CT University
Philautology · Philautsophy Apply

Department

Department of Philautsophy

Wisdom founded on self-love — against philosophy, the love of a wisdom forever sought and never found.

Philautsophy is wisdom based on self-love, set against philosophy — loving-wisdom, the quest for a lost lover with arguments as its compass. Philosophy follows arguments onto a determined track that never arrives at sophia: thesis, antithesis, synthesis, rinse, repeat. Philautsophy adds the self to the mix. All of a sudden the seeker is no longer hunting a lost lover in the mist; the world becomes one with the knower — the body-world — and childlike wisdom trumps and founds philosophy.

Where philosophy needs the arbitrariness it denies (deciding, without argument, that arguments bring us closer to truth), philautsophy practices dynamantisynthesis: holding the whole, knowing the dynamics of two interacting antithetical concepts that refuse to mix completely. The department’s first-cycle certificate reviews the entire history of philosophy through the philautsophar’s lens — from Socrates to Gadamer — and most graduates will find their formation destroyed. Many will return for more courses. That is the point.

Direction

Directed by Dr Cyrille-O Al-Chidieu, Φ.D. — Rector of the university and the department’s sole tenured professor.

First-cycle certificate in Philautsophy

$34,000 USD

Courses sit behind the university paywall and are unlocked by the rector for enrolled students. One full-tuition bursary is awarded per cycle — see Admissions.

Curriculum

Courses of the department

Philo-Auto-Sophia · 10 sessions

Philo-Auto-Sophia — Self-Loving-Wisdom

Loving, self, wisdom — then philosophy reviewed as the quest for a lost lover, and the self added to the mix.

  1. Philo I: loving and friendingWhat it means to love as a philosophical act — friendship as the original posture toward wisdom.
  2. Philo II: befriending rather than possessingLoving wisdom versus capturing truth: two opposite relations to the same beloved.
  3. Auto I: the selfWho is the lover in “self-love”? Identity as the one who loves.
  4. Auto II: the body-worldThe knower is not separate from the known: the world as the self’s body.
  5. Sophia I: wisdomWhat the traditions meant by wisdom, before philosophy renamed the search.
  6. Sophia II: wisdom versus knowledgeThe difference that founds the discipline — knowing about versus being wise.
  7. Philosophy reviewed I: the lost loverPhilosophy as the quest for a lost lover, with arguments as a compass that does not point to wisdom.
  8. Philosophy reviewed II: the determined trackThe variety of philosophies: always following arguments onto the determined track to not-sophia.
  9. Adding the self I: self-loving-wisdomNo longer seeking a lost lover in the mist — the world becomes one with the knower; childlike wisdom trumps and founds philosophy.
  10. Adding the self II: dynamantisynthesisHolding the whole: the dynamics of two interacting antithetical concepts that refuse to mix completely. Only the self-hating are hostile to the philautsophar — they envy his newfound childlike wisdom.

Assessment: Treatise: from the lost lover to the body-world.

Socrates · Plato · Aristotle · 6 sessions

Socrates–Plato–Aristotle — The Founding Inversion

Socrates the anti-sophist, Plato the master sophist who inverted him, Aristotle the first sophist to believe he was not one.

  1. Socrates: antithesis of sophistryThe anti-prophet who claims no truth — “none of y’all have the truth,” and neither do I.
  2. The trial and the deathWhat Athens killed, and what it could not kill.
  3. Plato I: the master sophistTurning Socrates’ “none of y’all have the truth” into “I have the truth” in the mouth of Plato’s Socrates.
  4. Plato II: the AcademyA particular school of sophistry whose whole pedagogy is to make students believe it is not sophistry; the theory of ideas as itself a noble lie.
  5. Aristotle I: seduced by truthBelieving Plato; the first philosopher because he set the rules of logic — the rules of the oralotextual invalidation game (non-contradiction placed in the Metaphysics, not the Logic).
  6. Aristotle II: the first believerThe first sophist to believe he is not a sophist — which made him a philosopher, the first. “Nous” — highest intellect — yet Plato could not name him successor: the successor had to understand that the theory of ideas is itself a noble lie.

