At the beginning of Crito, Socrates is in prison awaiting execution, having been found guilty of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. His good friend Crito arrives, having worked out an escape opportunity for Socrates. Crito rushes through a few reasons why Socrates should escape immediately. Socrates then suggests that the issue is more […]
In class: Reason, according to Socrates Read More »
This quotation from twentieth-century education theorist Jean Piaget — “Play is the answer to how anything new comes about” — reminds me of a passage from seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke’s Some Thoughts concerning Education. “Great care is to be taken, that [education] be never made as a business to him, nor he look on it
Piaget and Locke on play and creativity Read More »
I will be in London, England, next week to do a live, studio debate with Professor James Orr: I will argue for Liberalism and Professor Orr will argue for Conservatism. James Orr is on the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University (UK). He also headed up the National Conservatism conference held in Westminster, London, May
Debate in London, November 2 Read More »
How academic theory becomes university classroom becomes schooling becomes culture: “What do these hateful ideologues do after obtaining their diplomas? To find out, we searched for the career histories of a sample of 300 former campus radicals identified by Canary Mission. More than a quarter of them are in higher education, either as graduate instructors
What careers do campus activists pursue? Read More »
How many times do key normative words appear in the King James version of the Bible? The above list is only partial and a discussion starter. Sample word counts via King James Bible Online: Source: https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Popular-Bible-Words.php
Bible word count: “Fear,” “Obey,” “Love,” etc. Read More »
I had a happy realization that I’ve done four live public debates and each was on a different continent. Australia (Brisbane) 2020: Topic: Is Postmodernism Right-Wing or Left-Wing? Europe (Belgrade) 2023: Topic: Open or Closed Objectivism? North America (New York) 2019: Do Free Societies Need Postmodernism? South America (Buenos Aires) 2018: Morality of Capitalism vs.
Four Continents, Four Debates Read More »
Immanuel Kant is arguably the most influential philosopher of the past 240 years. Yet the essayist Heinrich Heine made this claim about Immanuel Kant’s philosophy: “Immanuel Kant, the arch-destroyer in the realm of thought, far surpassed in terrorism Maximilian Robespierre.” Harsh language, and it goes against a standard interpretation of Kant as the savior of
Why did Heine say Kant is an intellectual “terrorist”? Read More »
The flip side to “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” is “Those who do learn from history can duplicate its successes.” Five propositions about the Middle East: 1. The Middle East now is like Europe 500 years ago—a mix of religious hatreds, ethnic rivalries, national conflicts, cycles of revenge—along
Middle East conflicts and the biggest big picture solution Read More »