Charles Dickens

The surprising origin of “the dismal science” [Slavery versus Free-market capitalism]

2 Comments / Economics, Philosophy /

Reprising from my interview with economist David Henderson: I asked him how economics came to be called the “dismal science.” The source, he explained, was Thomas Carlyle, the nineteenth-century historian and essayist. The surprising reason for his coining the phrase? Carlyle was attacking free-market liberals for advocating the end of slavery. Free-market liberals argued that […]

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The Real Scrooge [Open College transcripts]

Leave a Comment / Ethics /

We’re posting the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Most are available only to subscribers, but here for the holiday season is the thirtieth, on Scrooge’s hero’s journey: To speak of pride, friendship, liberality, and an overarching wisdom about how they all contribute to a fully self-realized life—all of that is to make Dickens’s Scrooge

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Will the real Scrooge please stand up?

2 Comments / Business Ethics, Literature, Philosophy, The Good Life /

[Re-pinning for this season’s festivities.] We all know the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge. Or do we? Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has generated an astonishing variety of interpretations, and as with most rich tales the interpretations often tell us as much about the interpreter as the original story. The legend of Robin Hood is a

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