Philosophy

Pocket Guide to Postmodernism — Andrew Colgan

Dr. Andrew Colgan, a Canadian philosopher of education, has written a concise overview of the themes and arguments of Explaining Postmodernism. The Pocket Guide is available at Amazon in e-book and paperback and other at outlets. Here is my preface to the work:  A generation ago, postmodernism was merely an intellectual opposition to grand Enlightenment claims […]

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“What Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us About Life” [Wall Street Journal]

My “What Entrepreneurs Can Teach Us All About Life” was published in The Wall Street Journal. Here is a PDF version of the article. Snippet: “We often think of entrepreneurs as larger-than-life characters. They take big risks. They make their own rules. They innovate and experiment, questioning things everybody else takes for granted. “It can almost

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Is Envy Worse in a Free Society? [Open College transcript]

We’re posting serially at thinkspot the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the eleventh: OC11: Is Envy Worse in a Free Society? “Is a free and open society more susceptible to the dangers of envy? It’s an interesting question because most often the envy charge is used against socialism, or any kind of outcome-egalitarian

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Bhopal’s Chemical Disaster–Who Really Cares About the Environment [Open College transcript]

We’re posting serially at thinkspot the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the tenth: OC10: Bhopal’s Chemical Disaster–Who Really Cares About the Environment. “Bhopal is a classic case of a mixed-economy, business-government partnership in the context of an overall socialist industrial policy. In such a corrupted business-politics environment, disasters are inevitable.” Audio versions of

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When 2+2=5. George Orwell’s O’Brien explains

In Nineteen Eighty Four, the hapless protagonist Winston finds the powers-that-be’s demands for intellectual obedience increasingly oppressive, to the point that his cognitive grip on reality becomes tenuous. Does two plus two even equal four anymore? O’Brien, the power-lusting antagonist, explains patiently: “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are

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