Is peace or war the natural state of man? Do men fight primarily over material possessions or over women? For decades anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon studied the Yanomamö, a remote tribe in South America, learning about their almost-constant warfare. His findings put him in open conflict with academic anthropologists and the American Anthropological Association. The latter […]
Ideological wars in anthropology Read More »
Check out Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year, an engaging movie with a healthy business ethics kick. The main character is a young college graduate with mediocre grades who lands a job at a computer sales company. He is soon confronted with corrupt-but-usual practices in the company, and his naïveté puts him on the fast
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In the history of ethics, debates over the meaning of life have generated four broad positions: 1. The meaning of life is to flourish by creating value both materially and psychologically through one’s career, friendships, loves, and avocations. Examples here include Aristotelian eudaimonism, some sub-types of utilitarianism, and Objectivism.The good life should be a win
Genghis Khan on joy and the meaning of life Read More »
How did Beethoven become Beethoven? “The ‘personality’ of such a man as Beethoven is a slowly developed synthetic whole. It is formed by the gradual combination of its constituent elements into an organic unity. For the development of a personality a rich and profound inner life is necessary, and for that reason it is usually
Creative geniuses as selfish — Beethoven version Read More »
I understand the temptation to read Michel Foucault as a kind of Libertarian, with all of his attacks on oppressive powers. Or as a kind of ultra-cynical Public Choice theorist, with all his revelations of the sausage-making processes of culture and politics. Yet it’s important to recognize that, for Foucault, liberation is an impossibility. We
Foucault: It’s never about liberation Read More »
When a newly prominent politician says “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism,” my first thought is to ask: What do the cold/hot feeling metaphors mean to him? Individualism conceptually means: I am my unique self, I decide and act independently, I take full responsibility for my life. To
Frigid and Warm feelings in politics Read More »
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
Steve Jobs and innovation in business and art Read More »
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
Original thinkers’ contemporaries: A.J. Ayer edition Read More »