For use in my courses, additions to my Texts in Philosophy page. Derrick Bell, “Racial Realism,” Connecticut Law Review 24:2 (1992). Auguste Comte, Catechism of Positive Religion, Conversations I-V, (1852) John Locke, Book 4 of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). Karl Popper, “Science: Conjectures and Refutations” (1962). Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality […]
Texts in Philosophy — early 2024 additions Read More »
I did not know that in 1818 a younger Arthur Schopenhauer, aged 30, made a trip to Florence, Italy, where he pursued love. Unfortunately for Arthur, it didn’t go well. “After a number of rejections, he decided that ‘only the male intellect, clouded by the sexual impulse, could call the undersized, narrow-shouldered, broad-hipped, and short-legged
Schopenhauer in and out of love Read More »
“To emulate a worthy man is not to re-live his individual life, but to utilize the principle of worthy living, exemplified by him, toward the qualitative improvement of our individual life.” Source: David L. Norton, Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (Princeton University Press, 1976), 13. Quoted in Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas
David L. Norton on emulating worthy men Read More »
Stephen Hicks, Professor of Philosophy (USA) and John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister (Australia) discuss what the National Socialists of Germany adapted, controversially, from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Related: Professor Hicks’s full book treatment of the topic:
What the Nazis took from Nietzsche — 5-minute clip from Australia Read More »
I re-read Eric Mack’s “Blind Injustice” [updated link], an excellent overview and critique of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice. Rawls’s book is the most influential work of academic political philosophy in the last half-century, and Mack’s essay is the best short analysis I know of. By contrast: The moral basis for Rand’s liberalism, in
Philosopher Eric Mack on John Rawls Read More »
In this introductory volume, Professor Stephen R. C. Hicks makes the essential arguments for and against liberalism. Each argument is supported by quotations from the major thinkers—including Locke, Nietzsche, Plato, Hayek, de Maistre, Rand, Marx, and others—who have advanced or attacked liberalism. The Pro-Liberal claims: Liberalism increases freedom | People work harder in liberal societies |
*Liberalism Pro and Con* A Primer [e-book version] Read More »
A reminder of this prescient remark from Mises’ Liberalism — a book published in 1927: “Fascism can triumph today because universal indignation at infamies committed by the socialist and communists has obtained for it the sympathies of wide circles. But when the fresh impression of the crimes of the Bolsheviks has paled, the socialist program
The recurring socialism/fascism cycle — Mises observation Read More »
A re-post of my Galileo and the Modern Compromise: 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
Galileo, free speech & censorship, religion and science Read More »