Books
What I took away from reading the book On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt: To bullshit is to speak with an indifference to whether the statements uttered are true; to care for the effect of the words rather than whether they convey information. The indifference of bullshitting separates it from
Philosophy
[I]t is not necessary to choose between social control administered by the aggrandized state [collectivism] and a self-assertive individualism subject to no social control [libertarianism]. That supposedly exclusive choice, which causes such furious party antagonism in our society, overlooks entirely one of the oldest, best established, and most
Philosophy
For Kojève, the key concept in Hegel’s “Phenomenology” was recognition. Human beings want the recognition of other human beings in order to become self-conscious—to know themselves as autonomous individuals. As Kojève put it, humans desire, and what they desire is either something that other humans desire or
Philosophy
"Contrary to present-day prophets of self-discovery [...] there is no authentic core you discover when you probe yourself. Rather, knowing oneself requires a commitment to travel outside of oneself and join with others. Self-knowledge is a destination not an origin. At the beginning, before examination, we are
Sports
How did Joseph Vincent Paterno gain so much power over Pennsylvania State University that the top officials of that university would agree to cover up (and thus enable) child molestation in order to protect Paterno's chance to set the college football record for most coaching wins? An essay
Philosophy
"To propose to a man that he be someone else, that he become someone else, is to propose that he cease to be himself. Every man defends his own personality, and will agree to a change in his way of thinking or of feeling only in so far as
Philosophy
The following reflection on the unknowable vastness of human knowledge was written 75 years ago: SpenglerEduard Meyer So wrote Will Durant, looking back at the 1920s. When we think of the unknowable—the almost unfathomable—depths of what human individuals in the aggregate know; and then think of what is
Philosophy
In Book II (369a-372d) of the Republic, Socrates reasons step-by-step through what would be required to create a simple and harmonious city, one in which the citizens "will live in peace and good health, and when they die at a ripe old age, they will bequeath