Like many of you, I am engaged with thinking through the healthcare proposals and debates and am occasionally frustrated with the scattered focus and the talking past the other guy’s position. So, as a start, I propose a clarification of the questions involved. As I see it, the overall healthcare discussion is a four-dimensional debate: […]
The four healthcare debates Read More »
Cautionary Tale #1 The plague hit London again in the hot summer of 1665. Panic struck and rumors abounded about its cause. The Lord Mayor of London was convinced of one theory: the plague was spread by cats and dogs. So he ordered all the city’s cats and dogs killed, and an estimated 40,000 dogs
Two cautionary tales about cholera, the plague, and politics Read More »
. . I haven’t read Anne Heller’s book, but Timothy Sandefur’s review makes me want to. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) . . .
Sandefur reviews Anne Heller on Ayn Rand Read More »
My fourth and final contribution to contest, my earlier three being from John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, and Aristotle. I am surprised that we have no entries from Hegel, Fichte, or Heidegger, noted for their why-say-it-in-eight-words-when-sixty-are-available tendencies. But to my knowledge, the longest sentence written by a philosopher is the following 309-word original from the
Philosophy’s longest sentences, part 4 Read More »
John Adams the mini-series came out last year, but I just began watching it yesterday. The first two episodes are excellent. What a great way to spend part of July 4. Paul Giamatti’s performance hooked me: I have a renewed appreciation for John Adams’s brilliance, determination, and integrity. I also have an enlarged appreciation for
Late to the show, but excellent timing Read More »
“Read the news today? It’s like ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is happening in real life,” as this Facebook group points out. Many intelligent observers have noted the connection, which has led to sharply increased sales of Atlas and prominent coverage of Atlas‘s themes in Business Week, Forbes, the New York Times, the Economist, The Wall Street Journal,
The increasing(ly clear) relevance of Ayn Rand Read More »
My third contribution to the contest to find the longest sentences ever published by a philosopher, my first and second contributions being a 161-word contender from John Stuart Mill and a 163-word heavyweight from Immanuel Kant. We turn now to Book 1 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: “Now if the function of man is an activity
Philosophy’s longest sentences, Part 3 Read More »
Here is my second contribution to the contest. Edging out John Stuart Mill’s 161-word effort is the following from Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals: “And then nothing can protect us against a complete falling away from our Ideas of duty, or can preserve in the soul a grounded reverence for its law,
Philosophy’s longest sentences, Part 2 Read More »