In addition to the session on Ethics and the Financial Crisis, I am chairing a session on the theme of “Reason in Hayek and Rand” for the Association for Private Enterprise Education conference to be held April 11-13, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The rationale for the session: Two giants of twentieth-century thought — but […]
Hayek and Rand on reason — APEE panelists Read More »
I will be giving a talk next week to a graduate philosophy class at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The theme of my talk is: What Philosophers Need to Know about Economics. Over the past generation BGSU has developed one of the country’s strongest programs in applied ethics and political philosophy, so it will
Following up on an earlier post contrasting modernism with pre-modernism, I here contrast post-modernism to both. Postmodernism as a philosophical system is defined by means of its characteristic claims in the five major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, ethics, and politics. Postmodernism as a historical movement is defined by the time of its
Defining postmodernism Read More »
Intellectual systems and movements are defined philosophically by means of their characteristic claims in the five major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, human nature, ethics, and politics. As historical movements, they are defined by the time of their formulation and most vigorous activity. So in the following table I offer a definitions of pre-modernism and
Defining modernism and pre-modernism Read More »
Following up 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 given that the 1700s were two centuries after Andreas Vesalius and a
Anatomy and philosophy Read More »
When I teach Philosophy of Science, one of the books I use is Martin Gardner’s excellent Great Essays in Science, with selections from Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and other greats. The course has a unit on scientific fraud, including examples of the destructive effects of the politicization of science. Gardner’s anthology includes two
Scientific fraud and politics Read More »
Professor Jerry Kirkpatrick gave a talk at Rockford College on October 27 on “The Importance of Philosophy to Business.” Dr. Kirkpatrick is Professor of International Business at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His talk was sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. In the following two-part interview after his talk, I speak with Dr.
Jerry Kirkpatrick on philosophy’s importance to business Read More »
Missouri. It is the “Show Me” State. Legend has it that the “show-me” is captures Missourians’ no-nonsense, matter-of-fact attitude. Don’t ask me to take your word for it, stranger. Give me something real to go on. As far as I know, Missouri’s is the only epistemological slogan in the country. Maybe even in the world.
The most philosophical state in the union Read More »