Happy 2023: Adam and God
“What is the place of God in our ethics? What is our nature? What is our civilization? Which way is up? The Smith tercentenary is a special opportunity to come together in Adam Smith.” ~ Daniel B. Klein
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Adam Smith on Humanity’s Greatest Weakness
“Worse than simply refusing to see our self-deceit, we feel morally justified in transgressing against others. Smith was right, self-deceit is responsible for much of the suffering of humanity.” ~ Barry Brownstein
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The American Heritage of Freedom in the Liberal Arts
“The study of human nature through the liberal arts will help us in this return. As the student studies man’s capabilities, he learns to preserve liberty rather than trampling on others’ or relinquishing his own.” ~ Paul D. Moreno
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A Swiss Oasis of Liberal Sanity in a Totalitarian Europe
“Let us hope that such oases always exist somewhere to help preserve the spirit of classical liberalism during times of ideological and philosophical crisis.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling
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In Defense of Arguing
“When we refuse to engage in argument, even out of perceived politeness, we allow more bad ideas to take hold and propagate. Unintended consequences and wasted resources multiply.” ~ Laura Williams
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Professors Are Not “Priests of Democracy”
“If we ascribe qualities like academic freedom, free speech, opposition to censorship, and skepticism of government to American democracy, as Walker does, then we should avoid putting academia on a pedestal it does not deserve.” ~ Garion Frankel
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Capitalism’s Cure for Economic Sins
“Anyone who takes economic ideas and their moral implications seriously would do well to clear space on their bookshelf for Seven Deadly Economic Sins.” ~ Richard Morrison
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America the Friendless
“We must encourage the civil associations that Tocqueville celebrated in Americans of the 1830s. Cultivating the mediating ‘little platoons’ found in gatherings of religious groups, book clubs, and hunting associations all can do much good on this project.” ~ Adam M. Carrington
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The Revolutionary Trigger
“We have a duty to confront a vital-but-uncomfortable question: at what point must Americans take it upon ourselves to revolt? In other words, what is the revolutionary trigger?” ~ Max Borders
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Driving Liberty in the Traffic of Tolerance
“Liberty is the ability to stay in my lane without having to worry about others as obstacles to my progress. Tolerance comes from the complex mix of political institutions that result in a rule of law, like traffic lanes, that ensure liberty is shared by all.” ~ Michael D. Thomas
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A Question of Relationships: Are Our Personal Preferences Always “Personal?”
“Accounting for the influence of relational dynamics may help us better understand some of the more vexing behaviors left unexplained by an over-strict adherence to methodological individualism.” ~ Paul Schwennesen & April Liu
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In Defense of Generosity
“As Thomas Aquinas indicated, none is so poor as to lack the means to be generous. The planned, egalitarian society is not the only just or good one, and a community in which generosity thrives is the very antithesis of a tyranny.” ~ Richard Gunderman
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