The Fable of the Horse
“Weary of liberty, he suffered himself to be saddled and bridled, and was ridden to death for his pains.” Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther.
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Nechayev’s “The Revolutionary Catechism”
[Posted here as an example of nineteenth-century nihilism integrated with violence and destruction as a means to a revolutionary end.] The Revolutionary Catechism By Sergey Nechayev (1869) The Duties of the Revolutionary toward Himself 1. The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no personal interests, no business affairs, no emotions, no attachments, no property,
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Debating Liberalism — FRI event in Buenos Aires
Here is the flyer (click to enlarge) for a full-day event in Buenos Aires: The event’s theme is taken from the first two parts of my forthcoming book Liberalism: The Meaning of Political Life. In Socratic Seminar format, the participants will be discussing and debating the best arguments for and against liberalism. I’m not there
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Lifeboat ethics: how scarcity thinking sets us at each others’ throats [The Good Life series]
A scenario beloved of ethicists, public policy experts, and management consultants asks you to imagine yourself on a lifeboat. Built into such scenarios are powerful assumptions with life-or-death consequences, so as we work through the lifeboat scenario try to make those assumptions explicit. Here we go: You were flying over the Pacific, but bad weather
Nuestro problema con el Che Guevara
por Stephen Hicks [This is a Spanish translation of “Our Che Guevara Problem”, first published in English at EveryJoe and then translated into Portuguese at Portal Libertarianismo.] Es muy probable que alguien que conozcas tenga una camiseta del Che. Versiones románticas del rostro barbudo de Ernesto Guevara Lynch son muy populares en los campus universitarios y
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William James’s “The Moral Equivalent of War”
[Below is the text of William James’s “The Moral Equivalent of War” [pdf].] The Moral Equivalent of War By William James [Based on a speech delivered at Stanford University in 1906. Published in 1910.] The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. The military feelings are too deeply grounded
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Ogle County’s war dead
I went on a spring-day drive through rural Illinois and ended up in Ogle County’s Oregon, a farm town along the Rock River that is also the county seat. The north side of the courthouse square has a war memorial, with two slabs of granite engraved with the names of those who died in the
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Quando o altruísmo torna-se patológico [Portuguese translation]
[This is a Portuguese translation of “When Altruism Becomes Pathological”, originally published in English at EveryJoe.] Quem é mais propenso a trapacear — praticantes de esportes individuais ou de esportes coletivos? Um experimento fascinante realizado pelo professor Sharon K. Stoll, publicado no Chronicle of Higher Education, compara atletas de esportes individuais como golfe ou tênis simples
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