University of Pittsburgh philosophy professor Robert Brandom: “I want to start going back and looking at the roots of American pragmatism in the German Idealist tradition. I think developments over the last four decades have secured Immanuel Kant’s status as being for contemporary philosophers what the sea was for the poet Swinburne: ‘the great grey […]
Robert Brandom: Kant as “the great grey mother of us all” Read More »
What explains the dramatic differences in economic performance between the two Americas? Take some World Bank GDP numbers — one measure of economic success. We want people to make an adequate living, especially poor people who are struggling. And if we are ambitious, we want people to live the good life — including expensive things
Comparing North and Latin America Economic Performance [Good Life series] Read More »
Here are two recent reviews of philosopher Neera Badhwar’s (recommended) Well-Being: Happiness in a Worthwhile Life (Oxford University Press, 2014): * Professor Jason Raibley in Ethics (pdf, or via Academia.edu). * Professor Jean Karez in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
Two reviews of Neera Badhwar’s *Well-Being* Read More »
I’m reading Radical by Nature: The Green Assault on Liberty, Property, and Prosperity by Thomas J. McCaffrey. His target is radical environmentalism. Environmentalism as a big-tent label like feminism, liberalism, and conservatism, each having many competing strands within. McCaffrey focuses on the most philosophically fundamental versions of envrionmentalism — and with good reason, as that
McCaffrey’s *Radical by Nature* Read More »
The latest issue of Kaizen [pdf] features the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s interview with Lall Singh on the theme of Entrepreneurial Finance in England. Also featured in this issue of Kaizen are guest speakers Robert Garmong, Douglas Rasmussen, and Piotr Kostyło, as well as our Entrepreneurial Education conference and a conference we hosted with the Austrian Economics
Kaizen 31: British entrepreneur Lall Singh Read More »
“If the growth of reason is to continue, and human rationality to survive, then the diversity of individuals and their opinions, aims, and purposes must never be interfered with …. Even the emotionally satisfying appeal for a common purpose, however excellent, is an appeal to abandon all rival moral opinions and the cross-criticisms and arguments
Karl Popper on diversity of opinion and values [quotation] Read More »
[Every few years I post an updated version of student bloopers from exams and essays.] A Brief History of Philosophy Humor alert: Being a compilation of student research collected over the years, gently edited by Stephen Hicks, Rockford University (updated: December 2016). Is philosophy a waist of time? Ethical debates have been around for a
An Alternate History of Philosophy — Student edition (2016) Read More »
Here are Mark Michael Lewis and I in conversation about applied philosophy. A rough guide to the topics: 1. Why you should always take arguments at their best [10:15 minutes] 2. Why many philosophers are “left” [16:00] 3. How Objectivism is an “outlier” philosophy [19:00] 4. Third-generation postmodernism and the weaponry of affirmative action [25:00]
Making Work Beautiful, and more — Interviewed by Mark Michael Lewis Read More »