Locke and Mill, that is. Locke on freedom of choice for students: “great care is to be taken, that [education] be never made as a business to him, nor he look on it as a task. We naturally, as I said, even from our cradles, love liberty, and have therefore an aversion to many things, […]
John and John on liberal psychology Read More »
In his open letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615), Galileo offered a defense of science against the prevailing heavy hand of religious orthodoxy: “But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended to forgo their use and by some other
Galileo’s modern compromise: Letting science work *with* religion Read More »
Reprising this chart which integrates the major answers to the question: What makes liberal capitalism good? The chart diagrams the positive claims about liberal capitalism by its defenders — John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and others. For elaboration, see my book Liberalism Pro and
Justifying liberal capitalism — flowchart Read More »
Enjoyed this one a lot: 15-minute overview of the free speech principles, historically and philosophically, and then a series of questions from the student members of the Dundee FSS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz2hEDDPxlU
Dundee (Scotland) Students Free Speech Society Read More »
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
As political winds blow, those whose principles are merely tactics change tack. But it’s especially galling when it’s professional legal and religious experts who reveal themselves so.
On unprincipled political hacks, then and now Read More »
Łyszczyński was a Polish nobleman and philosopher who had been working on an atheist treatise. A bishop who witnessed his torture and killing described them this way …
Religious toleration: 1689 England and Poland Read More »
Tara Smith has a very good article reinvigorating and extending the philosophical arguments for religious freedom: “What Good is Religious Freedom? Locke, Rand, and the Non-Religious Case for Respecting It” (Arkansas Law Review 69:4). Along the way she discusses the arguments and counter-arguments of John Locke, Brian Leiter, Jeremy Waldron, Ayn Rand, and others. Direct
What Good is Religious Freedom? Tara Smith article in Arkansas Law Review Read More »