For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Bible, “Sodom and Gomorrah” and “Lot and His Daughters,” Genesis 19:1-38 (c. 500s-400s BCE). Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1794). Leo Strauss, “German Nihilism” (1941).
Texts in Philosophy — early-2021 additions Read More »
My article “Liberal Education and Its Postmodern Critics,” published in the scholarly journal Academic Questions, is now available here. From the opening: It is a truism to say that education is politicized. Yet my goal here is to show that politicized battles over education are mostly not about politics but about philosophy. Policy battles are
*Academic Questions* publication: “Liberal Education and Its Postmodern Critics” Read More »
These books were published in 1776: Thomas Paine, Common Sense Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Adam Smith, On the Wealth of Nations Thomas Jefferson et al., The Declaration of Independence Denis Diderot, Encyclopédie (published in its entirety for first time) David Hume, Autobiography Also in 1776, in Paris Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
1776 — what a year in publishing Read More »
If one is poor or handicapped, one wants to be in a rich country. To see why, first ask: What kind of society most generates riches – tribal, feudal, socialist, dictatorial, or capitalist? Free-market societies generate huge amounts of capital, and it is precisely that capital that enables the least fit among us to survive and
Capitalism is survival of the *unfittest* Read More »
Link at the UConn site. “Isadore Johnson is a junior economics and political science major at the University of Connecticut. He’s the co-founder of UConn’s chapter of Young Americans For Liberty, is a local coordinator for Students for Liberty, and writes for various news outlets in his spare time when he’s not climbing. “Isadore interviews
The Friendly Neighborhood Libertarian interview Read More »
On who holds the real power: “I should like merely to understand how it happens that so many men, so many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him.” That’s from Etienne de la Boétie (1530-1563) in his Discourse
Voluntary submission to authority Read More »
I’d like to know what was in his mind at that moment. Bathysaurus ferox (literally meaning “fierce deep-sea lizard”) lives by “burying itself on the deep seafloor, 3,300 to 8,200 feet (1,000 to 2,500 m) below the water’s surface. When unsuspecting prey swims by, B. ferox darts out of the sediment and snatches up the meal in its formidable
On the fifth day, God created the fierce deep-sea lizard Read More »
A new Current Events feature at TASA — a monthly one-hour discussion by philosopher David Kelley, economist Richard Salsman, and me. We’ll cover three headlines-that-week events. This time: one-year anniversary of lockdown politics, another $1.9 trillion of debt and fake labeling, the cancel-versus-liberal culture. Youtube.