Since 1990, the percentage of Americans who are Christian fell by 11 points, while the percentage of atheists rose 7 points. Those are, as Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today writes, “dramatic shifts in just 18 years.” According to this Pew Forum survey, religiousness in Illinois is below the national average, which may explain the […]
Religion in America, 2009 Read More »
How much do the twelve days of Christmas cost this year?
The twelve days of Christmas: consumer price index Read More »
Following up on The Knife Man and John Hunter, the great 18th-century anatomist and surgeon. In Hunter’s era surgery was brutal, in large part due to surgeons’ ignorance of anatomy, and in that earlier post I wondered why there was still such ignorance given that the 1700s were two centuries after Andreas Vesalius and a
Anatomy and philosophy Read More »
[This is Appendix 4 of Nietzsche and the Nazis. Sources for the quotations are at the end of this post.] Appendix 4: Quotations on German militarism Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): “War itself, if it is carried on with order and with a sacred respect for the rights of citizens, has something sublime in it, and makes
Appendix 4: Quotations on German militarism [Nietzsche and the Nazis] Read More »
[This excerpt is from Chapter 2 of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault] Metaphysical solutions to Kant: from Hegel to Nietzsche Georg W. F. Hegel’s philosophy is another fundamentally Counter-Enlightenment attack on reason and individualism. His philosophy is a partially secularized version of traditional Judeo-Christian cosmology. While Kant’s concerns centered upon epistemology,
Metaphysical solutions to Kant Read More »
For my Introduction to Philosophy course, the final question on the final exam was: In your judgment, what is the most dangerous book we read this semester? Present the book’s most important themes and explain why you think it is dangerous. We read five major authors in the course: Plato’s Apology and Crito, Ayn Rand’s
What is the most dangerous philosophy book? Read More »
The University of Alabama is canceling three days of classes for a football game in January. The university’s representative notes that “the three canceled class days will not be made up elsewhere on the calendar.” Meanwhile: The University of Wisconsin closed for one day last week when the city got 17.5 inches of snow. Professor
Two universities’ school closings Read More »
Examinations: done. Recreation: begun.
A 3 a.m. poem, after a marathon grading season Read More »