A 3 a.m. poem, toward the end of autumn
In a Japanese mood, on a still, moonlit night, near the end of autumn. Not for nothing Did the red leaf fall.
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My review of Gibson’s Ethics and Business now online
My four-page review of Kevin Gibson’s Ethics and Business: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2007) was published in the Spring 2010 issue of Teaching Philosophy. Here now is a PDF of the review. From my introduction: “Gibson’s approach is middle-of-the-road in the content of his beliefs about business and ethics, so this is a mainstream
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Wilkinson on free speech versus equality
At The Economist web log, Will Wilkinson has a good piece on Rawlsian egalitarian arguments against free speech. The firing of Juan Williams makes perfect sense in that framework, as does the left’s outrage over the Citizens United decision. Wilkinson rightly notes the principled outcome of that framework: “it seems to me that this conception
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Kindle version of Explaining Postmodernism published
The Kindle version of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault is now available. The book had a gratifying two hardcover printings and eight softcover printings from 2004-2009, and I am finalizing an expanded edition to be published in hardcover in the spring of 2011. Here’s the book description: “Tracing postmodernism from
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Sir Ken Robinson on factory schools
A stimulating, 11:40-minute animated talk by Ken Robinson. I have qualms about some of Robinson’s intellectual-history-of-education claims, but his portrait of mainstream contemporary education (especially the repulsive cop-out that is the ADHD “epidemic”) and his prescriptions for reform are bang-on accurate. [Which reminds me of my extended series on the philosophy and history of education.]
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Entrepreneurship, individualism, and collectivism
A pair of striking excerpts from a discussion at CNN Money between motivational speaker Ken Blanchard and Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurship at Case Western. Here is Scott Shane on whether the government should encourage entrepreneurship or craft policies to divert resources to high-growth companies: “From a societal point of view, if you have a
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Ray Stata, Lyric Semiconductor, and probability chips
Stata Ventures is Kaizen interviewee Ray Stata’s venture capital vehicle. It recently provided funding to technology startup Lyric Semiconductor. Lyric is developing probability chip technology. Traditional chips use binary “yes/no” switches, but probability chips “can accept inputs and calculate outputs that are between 0 and 1, directly representing probabilities, or levels of certainty.” Commercial applications
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Why the nano is 750 times better than the Walkman
More fun with philosophy math, following up on two earlier posts: Why life is 255 times better now than in 1800 and Why life in America is 40 times better than in 1900. Focusing on innovations in music technology, Russ Roberts notes: “In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman, the first portable music player. It weighed
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