The philosophy of family vacation
School is out and another season of family vacations begins. Some philosophical insight for the road ahead.
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On Gladwell’s chastising Paulson
The gall of some people. Apparently Malcolm Gladwell has gone after John Paulson for giving $400 million to Harvard University. It takes a special kind of immorality to feel comfortable doing any of the following: (a) bossily telling other people how to spend their own money, (b) telling them how to spend their philanthropic dollars,
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Blamestorming and Environmental Problems (Part II) [new The Good Life column]
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
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Texts in Philosophy — early 2015 additions
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
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Corrupção — a regulamentação governamental ajuda?
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
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Adjuncts and academic quality in higher education
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,
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New debate series on Religion, True or False?
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,
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Quoted in Wall Street Journal article on entrepreneurial satisfaction
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
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