Donald Trump’s astonishing election victory was in part a backlash against increasingly corrupt American politics. Transparency International publishes an annual Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking all nations from most to least clean in their political conduct. The United States entered the twenty-first century by falling out of the top ten. Scandinavian nations such as Finland, Denmark, and Sweden
Trump’s Corruption Mandate Read More »
How culture gets made. At the Library of Social Science, a selection of quotations — philosophers, poets, historians, and other intellectual leaders — on German militarism from Kant’s time to World War I. For example, who said this? War itself, if it is carried on with order and with a sacred respect for the rights of
Quotations on militarism in the lead-up to World War I Read More »
After my talk there on “How Ethics Drives the Debate over the USA’s Healthcare Politics and Economics,” I received this letter of appreciation from the program’s head, Dr. Hanna Kostyło. In Polish and in English (click on image to enlarge): A fine memento of an enjoyable event. I learned from Professora Kostyło that the College
Letter from Nicholas Copernicus University College of Medicine Read More »
After my talks at the University of Kasimir the Great in Poland, I received a gift from Professora Ilona Błaszczyk: a book on Seneca on education. Professora Błaszczyk is a scholar of classical thought who has translated Seneca’s work into Polish. A striking feature of the book, though, appears on the title page: a Third
Third Reich stamp in Seneca book Read More »
Art critic Eric Gibson pronounces: “Objectivity is a cardinal rule in the discipline of art history. Mr. [Paul] Johnson’s book, by contrast, abounds in strong opinions.” (“Bold Strokes, Strong Opinions,” WSJ) But literary critic Tracy Kidder sneers: “As every graduate student knows, only a fool would try to think or bear witness to events objectively
Competing epistemological imperatives in the arts Read More »
A snippet from philosopher Simon Blackburn about a forum on the world’s great religions: “First the Buddhist talked of the ways to calm, the mastery of desire, the path of enlightenment. “The panellists all said, ‘Wow, terrific, if that works for you that’s great.’ “Then the Hindu talked of the cycles of suffering and birth
Religious plurality or not? Amusing anecdote Read More »
Four quotations from Canadian philosopher Lorraine Code’s What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge. 1. On how perceptual knowledge is gendered: “Proposing that the sex of the knower is significant casts doubt both on the autonomy of reason and on the (residual) exemplary status of simple observational knowledge claims. The suggestion
Code on gender feminist epistemology Read More »
Two quotations from Bert Hamminga’s “Epistemology from the African Point of View”: “In the traditional African view, knowledge is not acquired by labor but ‘given’ by the ancestors. Second, it is immediately social: not ‘I’ know, but ‘we’ know. Thirdly, knowledge is not universal but local tribal: other tribes have different knowledge.” (p. 57) And:
Hamminga on African epistemology Read More »