The main character is a young architect. A creative designer — he is visionary and innovative the use of materials. Before he can finish his formal training, a conflict with a teacher leads to his expulsion. So he has an extra challenge to breaking into his profession. Another major character is a highly intelligent and […]
A book recommendation Read More »
My colleagues in the Department of Philosophy, Shawn Klein and Matthew Flamm, will be leading a reading group on Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Adam Smith is best known as an economist and a critic of mercantilism and as an early advocate of market economies. Less well known is Smith the moral philosopher.
Reading group on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments Read More »
I’m reading Steven Johnson’s The Invention of Air, which is primarily about the Joseph Priestley, the great chemist and adviser to the American founding fathers. Along the way, Johnson quotes historian Tom Standage: “The impact of the introduction of coffee into Europe during the seventeenth century was particularly noticeable since the most common beverages of
Coffee and the Enlightenment Read More »
A warning to start: This video is repulsive, but I can’t stop thinking about it. The scene is Christmas morning, and we see a youth opening a present. He first thinks he’s gotten an Xbox — but then he realizes that his present is clothes packaged in an Xbox container. We see the kid’s emotions
Sadistic gift giving Read More »
I am a member of an oppressed minority. I have known this for a long time, but recently came across a smoking gun — or at least a smoldering gun — irrefutable evidence of the calloused underbelly of our culture’s indifference to those who are different. Click on this image for the full size to
I will be giving a talk next week to a graduate philosophy class at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The theme of my talk is: What Philosophers Need to Know about Economics. Over the past generation BGSU has developed one of the country’s strongest programs in applied ethics and political philosophy, so it will
Popular Science‘s “Looking Back at the 100 Best Innovations of 2009.”
Bridge over the Colorado River Read More »
Heard on a call-in talk show about this year’s most popular songs. A young woman phoned in to give her opinion about the rankings and along the way made this comment: “A lot of radio stations have ‘The Drive at 5’ shows, when they play a lot of cool songs without commercials. I think it’s
Fairness: frontiers in re-definition Read More »