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Category Archives: commentary
The Dismal Science and its Discontents
I note that the Freakonomics folks are doubling down, giving Nathan Myhrvold (the controversial advocate of geo-engineering solutions to climate change that they leaned on too heavily in the final chapter of their book) a platform to defend his contributions and De Long lets Nicholas Weaver reply to the technical points of Myhrvold’s post. However, [...]
Posted in commentary Tagged Chicago School, economics, Enlightenment, Freakonomics, philosophy, science Leave a comment
Mansfield Park: Volume 3
As I said in a previous post, I have been re-reading Mansfield Park while writing (yet to be completed) the essay on the novel, looking out for signs of the novel going off the boil as other critics have claimed. Fanny’s genteel horror at her Portsmouth home and relations is very well done, yet Austen [...]
Posted in commentary Tagged ethics, Jane Austen, literary criticism, Mansfield Park, philosophy Leave a comment
Mansfield Park Update
I am sorry for the drought in posts: I am working on the Mansfield Park essay. It is taking longer than I anticipated, and I find it hard to break away from this in the middle, but it is going well. As it will take another day or so I will force myself to take [...]
Posted in commentary Tagged Alasdair Macintyre, Enlightenment, ethics, irrationalism, Jane Austen, moralist, philosophy Leave a comment
Update and Happiness
Delay in Posting
I am sorry for yesterday’s posting drought and the delay in the next part of the Mansfield Park essay. This is partly due to outside factors but mainly due to the length of time it is taking to write the main section of the essay. That I should over-estimate my preparedness and underestimate [...]
Also posted in topical Tagged classical philosophy, ethics, happiness, Jane Austen, philosophy, rationalism, reason, Romanticism, scientism Leave a comment
About Page Updated
I have updated my about page to reflect my evolving understanding of the blog. It now starts:
Posted in commentary Tagged blogging, Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, philosophy Leave a comment
Why religion is valuable
In my previous post, The problem with the Enlightenment, I set out my conviction that the Enlightenment had established a false view of the self, that I labelled Romantic, and that this false view had insinuated itself into modern religion as well as its discontents. (See The romantic Austen (IV) for a taster of [...]
Also posted in 1 philosophy Tagged Christianity, David Hume, Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, Kant, original sin, philosophy, Romanticism, Rousseau Leave a comment
The problem with the Enlightenment
My writing here may give the impression that I think religion is necessary for a meaningful and ethical life and it has been pointed pointed out that secular and atheist people are capable of leading meaningful and ethical lives. And indeed they can, though I strongly recommend Thomas Nagel on the meaning of life [...]
Also posted in 1 philosophy, correspondence Tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, philosophy, religion Leave a comment
The Ghost of Madness
I have been doing some reading while taking a break in Cork, checking out J.B. Schneewind’s magnum opus, The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy. I will blog about this later, but here I want to share something from the preface of Ray Monk’s biography, Bertrand Russell: The Ghost of Madness: 1921-1970 [...]
Posted in commentary Tagged atheism, Bertrand Russell, madness, philosophers, philosophy, secularism Leave a comment
Why this Matters (II)
In today’s Guardian George Monbiot publishes a gripping email exchange between himself and Paul Kingsnorth. Paul’s opening salvo is worth quoting at length.
On the desk in front of me is a set of graphs. The horizontal axis of each represents the years 1750 to 2000. The graphs show, variously, population levels, CO2 concentration in [...]
Posted in commentary Tagged Enlightenment, ethics, irrationalism, philosophy, religion, secularism, William Cowper 1 Comment
A Philosophical Retrospective
I have now completed the articles I planned to write for the philosophy section, bar a conclusion and introductory article. I hope to put a table of contents into the sidebar providing links to all of the articles that make up the thesis before moving onto the next section on literary criticism. Completing [...]
PunkPhilosophy.com
Reflecting after leaving this comment on John Holbo’s Persausion and Reason book website, I realised just how spikey and thoroughly outrageous my posts must appear. It came to me that this was really a kind of Punk Philosophy.
I am hoping to avoid getting physically lynched (Johnny Rotten’s fate) and every other similarity, bar this one. [...]
Posted in commentary Tagged Buddhism, ethics, Jane Austen, Johnny Rotten, philosophy, punk rock Leave a comment
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