Excerpts from reviews of Brooklyn Existentialism:
Voices from the Stoop explaining how Philosophical Realism can bring about the
Restoration of Character, Intelligence and Taste (List price: $28; Culture
Wars price: $18 + S&H) by Arthur DiClementi and Nino Langiulli.
“two St. Francis College Professors, Arthur DiClementi
(Mathematics) and Nino Langiulli (Philosophy - Retired) place the blame
squarely on some of the most famous thinkers in history.” Brooklyn
Daily Eagle.
“Brooklyn Existentialism combats the cultural shift
towards selfishness and the end of common sense and explains how to restore
character, intelligence and taste.” St.
Francis College News.
“Brooklyn Existentialism is not so much an expose
of bad policies as a vade mecum for students who need an antidote to the
bad ideas they will contract during their four over-priced years in college. In
over a half-century in front of students, Langiulli and DiClementi have
witnessed ‘The long march of radical democratization and the accompanying
decline of manners in speech, courtesy, in behavior, and propriety in dress …
together with the rise of vulgarity has led the seduced to imagine themselves
as independent and unique.’ The main bad idea the authors confront is the
primacy of knowing over being that has dethroned ontology or metaphysics and
put epistemology, a dwarf in a king’s robes, in its place. Cut off from being,
students wander through an intellectual world that is nothing more than a hall
of mirrors. Constantly told that whatever they have to say is an opinion, the
students succumb to sullen withdrawal when they realize that ultimately power
is the ultimate criterion of which opinions matter. … Existentialism, as Langiulli and DiClementi use the term,
should not be confused with the school of nihilism advanced in France after
World War II by people like Sartre and Camus, and popularized in the cafes of
Greenwich Village. Just as Greenwich Village is the polar opposite of Brooklyn,
so Langiulli and DiClementi’s existentialism is the opposite of Sartre’s.
Theirs affirms the primacy of being over thought, whereas Sartre’s uses
existence as a way to attack the notion of essence. Being, according to
Langiulli and DiClementi, is above all else rooted, which means being rooted in
a particular place, hence the Brooklyn part of the title. But that’s not all of
it. Brooklyn, by which we mean ethnic Brooklyn from, let’s say, 1890 to 1990, …
had a specific content because the largely Italian and Jewish ethnics who came
from Southern and Eastern Europe to settle there did not cease to be who they
were when they left Ellis Island. They carried with them the household gods of
Sicily and Calabria, which could trace their lineage back to the cradle of
classical civilization. What Langiulli and DiClementi call Brooklyn
Existentialism is both particular and universal in the same way that ancient
Athens was when Socrates, Plato and Aristotle lived there. … Brooklyn
Existentialism is the mortal enemy of fads like ‘multiculturalism’ … In
proposing Brooklyn Existentialism as the antidote to our educational and
intellectual malaise, Langiulli and DiClementi deconstruct the deconstructors,
exposing the innate ontological contradictions in statements like “we can’t be
sure of anything,” and its more sophisticated variants. … Having been assigned their
place in the vast machine known as education, Langiulli and DiClementi demur,
opining ‘We just don’t know our place!’ That the WASP ruling class had a place
assigned for Italian immigrants like Langiulli and DiClementi is a matter of
the historical record.” E. Michael
Jones, Culture Wars.
“unbridled glee at saying exactly what they want. … for more
adventuresome readers, the book is an acerbic delight. … The charm of this is that
Arthur and Nino generally know what they are talking about. They have read a
great deal, and not just in philosophy; and they happily sit on their Brooklyn
stoop serving up their pithy judgments.” Peter Wood, Academic
Questions.
“Aquinas with Attitude. Two Brooklyn wiseguys who happen to
be college profs take on the perverse ideas that have infected modern culture.
Brash, witty, and grounded.” James G. Bruen, Jr., Culture Wars.
“Brooklyn Existentialism offers an alternative, traditional outlook on life
that opposes the current Culture of Death. … Brooklyn Existentialism
challenges educational theory, calling it ideological manipulation … . DiClementi
and Langiulli are unapologetically pro tradition because of the West's historic
search for the truth. … Instead of spending the book examining the high-falutin'
philosophy of [] theorists, the authors make practical connections to their
Brooklyn neighborhood and therefore to everyday living. They condemn the
current vulgarity and lack of manners, and see its roots in the philosophy of
individualism and the need to accomplish great things in life. The result, when
people don't know their limitations, is bitterness and a sense of victimhood.
DiClementi and Langiulli offer a sense of tradition, family, and community
instead.” Brian Welter, theologia
perennis.
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