Rightly or wrongly we can decide when we’re more at our leisure; but in the meantime, John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice can be taken as pretty much the canon on distributive justice, at least in our relatively affluent Western… Read More ›
Hobbes
ASKABLES AND UNASKABLES
It’s not a taboo unless it’s also a taboo to question the taboo. I get that. But it’s not a violation of a law or a rule or a policy to question that law or rule or policy. If you… Read More ›
AN ANALYSIS OF MIRACLES IN THREE AWKWARD PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENTS
I. What is a Law of the Land? Thomas Hobbes thought that in a state of nature there’s “no government at all, except the government of small families, the concord whereof dependeth on natural lust,” I’m not sure the concord… Read More ›
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Note to self: Be careful how you sell yourself lest someone’s actually buying. Case in point? Fellow blogger Andrew Roman, may his tribe increase, has asked me to draw the distinction, if there is one, between justice and social justice…. Read More ›
HOW TO SURRENDER IN THE LANGUAGE WAR
What do Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, George Orwell, and post-modern feminists have in common? They all triangulate on the fact that we think in words. And so if you can control what can be said, you can control what… Read More ›
NOTES ON THE CULTURE WAR
The Cancel Culture War that’s been on high simmer for several years now has heated up considerably since the death of George Floyd on May 25th. That’s probably a good thing, insofar as the conflict is finally revealing what it’s… Read More ›
THE NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE MANTRA
I wouldn’t have thought it necessary to weigh in on the civil unrest sweeping across the U.S., and now across the entire western world. I’d have thought it almost analytic that people who are pissed off, and are taking their… Read More ›
AMERICA’S POLICING DILEMMA
The question, I suppose, is this. At what point should the penny have dropped for the Jews of Europe? When should they have started shooting the authorities at the door rather than come along peacefully? It’s easy to say in retrospect,… Read More ›
THE LEGACY OF GEORGE FLOYD
A law that’s impossible to obey isn’t a law. A law that’s impossible to disobey isn’t a law. A law that’s impossible to enforce isn’t a law. And a law that isn’t enforced isn’t a law. The most it can be… Read More ›
THE HARMS RACE
According to John Stuart Mill, in a liberal democracy all is permitted save what is prohibited. And what can be prohibited must be demonstrably harmful. But what’s meant by harm? It can’t be just a setback of interests. Your opening… Read More ›
