona Goi) Between Terror and Freedom: Philosophy, Politics, and Fiction Speak of Modernity.

Here is my c.v.
Oh, I also teach.
Last spring I taught a graduate seminar in Fine Arts called "Heidegger for Artists (and Others)," and gave a couple of lectures in Foundations in Critical Studies: Representations. This fall I'm directing the Working Group on the Concept of Art (Fine Arts), teaching an undergraduate course on Marx and Nietzsche, and giving a few lectures in Foundations in Critical Studies: Ethics. In January, I'll teach a course at Stanford called "Overcoming the Tradition: Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Arendt."
Clicking here will take you to my favorite collection of LINKS.

Viel hat von Morgen an,
Seit ein Gespräch wir sind und hören voneinander,
Erfahren der Mensch; bald sind wir aber Gesang.

– Friedrich Hölderlin
Last updated 10/13/2011
Many thanks to Dr. Mark Roberts for technical assistance and to Dr. Anna Haynes for information on cybersnobbism