Philosophy

What does God think of human reason? In my courses, I like to emphasize that early in modernity the old and the new were in stark contrast. Here is Martin Luther, reacting against Renaissance Humanism and the more worldly Aristotelian direction of Christianity in the late Middle Ages: “In this whole matter the first and

We’re posting serially at thinkspot the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the tenth: OC10: Bhopal’s Chemical Disaster–Who Really Cares About the Environment. “Bhopal is a classic case of a mixed-economy, business-government partnership in the context of an overall socialist industrial policy. In such a corrupted business-politics environment, disasters are inevitable.” Audio versions of

From high theory to political activism can be a long road. But the path is clear from the philosophy-of-math skeptics in the mid-1900s to the postmodernists in the late 1900s to the math-denying activists in the early 2000s. Here for example is philosopher A. J. Ayer puncturing the objectivist balloon: “the principles of logic and

In Nineteen Eighty Four, the hapless protagonist Winston finds the powers-that-be’s demands for intellectual obedience increasingly oppressive, to the point that his cognitive grip on reality becomes tenuous. Does two plus two even equal four anymore? O’Brien, the power-lusting antagonist, explains patiently: “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are

We’re now posting serially at thinkspot the transcripts of my Open College podcasts. Here’s the ninth: OC9: Envy’s Moral-Psychological Challenge. “American writer Gore Vidal confessed in a kind of secret-diary moment: ‘Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.’” Audio versions of the podcast are available free at my website, YouTube, Bitchute, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud.

Two philosophers discuss current culture through a historically informed lens. My CEE did this extended video interview with Capaldi about his life and work. I reviewed his Liberty and Equality in Political Economy: From Locke versus Rousseau to the Present.