I’ll be giving a talk on Friday, March 12 to the Houston Property Rights Association on the topic of “Entrepreneurship, Politics, and Ayn Rand”: “Why are business success and free markets so unpopular in some quarters? There are lots of reasons. One is that business is seen as immoral or boring or both. For the […]
Friday talk in Houston, Texas Read More »
The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has produced a monograph version of Timothy Sandefur’s To Pursue and Obtain Happiness and Safety, now available at cost at Amazon. In the monograph, Sandefur discusses economic liberty’s up-and-down legal fortunes, as the American founders’ original protections of productive freedom, property and contract rights came under attack during the
Timothy Sandefur on law and economic liberty Read More »
I invite you to read the abstract to this published (!) paper [pdf] by academics Antonio Maturano and Sergio Belluci. You will learn that Facebook is a “tool able to amplify an individual‘s alienation and narcissism, which, are a consequence of the mercantile form of social organization which has reached its climax in capitalism.” You
Pomo and the evils of social media Read More »
Yakov Rabinovich’s “The Sleep of Reason” reviews my Explaining Postmodernism. I like that guy.
“The Sleep of Reason” Read More »
While the world watched France’s revolution, an equally important cultural phenomenon was occurring across the Rhine: “In the year 1789 … nothing else was talked of in Germany but the philosophy of Kant, about which were poured forth in abundance commentaries, chrestomathies, interpretations, estimates, apologies, and so forth.” That’s Heinrich Heine, who also wrote, “Our
[We are reading Descartes’ Meditations this week in my Introduction to Philosophy course, so this is a re-post for new readers this semester.] I vote for Francis Bacon. . . The standard answer gives the honor to René Descartes. Descartes’s claim to the title is based primarily on his epistemology — specifically his method of
Who is the real father of modern philosophy? [repost] Read More »
Like Peter Keating, Gail Wynand pursues a use-and-be-used career strategy. Wynand uses strong-arm tactics when necessary in building up his newspaper’s market; he manipulates his employees with money to break their integrity; he fires those like Dominique who refuse to bend; and he lets the lowest-common-denominator of public taste dictate the content of the newspaper
Gail Wynand’s power strategy (Part 1) Read More »
[This is Section 36 of Nietzsche and the Nazis.] 36. Instinct, passion, and anti-reason Hitler was fond of saying, in private, “What luck that men do not think.” Another significant point of agreement exists between Nietzsche and the Nazis: Both agree that the great conflicts will not be solved rationally, through the processes of discussion,
Instinct, passion, and anti-reason Read More »