At the non-partisan PRRI site, results released today about the frequency with which people unfriend over politics. (Scroll down past the surveys about Christmas language.) Striking contrasts by gender and party affiliation: Question: Do the results show a general tendency, or is this December 2016 result narrowly reflective of the previous month’s election in which […]
Unfriending over politics — survey results Read More »
In 1689 John Locke noted, wryly: the Church … is for the most part more apt to be influenced by the Court than the Court by the Church. How the Church was under the vicissitude of orthodox and Arian emperors is very well known. Or if those things be too remote, our modern English history
When Christians change their ethics to suit the political winds Read More »
“If the growth of reason is to continue, and human rationality to survive, then the diversity of individuals and their opinions, aims, and purposes must never be interfered with …. Even the emotionally satisfying appeal for a common purpose, however excellent, is an appeal to abandon all rival moral opinions and the cross-criticisms and arguments
Karl Popper on diversity of opinion and values [quotation] Read More »
Note to self: To avoid offense or appropriation this holiday season: For the Christians I won’t say Merry Christmas and for the the Jews I won’t say Happy Hanukkah, as I am neither Christian nor Jew. Ditto for Yule and Kwanzaa, as I am neither pagan nor out of Africa (unless one goes way, way
The silent holiday season — or else Read More »
[Every few years I post an updated version of student bloopers from exams and essays.] A Brief History of Philosophy Humor alert: Being a compilation of student research collected over the years, gently edited by Stephen Hicks, Rockford University (updated: December 2016). Is philosophy a waist of time? Ethical debates have been around for a
An Alternate History of Philosophy — Student edition (2016) Read More »
Via the Library of Social Science a fascinating essay by anthropologist Carol Delaney (professor emerita, Stanford University), “Sacrificial Heroics: The Story of Abraham and its Use in the Justification of War” (pdf), which is an extended meditation on the meaning of Abraham’s willingness to kill his son because God asked. Delaney argues: The story has
Sacrificing sons — justifying war in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam Read More »
Here are Mark Michael Lewis and I in conversation about applied philosophy. A rough guide to the topics: 1. Why you should always take arguments at their best [10:15 minutes] 2. Why many philosophers are “left” [16:00] 3. How Objectivism is an “outlier” philosophy [19:00] 4. Third-generation postmodernism and the weaponry of affirmative action [25:00]
Making Work Beautiful, and more — Interviewed by Mark Michael Lewis Read More »
[From lecture notes for Immanuel Kant’s 1775-1780 courses as published in Lectures on Ethics [1775-1780], translated by Louis Infield, New York: Harper and Row, 1963, pp. 162-168. The text is below and here as PDF.] Duties towards the Body in Respect of Sexual Impulse Amongst our inclinations there is one which is directed towards other
Kant on sex, marriage, concubines, prostitutes, and incest [text] Read More »