An instructive trio of essays by economists at Cato Unbound about Austrian economics’ reputation — especially Mises’s praxeological version — for being strongly a priori rationalist: Is Austrian economics anti-empiricist? Steve Horwitz says no. Bryan Caplan says yes. George Selgin also says yes. To Selgin’s series of quotations from Mises, I’d add this one from […]
Are Austrian economists anti-empirical? Read More »
Ronald Hamowy has died. He was a student of Friedrich Hayek’s, educated at the University of Chicago, historian, libertarian, Cato fellow, and emeritus professor at the University of Alberta in Canada. I knew him slightly as my editor when I wrote the article on “The Enlightenment” for The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, which he published with
Ronald Hamowy, R.I.P. Read More »
As of September 9, 2012: Years: Number of US troops killed 2001-2004: 161 deaths 2005-2008: 469 deaths 2009-2012: 1,484 deaths Why the lack of attention to the rising death toll? Is the nation war weary? Or merely uninformed? If uninformed, have the media decided the war is less newsworthy? Or less objectionable? Where has the
The war death toll in Afghanistan Read More »
I was struck by this philosophical economist’s connecting the Aristotelian solution to the so-called naturalistic fallacy to the question of the value of money. “This approach hints at the fact that a key element in this work is the treatment given to questions surrounding the ‘naturalistic fallacy.’ The basic reasoning here is that in regard
Zelmanovitz on philosophy of money Read More »
Kant’s dictum Ought implies can is true — except when you’re drunk.
Deep thought on Kant’s “Ought implies can” Read More »
Entrepreneurship and MBA Education The first issue of Kaizen for this new academic year features my interview with Jeff Sandefer. I met with Mr. Sandefer in Austin, Texas to discuss his meteoric entrepreneurial career in oil and gas and his ambitious plans for MBA education. Also featured in this issue of Kaizen [pdf] are student
Kaizen 22 — the Jeff Sandefer interview Read More »
And symphonies discriminate against the deaf. I mocked that view in criticizing last year’s lawsuit against Chipotle: Chipotle Mexican Grill versus egalitarianism. Turns out, though, that it’s cutting-edge civil rights law based on the Americans with Disabilities Act: “Justice Department Settles with Sacramento, Calif., Public Library Authority Over Inaccessible ‘E-Reader’ Devices”. The library had acquired
Libraries discriminate against the blind Read More »
I’ll be giving an invited talk at The Representational Art Conference in Ventura, California, from October 14-17, 2012, hosted and organized by California Lutheran University. My talk will include themes from my essay “Why Art Became Ugly,” first published in Navigator magazine and subsequently translated into in German [pdf], Korean [pdf], and Spanish. Other invited
Upcoming talk at Representational Art Conference, Ventura Read More »