Art

Seminar: Philosophy and the Evolution of the Mixed Economy

One of my talks at Francisco Marroquín University was on making sense of our mixed economy–an unwieldy combination of market and socialist elements. The 28-minute talk integrates themes from my intellectual heroes–Smith, Mill, Mises, Hayek, Rand, Popper, Friedman, Buchanan, and Tullock–and connects market economics, politics, ethics, history, and public choice to explaining our semi-coherent mixed […]

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My interview for ReelNews on art and free markets

I was interviewed recently by Prodos Marinakis, Secretary of the Australian Council of Film Societies, on the theme “Two Views on Cinema & Capitalism.” From the interview’s description: “The highly articulate pioneers and founders of the Film Society Movement of Australia, like Ken Coldicutt of Melbourne and Beatrice Tildesley of Sydney, were critical of Capitalism

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Michael Strong on Socratic teaching

I like this paragraph from Michael Strong’s The Habit of Thought: “The effort of Socratic Practice is to develop students’ own standard of intellectual judgment by means of placing the onus of responsibility for understanding entirely on them and providing them with the tools and experiences necessary to develop their intellectual judgment. ‘Does it make

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Kindle edition of Explaining Postmodernism, Expanded Edition, now available

The Kindle version of the new, Expanded Edition of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault is now available. The hardcover will be out next month. The expanded edition also includes my Free Speech and Postmodernism and From Modern to Postmodern Art: Why Art Became Ugly essay. Images of the art works

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Talk at Liberty Fund on art and free markets

Earlier this week I gave a talk in Indianapolis at the excellent Liberty Fund on whether free-market capitalism is good or bad for art. The question matters in today’s intellectual context because thinkers on both left and right argue regularly that art suffers under free market systems. Traditional conservatives such as Robert Bork and neo-conservatives

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