In 1998, President Bill Clinton announced: “We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say Government is the problem and those who say Government is the solution. My fellow Americans, we have found a Third Way.”[1] Third Way politics became popular in the 1990s after the final collapse of the Soviet Union. Socialists […]
“Third Way” politics and its fruits Read More »
This week in my Contemporary European Philosophy class we are discussing Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals. I’ve been doing some related re-reading and came across this line from The Will to Power: “The values of the weak prevail because the strong have taken them over as devices of leadership” (section 863). In the first essay
Nietzsche as public choice theorist Read More »
Aspiring philosopher-queen Sarah O. Conly is an assistant professor of philosophy at Bowdoin College. A description of her Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism, published by Cambridge University Press in 2012: “Against Autonomy is a defense of paternalistic laws; that is, laws that make you do things, or prevent you from doing things, for your own
You should be forced to buy this book Read More »
In my Contemporary European Philosophy course we discuss Marx and Engels’s The Communist Manifesto. One question we raised was why Marx and Engels rejected achieving socialism by democratic and reformist methods. Why the insistence upon violent revolution? Here’s Marx in an 1848 newspaper article: “there is only one way in which the murderous death agonies
Marx’s philosophy and the *necessity* of violent politics Read More »
I was interviewed for Cosmoetica by Dan Schneider, mostly on themes from my Nietzsche and the Nazis documentary and book, but also on the nature of values, art, religion, corporations, and the meaning of life. Other interviews in the series include those with Daniel Dennett, Larry Sanger, and Steven Pinker.
Interviewed by Dan Schneider for Cosmoetica Read More »
In my lifetime, here are the changes in life expectancy at birth for three countries: * USA: up from 70 to 78 years. * Brazil: up from 54 to 73 years. * Zimbabwe: from 51 up to 61, then down to 51 years. (Click the image for full size.) Source: Google Public Data via the
Life expectancy: USA, Brazil, Zimbabwe Read More »
A fascinating working paper by economists Filipe Campante and Edward Glaeser about two initially very similar cities with divergent paths over the last century. Here is their abstract: Buenos Aires and Chicago grew during the nineteenth century for remarkably similar reasons. Both cities were conduits for moving meat and grain from fertile hinterlands to eastern
Comparing Buenos Aires and Chicago over the 20th century Read More »
Two economists report on survey results of professional economists’ policy views and voting from the mid-2000s, before the financial crisis hit. Their abstract: In Spring 2003, a survey of 1000 economists was conducted using a randomly generated membership list from the American Economics Association. The survey contained questions about 18 policy issues, voting behavior, and
Economists’ policy views and voting behavior Read More »