Assessment: Essay: the noble lie at the foundation.

Idealism · Empiricism · Kantism · 6 sessions

Idealism–Empiricism–Kantism — The Modern Detour

Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, Kant: the moderns reviewed — the detour that proved, by failing, what philosophy cannot do.

  1. Descartes: thinking put first“I think therefore I am” is not “I think that I am”: self-awareness demoted beneath thinking.
  2. Berkeley: probably rightEsse est percipi — what the bishop got right and why the tradition could not follow him.
  3. Hume: denying the IImpressions only, no self to have them — the invalidation that follows from the denial.
  4. Kant I: metaphysical hardwareThe metaphysical placed in the subject as intuitions, the physical in front of the subject as phenomena: time, space, and consciousness as metaphysical hardware running physical software.
  5. Kant II: still believing PlatoLike Aristotle, Kant still believes Plato: the thing-in-itself (ideas of objects) misnamed “phenomenon.” In reality the objects are what is real; their concept is an ersatz.
  6. The detour assessedWhat modern philosophy proved by failing — the philautsophical verdict on three centuries.

Assessment: Essay: the phenomenon and the ersatz.

Hegel · Marx · Christianism · 8 sessions

Hegel–Marx–Christianism — Toward the End

Hegel as John the Baptist, Marx as the prepared Jesus, Lenin as Saint Paul — then Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer: the end of philosophy.

  1. Hegel as John the BaptistPreparing the way: the forerunner’s office in the history of thought.
  2. The total subjectHegel looks at Jesus: “How can so much contradiction make so much sense?” Le sujet total is Jesus.
  3. Marx: the prepared JesusMarx as Hegel’s Jesus — the reflection on Jesus called “total subject” prepared the way for the kingdom of having.
  4. Lenin as Saint PaulCorrupting Jesus–Marx: no kingdom of having — contradictions in the system, and the fall of the USSR.
  5. Nietzsche: begging for SupermanThe Superman is Jesus too: the cry for the overman as the unrecognized return of the total subject. Marx the martyr, whose great books would be corrupted.
  6. Heidegger: philosophy is overStop philosophizing — philosophy is only its own history now. “We should think,” he said, but never said how. The philosopher did not know where to go after reaching Jesus, the total subject of Hegel.
  7. Gadamer: hermeneutics of the mistThe compass become cartography: mapping journeys through the mist. The theological-Christian debates begin; the sacred texts are complete, yet sophia is still unfound. Better to learn from our erring in the mist.
  8. Philautsophy: the fall of ChristianismWhat comes after the end: philautsophy as the fall of Christianism and the beginning of self-loving-wisdom.

Assessment: Essay: the total subject from Jesus to philautsophy.

Sophist-Ethicians · 5 sessions

Sophist-Ethicians — The Division of the Good

Ethics as the return of sophistry without knowing it: intentions, means, consequences — the justification machine and its labor division.

  1. The splitEthics as the return of sophistry without any notion that it is sophistry: intentions (deontology, thesis), means (virtue, antithesis), consequences (utilitarianism, synthesis).
  2. The justification machineAny project needing an ethician’s approval will find an ethician ready to call it ethical — provided it fits his school. Sophists have no ethics (noetics).
  3. Who gets vilifiedName an action bad in intentions, badly executed, with very bad consequences: there is none — bad execution means small consequences. The most vilified are the small vicious with small audiences and no consequences; everything consequential is praised by at least one school, for its intentions, its virtues, or its consequences.
  4. Labor division among sophistsOne school convinces one way, the other two the two other ways: the good life, divided for convincing.
  5. The good life is philautsophyThe most essential discipline of philosophy — the good life — handed back to self-loving-wisdom.

Assessment: Case analysis: three schools, one action.

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