Author: Dominique Johnson
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Classical Republicanism and Stoicism refutes Racial Hierarchies
Classical Republicanism, as articulated in ancient Greek and Roman political philosophy emphasizes the pursuit of the common good for the CIVITAS through civic virtue, balanced governance, and participation in public life, without grounding these ideals in biological or racial hierarchies as understood in modern terms. Far from being inherently racist, its foundational texts reveal a…
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The Fourteen Black Classicists from Michele Valerie Ronnick’s Exhibition
Michele Valerie Ronnick’s traveling photographic exhibition originally focused on twelve BLACK CLASSICISTS debuted in 2003 and was later expanded to fourteen Black Classicists. Ronnick’s exhibition has undergone 50 iterations in 15 years and her project began in the 1990s. This mosaic history displays pioneering Black scholars of Greek and Latin from the late nineteenth and…
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The Republican Party’s role in accelerating Factionalism in U.S. Politics
REPUBLICANISM AND THE U.S. “REPUBLICAN’ PARTY” The Republican Party, while named after this tradition, and founded in 1854 with roots in anti-slavery and republican ideals, has evolved into a broader and delineating coalition with priorities that sometimes diverge from CLASSICAL REPUBLICANISM. However, we cannot say, that this merely began with Trump or even Bush. Trump…
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The Garden Philosopher: Epicurus of Samos on the existence of the Gods
“The gods exist, but they are not what the hoi polloi suppose them to be. And the impious man (Gr. ἀσεβὴς, asebēs) is not he who denies the existence of the gods whom the multitude worship, but he is such who attaches to the gods the beliefs of the multitude.” EPICURUS OF SAMOS, EPISTLE TO MENOECEUS.…
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Six Topics: Apoliticism, Russian-Ukraine War, Artificial Intelligence and Rebellious Writing Styles
SPOOKED THEOSOPHISTS AND SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION I hope you do not think I have veered off topic discussing politics and religion. I have combed through some thoughts in an old article challenging the concept of Apoliticism and the history or understanding of Apoliticism in the Theosophical Movement; and two of the intersecting contexts surrounding…
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Simple Points on Republicanism and Liberal Democracy
It is very important to explain the historical and ideological context of the U.S. system. The U.S. system was not designed as a strict Roman versus English versus Athenian system. It is a mixed system. You may ask, what is really the difference here. Many people might still not understand. SIMPLE POINTS ON REPUBLICANISM TO…
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How Lenin and Bolshevism displaced Civic Republicanism with Socialism in Black Radicalism
After 1917, the global meaning of “REVOLUTION” was successfully seized by Lenin, the Bolsheviks, and their descendants. CIVIC REPUBLICANISM did not disappear because it was defeated in open ideological combat. It was crowded out by a louder, better-funded, more institutionally disciplined international movement that claimed the entire moral and linguistic territory of “revolution,” “liberation,” and…
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Civic Republicanism in the Haitian Revolution: Toussaint Louverture and His Influence on John Brown
There is nothing I write about unconnected or unrelated to my life and studies in my personal life. Within the digital space of my work, I am working on, e.g., a comparative analysis between John Brown, Giuseppi Mazzini, Henry Steel Olcott and Helena P. Blavatsky on the approach, strategy and issues (even flaws) of adherence…
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Introduction to the Pre-Socratic Sages: All the Wise Sages
THE TRADITIONAL SEVEN SAGES OF GREECE AND THEIR FAMOUS MAXIMS Peter Kingsley portrays these pre-Socratic philosophers not as rationalists but as sages in a sacred, shamanic tradition and lineage originating from eastern influences e.g., Phocaea, an ancient Ionian Greek city of Anatolia, transplanted to southern Italy. The schools of these eminent sages emphasized incubation, divine…
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Our Pre-Stoic Roots in Human Rights Theory in the United States
On the sacred philosophical tradition underlying the foundations of Western Civilization influencing republican theory of human rights in the United States from Heraclitus of the Ioanian tradition, even preceding him. Tracing this history demonstrates how the concept of a divine (primordial) element becomes gradually secularized through the Renaissance Humanists, Enlightenment and Neo-Classical Republican traditions. ORIGINS…
The American Minervan 