Philosophy

From Plutarch’s “On the Avoidance of Anger”: “Angry people … are often weak and the weakness provokes anger. Lazy students are angry with their teachers, vain people are angry when they don’t get compliments all the time.” Further: “People often get angry when they believe they are being slighted or ignored. I try to control

From a short essay published in 1951. Excerpt: Neo-liberalism would accept the nineteenth century liberal emphasis on the fundamental importance of the individual, but it would substitute for the nineteenth century goal of laissez-faire as a means to this end, the goal of the competitive order. It would seek to use competition among producers to

Case #1: Suppose a man has a debilitating genetic condition that a small percentage of his children would inherit. Suppose also that he is moderately sexually active and so could impregnate several women over the next few years. And suppose that you have an injection that could render him sterile.But he refuses to take it.

1. Each individual brings to the starting line whatever assets they have—and the race is on. To the swiftest go the prizes. 2. But not everyone starts the race with an equal chance to win. So we should handicap the fastest to equalize the abilities of all. 3. Life should a collective going forward together,

These two images are 82 years apart. A German and a Soviet officer shaking hands at the end of the Invasion of Poland, October 1939. 2. Poles saying no to both German National Socialism and Russian Soviet Socialism in 2021. Historical memory is strong in Poland.

Individual and institutional versions of racism exist (though “structural” and “systematic” do not). An example of the institutional kind is Social Security, the forced retirement savings plan mandated by the US government: Suppose a black man and a white man start working at age 18, doing the same kind of work and earning the same

Russia as the surprise center of internationalism: 1922: Workers of the world, unite! Lenin channeling Karl Marx. 2022: Christians of the world, unite! Putin, channeled by these guys:

My three-lecture tour got me this photo op: