After a terrible yesterday, like many people I am still trying to understand how someone could do those horrible things. I run through the list of factors and wonder which ones contributed causally. His being male? His mental abilities/disabilities? How his parents raised him? His living in a society with access to firearms or with […]
Firearm death rates and more Read More »
Philosophers are noted for their stylish prose as well as their profound insights. Or, to put that point in another, perhaps more felicitous, formulation, they are justly celebrated for their abilities in the words-putting-togetherness department. Earlier I presented some 100-plus word monster sentences from philosophers — Mill, Kant, Aristotle, Locke. But now, via Stuart Hayashi,
Philosophy’s longest sentences — Bentham edition Read More »
Following up on “Are we declining from our decline?” and “The constant decline of civilization?”, here is one of my favorites historians, Sallust (86– c. 35 BCE), on how his generation of Romans is so much worse morally than the preceding ones. In The War with Catiline, he writes: “Since the occasion has arisen to
More on the decline of civilization: Sallust Read More »
My short, unhappy review [pdf] of Carlin Romano’s America the Philosophical (A.A. Knopf, 2012) is now out in the latest issue of Reason Papers. The issue as a whole [pdf] also features a timely symposium of seven scholars on Sari Nusseibeh’s What Is a Palestinian State Worth?, several independent essays, and ten reviews of recent
Reason Papers: my review of America the Philosophical Read More »
Classics: * Wealth and life expectancy. * Cosmopolitanism and individualism. * The cornucopia. * That progress in understanding political economy is possible.
Professor Kline visited Rockford College on Tuesday to give a talk on four major thinkers — Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Smith — who in large part established the intellectual framework for our modern business world. Kline is a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois, Springfield. Here is my seven-minute follow-up interview with Kline
Philosophy of Business: William Kline interview Read More »
Prompted by Eduardo Marty’s link to this discussion of postmodernism and libertarianism, here are updated links to my 1999 cyberseminar on The Continental Origins of Postmodernism, conducted while I was on sabbatical and Scholar-in-Residence at the Atlas Society. Abstract for the course: For this 1999 online seminar “The Continental Origins of Postmodernism,” TAS Director of
Cyberseminar on postmodernism — update Read More »
The Atlas Society has a new CEO this year, Aaron Day. This press release announces Day’s appointment and background. The release also lists the names of those of us on the newly-constituted Board of Advisors: Ed Crane President, Cato Institute Steve Davis Director of Advanced Projects, SpaceX R. Paul Drake Professor of Physics, University of
Joining the Atlas Society’s Board of Advisors Read More »