I read Inside Steve’s Brain, by Leander Kahney, a compelling business biography of Steve Jobs and Apple. Jobs is a business genius by all accounts (and regularly a jerk on the job, by most accounts). Why has Jobs been so successful as an innovating entrepreneur? One factor is knowing clearly whether consumers or producers drive […]
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From a 2000 review of a biography of A. J. Ayer, describing the response to the young hotshot’s 1936 Language, Truth and Logic: “It was one of those books that galvanize a whole generation. Ambitious undergraduates commonly read it at a sitting. Their elders were appalled. When students tried to discuss the book at an
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Reprising this post on Zeev Sternhell, an ally in the battle against the nihilism of the Anti-Enlightenment and its heirs. His book is written for scholars, but note this ringing conclusion: “To prevent the people of the twenty-first century from sinking into a new ice age of resignation, the Enlightenment vision of the individual as
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In 1869, young Friedrich Nietzsche became a professor of classical philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. The university’s professors of philosophy told their students not to take Nietzsche’s courses, arguing that he was not really a philosopher and a lightweight. As one scholar relates the tale: “For a time, Nietzsche, then professor of
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Related: Scrooge’s Hero Journey and the Meaning of Life (text). Audio version below:
Naughty Santa collection Read More »
What explains the appealing transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge? My annual reposting, in text and audio (at end). The many interpretations of Scrooge // Robin Hood analogy // Scrooge as villain of Socialism // as anti-Christian // as Savvy Investor // as Environmentalist // as Malthusian // as anti-Commercialization // Scrooge’s Aristotelian hero’s journey By Stephen
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According to some, Cambridge University professor James Orr is the intellectual architect of U.S. Vice-President J.D. Vance’s political philosophy. Dr. Orr is also Chairman of the National Conservatism movement and author. I debated Professor Orr in London, England, hosted by Konstantin Kisin of Triggernometry. That led to the publication of our formal, written three-round debate
J.D. Vance’s “philosopher-king” Read More »
Objectivism is a set of scientific claims about reality. Scientists study reality—the same reality that is open to everyone—and discover facts about reality that, in principle, every thinking person can verify independently. Sometimes defenders of the Closed position say things like “because Rand owns Objectivism” or “This is a matter of respecting intellectual property rights”
Open Objectivism or Closed? Elements: “Intellectual Property” and “Ownership” Read More »