I’ll be giving two talks at next week’s Galt’s Gulch conference in (hopefully) sunny San Diego, California.
“Primitivism and Polarization—and the Power of Philosophy”: Deeply divided groups seem to dominate public discussion and generate a rhetorical race to the bottom. What is the evidence for increased polarization? What are the competing explanations for it? And is polarization only a story of decline—or also a symptom of healthy progress?
“’Fascist!’ and ‘Nazi!’—Hyperbole vs. History”: We use language to understand the world and communicate with others. Or do we? What of those who use it sloppily or merely expressively—or even as a weapon to undermine cognition and communication? In this talk, Stephen Hicks will discuss competing rhetorical strategies at work in political labeling.
In addition to talks by TAS’s scholars and fellows and a variety of social events, other speakers include Gregg Hurwitz, author of the Orphan X series of novels, Gad Saad, Canadian professor and author of Suicidal Empathy, Manhattan Institute fellow Heather MacDonald and author of When Race Trumps Merit, Timothy Sandefur, Vice-President of the Goldwater Institute and author of You Don’t Own Me: Individualism and the Culture of Liberty, Michael Shermer, for many years a columnist for Scientific American, Emmy Award winner Kaizen Asiedu, university professor Matthew Zwolinski, author of Universal Basic Income: What Everyone Needs to Know, and others.
Check out the full program and registration details.
