Auguste Comte coined the term “altruism” and is a founder of sociology. What is altruism, and why does Comte argue for a “Sociocracy”—i.e., the rule of priestly sociologist-kings? Who are the great philosophers and what are their key ideas? From the beginning of philosophy in Greek myths to the influential thinkers of our own time, […]
In 2006, Professor Smith published Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (Cambridge University Press). In 2007, I reviewed it for the journal Philosophy in Review. Here is an audio version in MP3 format or at YouTube. Eight minutes: And here is a PDF version. Related: My review of David Kelley’s The Evidence of the
Review of Tara Smith’s *Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics* — audio version Read More »
Reprising this post on a fascinating and oft-debated issue: Beethoven’s sense of life. To start — three sensitive commentators on the meaning of Beethoven’s music. * Hermann Hesse, the Nobel-Prize-winning novelist, in Steppenwolf, contrasting Mozart to Beethoven (and to Kleist, who committed suicide at age 34): “You have lent a deaf ear to those that
Beethoven’s romantic fatalism Read More »
Beethoven, according to biographer Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven: “Wegeler tells us that when a series of lectures on Kant was organized in Vienna in the 1790s, ‘Beethoven didn’t want to attend even once, even under my urging.’ Rather, Beethoven preferred self-education through voracious reading in popularizations of the works of the major thinkers; through rich encounters
How great artists become great Read More »
Sample data for 2023 * Walmart net profit: 2.13% * City of Chicago sales tax on WalMart purchases: 10.25% * US federal government tax rate on Walmart: 29.1%.
Price gouging at Walmart Read More »
On their Theory of Anything podcast, Bruce Nielson and Peter Johansen discuss epistemology with me. One big question we take up: Before doing high-level philosophy of science—logic, math, experiment design, theory-formation—how important is it to have good accounts of base-level cognition—perception, conception, proposition-formation? Another: What are the similarities and differences between Critical Rationalism (launched by
Critical Rationalism and Objectivism—on the Theory of Anything podcast Read More »
In the first episode of the new season of Open College, my question in this episode is for my fellow parents and educators in this era of accelerating robotics and artificial intelligence: How do we prepare young people to work at jobs that don’t exist yet? “Artificial Intelligence Means Entrepreneurial Education Now“ Episode Number: 56
Answering the question in their own words: Two photos of flyers posted on university bulletin boards as I’ve traveled around giving campus talks. Related: My talk this year in Washington, DC, on the “social justice”, postmodern, and critical-theory roots of this generation’s Wokism:
Do the Woke Want the Lesser to Succeed — Or the Successful to Fail? Read More »