Philosophy
Announcements, Philosophy
Sam Harris and Alex O’Connor Debate Morality
Craig Biddle April 20, 2024
I was delighted to see that Alex O’Connor recently debated Sam Harris about whether ethics is objective and, if so, on what grounds.
Arts & Culture, Philosophy
The Triumph of Defeat: Lust, Wine, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Jon Hersey March 7, 2024
The success of many of today's popular musical artists evinces a broad cultural trend: the triumph of defeat—that is, the near-universal acceptance that we are but confused and helpless creatures.
Good Living, Philosophy, Reviews
Why It’s OK to Mind Your Own Business by Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke
Timothy Sandefur February 8, 2024
The task of justifying a life aimed at self-improvement, flourishing, or ataraxia is a substantial one for writers on ethics. Unfortunately, Tosi and Warmke barely try.
Arts & Culture, Philosophy
Individualism in Anthem, Jane Eyre, and The Giver
Angelica Walker-Werth January 12, 2024
Many literary works depict individualist heroes struggling against collectivist societies, but three brilliant examples are Charlotte Brönte’s classic Jane Eyre, Lois Lowry’s award-winning young-adult novel The Giver, and Ayn Rand’s dystopian novella Anthem.
Good Living, Philosophy
Helen Keller’s Five Keys to Being Happy
Craig Biddle August 29, 2023
In 1882, when Helen Keller was nineteen months old, an illness left her blind, deaf, and consequently dumb. But she would go on to live a life of success and happiness. How?
Arts & Culture, Philosophy
George Lucas Gets the Moral Meaning of Star Wars Wrong
Thomas Walker-Werth August 29, 2023
George Lucas says that selfishness puts one on the dark side, but it’s really the other way around. Selfishness, properly understood, is the rational concern for one’s own interests. It is the light.
Good Living, Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Navigating Today’s Seductive and Destructive Language (A Study of Package-Deals and Anti-Concepts)
Craig Biddle May 24, 2023
If we want to understand and protect the values on which human life and liberty depend, we need clear understandings of the terms we use in thinking about them. Toward this end, it is helpful to understand the fallacy that Rand called “package-dealing” and the nature of what she called “anti-concepts.”
Ayn Rand & Objectivism, Economics, History, Philosophy, Politics & Rights
Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, and the Philosophic Foundation for Freedom
Jon Hersey May 24, 2023
Adam Smith and Ayn Rand are widely considered to offer merely different flavors of pro-capitalist thought. But their differences are greater—and far more consequential—than their similarities.
Philosophy
The Ethics of Belief
William Kingdon Clifford May 24, 2023
William Kingdon Clifford was a 19th-century English mathematician and philosopher. In this essay, “The Ethics of Belief,” originally published in 1877, he argues that “it is wrong always, everywhere and for any one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”
Good Living, Philosophy
Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life by Emily A. Austin
Timothy Sandefur May 18, 2023
Living for Pleasure is a fun and much-needed introduction to the ideas of one of the world’s greatest philosophers. Epicurus’s teachings about reason, desire, and tranquility are as important now as they were twenty-three hundred years ago.