The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “The Greek mess is complicated, but in sorting through complex messes it’s useful to start with simpler cases and build up. “All sides in the discussion are appealing to moral considerations about responsibility, fairness, and prudence. Part of the debate is over what those principles mean. An […]
On Greek Debts and Doing What’s Moral [new The Good Life column] Read More »
The fascist Benito Mussolini had high praise for the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes. He endorsed this statement by fascist James Strachey Barnes (Universal Aspects of Fascism, Williams and Norgate, London: UK, 1929, pp. 113-114): “Fascism entirely agrees with Mr. Maynard Keynes, despite the latter’s prominent position as a Liberal. In fact, Mr. Keynes’
Mussolini on Keynes’s economics Read More »
The opening of John C. Wright’s latest column in the Theist vs. Atheist series debate at EveryJoe: “Our story so far: Mr. Hicks and I have agreed to debate eight questions concerning theism and atheism. The topic for this week is whether religion is necessary for personal ethics. “Before turning to that question, a brief
Is Religion Necessary for Personal Morality? [new Theist vs. Atheist series column] Read More »
This image (click to enlarge) was taken during a state visit between socialist president Evo Morales of Bolivia and leftish pope Francis of the Vatican. The gift is a crucifix affixed to a sickle and hammer. I’m reminded of these words from my Nietzsche and the Nazis (2010), about the philosopher on Christianity and socialism:
Evo Morales, Pope Francis, and Friedrich Nietzsche Read More »
[This text is also available via my Texts in Philosophy page.] Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) Like all sound political conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in which it is inserted, and
Mussolini and Gentile’s *The Doctrine of Fascism* Read More »
Here is Henry Tandey of Warwickshire, UK, the most highly-decorated private in World War One. The following link is to an intriguing “What-if history” anecdote about Tandey, who crossed paths with Adolf Hitler in the war and decided not to kill him. [Image source: “Pte Tandey VC DCM MM” by Richard Harvey (Regimental Archivist), Duke
The man who spared Hitler’s life in WW I Read More »
Michael Pearce is the author of the recent Art in the Age of Emergence, for which I wrote this blurb: “Michael Pearce is that rare phenomenon — a practicing artist who knows art from the inside and an intellectual versed in what the cognitive sciences teach us about why we make art. This book —
Michael Pearce on the re-emergence of representational art Read More »
1924 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, and American philosopher John Dewey was writing a series of essays reflecting on philosophy and current events. The series was published in book form in 1929 as Characters and Events: Popular Essays in Social and Political Philosophy. Here are a few striking
John Dewey on Kant and the causes of World War I Read More »