Topic: Philosophy

Adam Smith on Self-Deceit

– December 7, 2021

“Bad men sustain delusions to deny their self-deceptions. Smithian liberalism limits the evils that delusional men can wreak, and it tends to contest and correct their delusions in the first instance.” ~ Daniel B. Klein

Economic Education, Free Trade, Philosophy

On Hayek’s “Kinds of Order in Society,” Part I

– December 6, 2021

“In ‘Kinds of Order in Society,’ Hayek identified two categorically different kinds of orders – ‘spontaneous orders’ and ‘organizations’ – that are both common and useful to humans.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Education, Philosophy, Young Voices

Woke Universities are Rousseau’s Children

– December 6, 2021

“In their furious effort to dictate what speech is and is not acceptable, universities like Michigan and Oklahoma have embraced Rousseau’s censorship, and therefore tyranny.” ~ Garion Frankel

Art and Culture, Crisis, Government, Philosophy

The Fire and the Dream

– November 24, 2021

“The Fire Is Upon Us goes deeply into Buckley’s and Baldwin’s longstanding positions on civil rights and race, thus acquainting us better with the full dimensions of the issue—probably the most consequential one of the whole brimming decade.” ~ David B. Frisk

Government, History, Philosophy

Who Was Buckley?

– November 24, 2021

“For the many nostalgic conservatives with strong emotional investments in Buckley, the fading of familiarity with him among his countrymen hurts a little, and should.” ~ David B. Frisk

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Government, Philosophy

’Till Tireless Propaganda Tames’: C.S. Lewis’ Prescient Warning

– November 2, 2021

“Our government’s power is granted by us, for us, which is why government is limited and constitutionally forbidden from taking our individual, God-given rights. Hold the line and remember.” ~ Jon Sanders

Classical Liberalism, Economic Education, Free Markets, Philosophy

Adam Smith and Problems with the New Paternalism

– October 30, 2021

“Dynamic perspectives on welfare exacerbate the error-identification problem. If we ourselves are in the process of discovering our values, how can an external party possibly arrange our choices such that they make us better off as judged by ourselves?” ~ Erik Matson

Authoritarianism, Books, Government, Philosophy

We at 100: The Case for Liberty

– October 27, 2021

“Yet Zamyatin leaves readers with hope, as valuable now as it was in 1921. As I-330 says, there is no final number, so ‘how can there be a final revolution? There is no final one. The number of revolutions is infinite.’ Even when liberty seems most at risk, it is never truly lost.” ~ Caroline Breashears

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Philosophy, Science

Principles, Not Coercion, Are the Source of Unity

– October 23, 2021

“True unity, our shared humanity, must rest on the principle of natural rights. Rights-based unity leads to cooperation and harmony based on respect for voluntary choices made by individuals, especially when their choices differ from our own.” ~ Barry Brownstein

Crisis, Education, Government, Philosophy

Let’s Save Liberal Education by Rethinking It

– October 21, 2021

“Those of us who believe there is more to life than consumption and production have a duty to explain why liberal education matters. It is a duty that is not only to ourselves but, more importantly, to our students, if we wish them to be good citizens and good people, and truly to be free.” ~ Lee Trepanier

Art and Culture, History, Philosophy

The Hume-Rousseau Affair

– October 19, 2021

“The blow-up between two of Europe’s most illustrious intellectuals was an affaire célèbre throughout Europe at the time. The two protagonists could not have disagreed more in their moral and political tendencies and influence.” ~ Daniel B. Klein

Classical Liberalism, Economic Theory, History, Philosophy

Liberalism Then and Now

– October 3, 2021

“A puzzle remains, namely, what has transformed liberalism from the staunch preserver of liberty, with John Stuart Mill being its most celebrated spokesman, to ‘St. George,’ the righteous zealot, who vows to slay all human sufferings?” ~ Habi Zhang