“How can the bird that is born for joy sit in a cage and sing?”

“How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing?” From William Blake’s poem, “The Schoolboy,” collected in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789). The full poem: I love to rise in a summer morn,    When the birds sing on every tree;The distant huntsman winds his horn,    And the skylark sings […]

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On the heavy weight of history: *Reality Demands* by Wisława Szymborska

Reality demandsthat we also mention this:Life goes on.It continues at Cannae and Borodino,at Kosovo Polje and Guernica. There’s a gas stationon a little square in Jericho,and wet painton park benches in Bila Hora.Letters fly back and forthbetween Pearl Harbor and Hastings,a moving van passesbeneath the eye of the lion at Chaeronea,and the blooming orchards near

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Urdu translation of *Explaining Postmodernism*—update

Professor Nazir Azad’s translation into Urdu of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault will be published this month, October 2022. Urdu is the first or second language of 230 million people in Pakistan and India. Information about other editions and translations of the book is here, including the audiobook edition below:

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Dewey & Pragmatic Democracy [Education’s Villains and Heroes course]

The next session of our online course “Education’s Villains and Heroes”: October 12, when we will discuss John Dewey & Pragmatic Democracy. * Reading to prepare for this session: Excerpt from Democracy in Education (1916). * Link to register: ZOOM. To see more of our courses and related topics, visit Atlas Intellectuals. Related: Professor Hicks’s online course

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El Capitalismo Liberal Lleva a la Paz Internacional [*Liberalism: Pro & Con* en Español]

Quince argumentos para el Capitalismo Liberal: Este post va a formar parte de una serie de argumentos del libro “Liberalism: Pro & Con” de Stephen Hicks en español. Pueden encontrar todos los argumentos que serán publicados en orden en el siguiente link: Liberalism: Pro & Con en español. Argumento 13: El capitalismo liberal lleva a

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Professor Walsh gives an “A” to a Jain monk

Refreshing this story from Francis Kane, professor of philosophy and former colleague of Professor George Walsh at Salisbury State University, in a eulogy delivered November 21, 2001. The phone rang one Friday afternoon (I’ll never forget): “Fran, I’m going to be fired!” “George, you’re not going to be fired.” “Yes, I am! Something horrible has

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Mao: “Death has benefits; fertilizer is created.”

In 1958, speaking of Chinese socialism’s decade of failed production quotas and the nastiness of its power-struggle schisms, Mao Zedong said this: “Death has benefits; fertilizer is created.” Switching to the second-person voice, Mao then said that you should embrace this: “You must be mentally prepared.” And then combining an inevitability claim with an end-justifies-the-means

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No academic freedom for teachers and professors in Florida state schools

So argues the state in this anti-Woke/CRT legal challenge. See pages 2 and 3, to begin: Two days ago, Professor Jason Hill and I discussed this very issue, starting at the 31-minute mark: How do advocates of the free society handle the in-principle conflict in state-funded education between (a) the government is paying, He-who-pays-the-piper-calls-the-tune, and

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