“Can women and minorities think rigorously?” The SJW say “No”

5 Comments / Education, Epistemology /

Old-time racists and sexists said: “Clear thinking — it’s not for woman, minorities, and gays.” Social-Justice Wokists today say: “Exactly!!” Rigorous thinking, according to some, is a virtue that leads to safe high-voltage electrical systems, pharmaceutical doses that are precisely calibrated, and bridges that stay up. Not so, says engineering Professor Donna Riley. Rather it […]

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Locke on slavery

Leave a Comment / History /

University of Maryland historian Holly Brewer’s very good overview of Locke’s role in English slavery in the mid-1600s and his philosophical opposition as developed by the 1680s: “Slavery-entangled philosophy.” John Locke took part in administering the slave-owning colonies. Does that make him, and liberalism itself, hypocritical? Related: My other posts on Locke. “The Stain of

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Orwell on Nazism as Socialism [Waterfall]

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

Waterfall is a guided series of courses for everyone interested in issues upon which Objectivism has something distinctive and important to say. The second course: Socialism. Examine the aspirations, arguments, strategies, and disasters of socialist theory and practice—as well as explore the strongest criticisms of socialism. Authors include Ayn Rand, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Robert

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Fascist and/or Antifa? A famous activist from 99 years ago

Leave a Comment / Philosophy /

With history is repeating itself these months, a quotation from 1921: “Everything I have said and done in these last years is relativism by intuition. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth … then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and

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Autopsies on the Evergreen College race affair

1 Comment / Philosophy /

Evergreen graduate Benjamin Boyce’s insider documentary: “The Compete Evergreen Story.” Shaun Cammack at Heterodox Academy: “When race is understood as both the foundation of the self and the determinant of cognitive authority, it follows that there is simply no such thing as a dyadic interaction. Interaction between people of different races is understood as inherently intercollective.

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The artistic sublime from Aristotle and Rembrandt to Kant and Rand — Newberry’s TASA discussion

1 Comment / Philosophy /

Jennifer Grossman invited contemporary artist Michael Newberry and me to talk about great art. Topics: * Rembrandt’s mesmerizing of the young Newberry. * The sublime in Burke and Kant. * Aristotle’s grounding of art and Rand’s updating. * Icarus Landing (2001). * Envy and destruction in some strains of modern and postmodern art. * The

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