On the intellectual origins of the modern world and the postmodern break: My live interview with Vin Armani is now also at YouTube. Why, Vin Armani asks, if modernism has been so successful, do postmoderns reject it?
The Vin Armani Show — interviewed Read More »
My keynote speech at the joint The Representational Art Conference (TRAC) and Figurative Art Conference and Expo (FACE) will be given in Miami on November 10. My title is The Flight from the Figure — and Back: Human Significance in Art. The abstract is: Across centuries, the art world has exhibited cyclical trends of engagement
Keynote speech at TRAC — title and abstract Read More »
David Weinberger beats up on Keynes’s economics here: “despite numerous experiments since the 1930s, never has Keynesian policy precipitated a peacetime economic recovery.” And I beat up on Keynes’s politics here: “Keynes was not merely recommending a few surgical interventions to smooth out cycles or to jump-start moribund economies. Keynes’s economics are part of a
Keynes: bad economics and bad politics Read More »
Our discussion is embedded below or at YouTube. Topics discussed: 1:00: The various uses of “postmodern” 3:30: The epistemology of reason in early modern philosophy 4:30: Pomo as a skepticism about reason by mid-1900s 5:00: Individualism in early modern philosophy 7:00: Pomo as a reaction to individualism 7:30: Social-psychological-linguistic determinisms of mid-1900s 10:10: Perception and
Tyler Ashby discussion: Pomo, Perception, and Reason Read More »
Grégoire Canlorbe is a French intellectual entrepreneur. He currently resides in Paris. He interviewed me for The Foundation for Economic Education. Excerpt below: Grégoire Canlorbe: According to me, the underlying force that makes Ayn Rand’s heroes so addictive is power. They are in the railroad industry, a 130-year-old business built by the ingenuity and hard work
Was Ayn Rand an intellectual Stalin? Read More »
Our 90-minute conversation about the philosophy, psychology, and politics of postmodernism is below or at at YouTube. For subtitles in English, click the cc button in the lower right-center part of the frame. Dr. Peterson’s introduction: “On August 17, I spoke with Dr. Stephen Hicks, professor in the philosophy department at Rockford University. Dr. Hicks
Jordan Peterson discussion now with subtitles Read More »
In my Introduction to Philosophy course, we discuss Plato’s Crito. Here is a diagram of one line of argument: Here is an Excel version, should one want to add to or revise it for oneself. Related: Socrates’ Two Bad Arguments for Not Escaping. [The feature image is Jacques-Louis David’s portrayal of the death scene from
Crito versus Socrates — argument diagram Read More »
High-level politician uses private jets and makes taxpayers foot the bill. One side criticizes him for that. High-level politician uses private jets and pays for it herself. The other side criticizes her for that.
Private jets and public servants — instructive contrast Read More »
Jonathan Adler’s lengthy list of problems in Nancy MacLean’s book, which seems to be about a social construct labelled “James Buchanan.” What explains how such a book could be written by a professor and published by an academic press? (1) Trevor Burrus suggests that it could be the Lazy Jury Fallacy at work. (2) I
Nancy MacLean’s attack — lazy jury fallacy or pomo strategy? Read More »
The core idea of the Design Argument is that to explain the cause-and-effect order of the natural world, we must appeal to a divine Designer: the complexity of reality cannot be the product of random chance, so there must be a powerful intelligence behind it all that brought order into existence and keeps the operation
The Design Argument — six critical questions Read More »