One reason why goods are much less expensive now: “Freighters used to carry loose cargo in sacks and crates of various sizes, crammed into holds and piled on deck by stevedores. That began to change in 1956, when a Texas trucking magnate named Malcom McLean refitted an oil tanker with steel frames on its decks […]
Innovations in transportation: The Box Read More »
One more thing to thank the Enlightenment for. I’m reading a biography of Rossini. Gioachino was born into a musical family in February 1792 (two months after the death of Mozart), but his family always struggled financially. In the music world of the 1700s, the castrati had reached the height of their popularity due to
Rossini and the end of the castrati Read More »
(No peeking at the answer below.) “I want everyone to keep the property that he has acquired for himself according to the principle: benefit to the community precedes benefit to the individual. But the state should retain supervision and each property owner should consider himself appointed by the state. It is his duty not to
Which important leftist said this? Read More »
From a favorite novel. A mentor to the main character, a young boy named Peekay, speaking to the boy’s mother in the context of trying to convince her to let the boy take music lessons: “God and I have no quarrels, madame. The Almighty conceived the cactus plant. If God would choose a plant to
Cacti and metaphysics [From *The Power of One*] Read More »
A good example of how political philosophy is driven by ethics. Here is Engels, Karl Marx’s collaborator in writing The Communist Manifesto and other works, criticizing liberals — despite nineteenth-century liberalism’s great accomplishment in reducing war and promoting peace between nations: You have brought about the fraternisation of the peoples – but the fraternity is
Friedrich Engels against liberal peace Read More »
Judith Shklar (1928-1992) was Professor of Government at Harvard University, the first woman to receive tenure in that department. Her perfect zinger capturing the essence and the appeal of Rousseau: My discussion of Rousseau is in “The Climate of Collectivism,” which is Chapter Four of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault.
Rousseau: “the Homer of the losers” Read More »
“The greatest obstacle to discovery,” argues Barry Marshall, “is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge.” Marshall is the co-discoverer of Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes stomach ulcers, for which he won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine. But his hypothesis initially met with great resistance from the medical establishment, which was strongly committed
Barry Marshall, ulcers, and resistance to discovery Read More »
A world devastated by war. Sigmund Freud asserts “Man is a wolf to man.” Martin Heidegger — rejecting the Enlightenment and everything since ancient Greek philosophy — asks: “Are we allowed to tamper with the rule of ‘logic’?” Themes: The new psychology. Pessimism. Instinct and aggression. Logic as limiting. Emotions as accessing. Nihilism? World War