Philosophy

Understanding Triggers and Microaggression as *Strategy* (Part 1) [Good Life series]

Leave a Comment / Education, Philosophy /

In your lifetime, how many times can you remember when everyone agreed about the significance of a major cultural phenomenon? It is happening now, as libertarians, conservatives, left-liberals and far-leftists all agree that a deep rot has set into Political Correctness. Hell is freezing over and pigs can now fly. The symptoms of P.C. are

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White on Kant and Classical Liberalism [Cato Unbound series]

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

Professor Mark White has published the opening essay, “Defending Kant’s Classical Liberalism,” in the Cato Unbound discussion series. Here is the abstract of his essay: “Mark D. White praises Immanuel Kant’s political philosophy and recommends it to modern classical liberals. Kant’s ethics has often been caricatured as one of rigid, unthinking duty, and also of

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Is Austrian economics anti-empirical? (Horwitz, Caplan, Selgin, and Boettke)

Leave a Comment / Economics, Epistemology /

[I’m re-posting this good discussion from 2012 at Cato Unbound.] An instructive trio of essays by economists at Cato Unbound about Austrian economics’ reputation — especially Mises’s praxeological version — for being strongly a priori rationalist: Is Austrian economics anti-empiricist? Steve Horwitz says no. Bryan Caplan says yes. George Selgin also says yes. To Selgin’s

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The Three Stages of Far-Left Advocacy (sarcastic version)

2 Comments / Humor, Philosophy, Politics /

Now that we are solidly into Stage 3 … Stage 1 (early 20th century): Socialism is really true and moral and liberal capitalism is evil. [The evidence comes in. Shit.] Stage 2 (late 20th century): Evidence and logic are subjective constructs and all alternative constructs are equal. [Liberal-capitalist constructs continue to appeal to many people.

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A religião é boa ou má para a política? [Católico vs. Ateu, Parte 6, Portuguese translation]

Leave a Comment / Philosophy, Politics, Religion /

[This is a Portuguese translation of Part 6 of the Theist vs. Atheist debate series between Stephen Hicks and John Wright, originally published in English at EveryJoe.] A religião é boa ou má para a política? Por John C. Wright Tradução de Matheus Pacini Revisão de Mateus Bernardino A questão dessa semana é se a

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Was Kant a liberal? Discussion at Cato Unbound

2 Comments / Philosophy /

Next week Cato Unbound will publish a four-part discussion of Immanuel Kant’s place in the classical liberal tradition. The formal title of the series is: “Immanuel Kant and Classical Liberalism.” The whole series will be edited by Jason Kuznicki and will consist of four scholars addressing the topic from (likely) different angles. Professor Mark D. White (Staten

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Making Life Meaningful without Religion [Theist vs. Atheist series]

Leave a Comment / Ethics, Religion /

[This column is a part of the Theist vs. Atheist debate series between Stephen Hicks and John C. Wright. Here Hicks responds to Wright’s article. And here are the links to other columns in the series.] The quest for a meaningful life comes naturally to us. As infants we delight in exploring the world and developing

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Blamestorming and Environmental Problems (Part I) [Good Life series]

Leave a Comment / Business Ethics, Philosophy, Politics /

Some parts of the world really are environmental Hells. They are dirty and depleted, making them unhealthy and economically unsustainable. We can argue about the severity of various places’ problems, but I want to focus on another aspect of the debate: determining accurately the causes of the degradation so we can focus productively on finding

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