The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “I ran out of money in my final semester of graduate school. My first teaching job awaited me in the fall semester, but I had no income for the three summer months before then. “So I gave up my apartment and moved into a shared house with […]
Blamestorming and Environmental Problems (Part II) [new The Good Life column] Read More »
For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. All files are PDFs. “Arachne and Athena.” James Buchanan, “Public Choice: Politics without Romance,” Policy Magazine (2003). Martin Heidegger, “Reunion Speech” (1934). HTML version here. Heinrich Himmler, “Speech at Posen” (1943). John Maynard Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire (1926). HTML version here. John
Texts in Philosophy — early 2015 additions Read More »
Coisas ruins acontecem no livre mercado. Algumas pessoas mentem, utilizam atalhos, cometem fraudes e passam cheques sem fundo. Outros não cumprem contratos, oferecem ou aceitam suborno, pagam propina, roubam e assim por diante. Frequentemente isso se traduz em argumentos em prol da regulamentação governamental. O livre mercado maximiza a liberdade, diz o argumento, dando mais oportunidades
Corrupção — a regulamentação governamental ajuda? Read More »
Data on faculty composition in higher education: 1969: 21.7% non-tenure track and 78.3% tenure-track positions. 2009: 66.5% ineligible for tenure and 33.5% tenure-track positions.[1] Three questions about quality in higher education, in light of the data. 1. Do adjuncts or tenure-trackers deliver better instruction? Adjuncts tend to be younger, hungrier, more excited about being instructors,
Adjuncts and academic quality in higher education Read More »
I will be participating in an online debate about religion, hosted by publisher Alexander Macris and editor Kori Ellis at EveryJoe.com. My civil and friendly debate partner will be John C. Wright, who has written widely on religion and related matters. A series of back-and-forth articles on key issues to begin on Friday, June 5,
New debate series on Religion, True or False? Read More »
I’m quoted in this WSJ article by Charlie Wells on entrepreneurial satisfaction. The context is the difference between entrepreneurs of opportunity and entrepreneurs of necessity. Here’s a link to the online version. The article also ran in the US print edition. Source: Charlie Wells, “Why Some Entrepreneurs Feel Fulfilled — but Others Don’t. Money is
Quoted in Wall Street Journal article on entrepreneurial satisfaction Read More »
On Buddhism: A Buddhist walks up to a hotdog stand and says, Make me one with everything. The Buddhist pays the vendor and asks for change. The vendor says, Change comes from within. A joke about family path dependence, or about being born with a telos, or about heavy-handed parenting: A mother is with her
A few philosophy jokes Read More »
I was struck by this reflection on the history of philosophy, made by Adolf Hitler, who read voraciously when young and especially during his prison time in the 1920s: “In the Great Hall of the Linz Library are the busts of Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the greatest of our thinkers, in comparison with whom the
On Hitler’s degree of intellectualism Read More »