What makes liberal capitalism good? Here is a flowchart I’ve developed for use in some upcoming talks. The chart diagrams the positive claims about liberal capitalism by its defenders — John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and others. Click on the image for full size […]
Justifying liberal capitalism Read More »
My talk at the 2012 Atlas Summit in Washington, DC, is now online. My themes: * Our schizophrenic public policy culture: health, sex, religion, money * What wealth is: tangible, intangible, and institutional assets * Entrepreneurism as a cultural asset * Objectivism’s entrepreneurial ethic * Principled strategy in a mixed economy * Three challenges: abstractness,
Video lecture: “Public Policy, Objectivism, and Entrepreneurship” Read More »
How would you judge this case? A woman is away on a business trip. During the trip, she has consensual sex with a male partner at a motel. The motel room was paid for by her employer. But during sex a light fixture is broken off a wall and lands on her face, causing injuries.
Business ethics: injured during sex while sort-of on the job Read More »
At Quizlet, someone has created study cards for my Explaining Postmodernism. Here, for example, are the flash cards for Chapter 2 on Kant, reason, structuralism, Hegel, and so on. Neat. May they be helpful to those students in various universities reading it this academic year as a textbook.
Quiz flashcards for Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
After a terrible yesterday, like many people I am still trying to understand how someone could do those horrible things. I run through the list of factors and wonder which ones contributed causally. His being male? His mental abilities/disabilities? How his parents raised him? His living in a society with access to firearms or with
Firearm death rates and more Read More »
At Harvard University, here is the reading list for the 2012 entering freshman class: * A More Perfect Union — Barack Obama, 2008. President Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, addressing race and inequality in the United States. * Every Asian American I Know Is Smart — Frank H. Wu (Professor of Law
Harvard versus Rockford: what freshmen read Read More »
Philosophers are noted for their stylish prose as well as their profound insights. Or, to put that point in another, perhaps more felicitous, formulation, they are justly celebrated for their abilities in the words-putting-togetherness department. Earlier I presented some 100-plus word monster sentences from philosophers — Mill, Kant, Aristotle, Locke. But now, via Stuart Hayashi,
Philosophy’s longest sentences — Bentham edition Read More »
John Merrow on “Rebirth: New Orleans,” a documentary about the transformation of schools in New Orleans after the hurricane, mostly by means of charter schools. “In 2004, not even one-third of 8th graders in New Orleans could pass a state reading test. In some schools, the number was lower — just 4 percent. “Since then
New Orleans schools rebuild after Katrina Read More »