Philosopher Christopher Janaway said: “One feature uniting many kinds of recent philosophy is an increasing recognition that we are working within the legacy of Kant”. For more on the meaning and implications of Janaway’s remark, see p. 79 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. Information about other editions and translations is available at this […]
Christopher Janaway in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
Explaining Postmodernism‘s individual chapters were first posted serially, followed by the full audiobook. A playlist of the individual chapters is also available at YouTube. Information about other editions and translations is available at this dedicated page.
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In December 2016, Mark Michael Lewis interviewed me on a variety of topics, including the pronoun wars. At that point, Professor Jordan Peterson had recently taken a strong public stand against being required to use some newly proposed pronouns, and that refusal had generated controversy. Here is my four-minute opinion (from 36:06 to 40:21 in
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Some questions: Has religion helped or hindered the development of modern free societies? Did the Protestant work-ethic make capitalism? Do Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox explain why the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) have been among the most economically-troubled European nations? Is the economic backwardness of much of the Middle East due to Islam?
Religion and capitalism? Alvaro Vargas Llosa Read More »
“A famous experiment at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in 1995. In it, a group of students and faculty were asked to choose between earning $50,000 per year while everyone else earned $25,000 — or earning $100,000 per year while others made $200,000. The researchers stipulated that prices of goods and services would be
The psychology of inequality — a datum Read More »
Ten of my favorites from the always perceptive Eric Hoffer: “Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.” “The game of history is usually played by the best and the worst over the heads of the majority in the middle.” “When people are free to do
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Richard Rorty on the consequences of having to abandon the objectivity and universality of reason: The best we can do is seek “inter-subjective agreement” among the “members of our own tribe.” Though feeling loyal to his American left-liberal roots, Rorty goes on to hope that we will be nice to the other tribes while doing
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My “No Reformation for Islam, Please” is now republished at Britain’s Church and State site: “Islam needs reforming but definitely not a Reformation. “The history matters here, so consider first what the Reformation activists were fighting against. During the Renaissance, the dominant Catholic religion had become worldly. Its thinkers read the naturalistic Greeks and Romans
“No Reformation for Islam, Please” [CHURCH and STATE] Read More »