Lincoln’s “Gettysburg” speech as PowerPoint
Too bad Abraham Lincoln had only old-tech. Advice for presenters everywhere. Click image to begin:
Lincoln’s “Gettysburg” speech as PowerPoint Read More »
War metaphors and trade — Bastiat
A flotilla of ships is approaching your shore. Does it matter to you whether they are carrying smartphones and shoes — or rockets and soldiers? In his Economic Sophisms, Frédéric Bastiat makes this exasperated point: “A French ironmaster says: ‘We must protect ourselves from the invasion of English iron!’ An English landlord cries: ‘We must
War metaphors and trade — Bastiat Read More »
Why Spinoza still matters
Religious zealotry, political intolerance, and the precarious status of free-thinkers. In Aeon magazine, a strong essay worth reading again by Steven Nadler on “Why Spinoza Still Matters.” At a time when Americans seem willing to bargain away their freedoms for security, when politicians talk of banning people of a certain faith from our shores, and
Why Spinoza still matters Read More »
Anatomy and the Practicality of Philosophy
I posted earlier on The Knife Man and John Hunter, the great 18th-century anatomist and surgeon. In Hunter’s era surgery was brutal, in large part due to surgeons’ ignorance of anatomy, and in that earlier post I wondered: Why there was still such ignorance of anatomy given that the 1700s were two centuries after Andreas
Anatomy and the Practicality of Philosophy Read More »
Love and Hate in Uncertain Times [Stephen Hicks lecture in Belgrade, Serbia]
How did the ideas of liberty prevail in the modern world? What stands behind humanity’s enormous progress in very recent centuries? Stephen Hicks answered these questions at an international conference hosted by ARCE. Related: Professor Hicks’s book on the anti-Enlightenment origins of Postmodernism, Wokism, and Cancel Culture.
Love and Hate in Uncertain Times [Stephen Hicks lecture in Belgrade, Serbia] Read More »
In class: Reason, according to Socrates
At the beginning of Crito, Socrates is in prison awaiting execution, having been found guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. His good friend Crito arrives, having worked out an escape opportunity for Socrates. Crito rushes through a few reasons why Socrates should escape immediately. Socrates then suggests that the issue is more
In class: Reason, according to Socrates Read More »
Piaget and Locke on play and creativity
This quotation from twentieth-century education theorist Jean Piaget — “Play is the answer to how anything new comes about” — reminds me of a passage from seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke’s Some Thoughts concerning Education. “Great care is to be taken, that [education] be never made as a business to him, nor he look on it
Piaget and Locke on play and creativity Read More »
Debate in London, November 2
I will be in London, England, next week to do a live, studio debate with Professor James Orr: I will argue for Liberalism and Professor Orr will argue for Conservatism. James Orr is on the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University (UK). He also headed up the National Conservatism conference held in Westminster, London, May
Debate in London, November 2 Read More »