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Category Archives: topical
Management Science
Well, I promised myself I’d finish this before the sequel appeared in the shops, and the conclusion has been made, shall we say, somewhat easier by the fact that the burden of my conclusion – that there is something terribly, horribly wrong with the state of modern economics – has become somewhat of an open [...]
Posted in topical Tagged economics, Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, management science, philosophy Leave a comment
Why I Read Blogs
Further to my previous post, here is a selection of Monday posts from my top five bloggers (this time in reverse alphabetical order).
Freakonomics and The Dismal Science
Cute-o-nomics
The maps of real knowledge, designed for real life, showed nothing except things which allegedly could be proved to exist. The first principle of the philosophical mapmakers seemed to be “If in doubt, leave it out,” or put it into a museum. It occurred to me, however, that the question of [...]
Posted in topical Tagged altruism, E F Schumacher, economics, egoism, ethics, Marilynne Robinson, philosophy, psychological egoism 2 Comments
Why I am a Zionist
I thoroughly applauded Recip Erdogan in taking to task Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos in January over operation Cast Lead (the Israeli assault on Gaza), so why have I recently started calling myself a Zionist? Let me explain.
Posted in topical Tagged ethics, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Northern Ireland conflict, Palestine, peace, Zionism Leave a comment
Free Will, Super Freakocide and Mansfield Park
(See below for updates.)
Horgan on Free Will
On his blog at the Centre for Science Writing ,John Horgan has been looking at Free Will, ethics and science, his latest post skewering an Einstein quote using a quintessential classical physics analogy (lunar orbits) to suggest that Free Will is an illusion.
I agree with John’s broad thesis, about [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Buddhism, Christianity, climate change, ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, Rowan Williams Leave a comment
Greed is Good
Following on my ethics of finance theme, the Goldman Sachs profits and the Lloyds bid to get out of the UK toxic asset insurance scheme there has been much discussion of just what is going on.
This side of the pond first. In response to the Lloyds move, Simon Jenkins wrote a blistering piece in the [...]
Posted in topical Tagged banking, Darwinism, economics, ethics, financial crisis, greed, Marilynne Robinson, selfishness Leave a comment
Brooks and Lazy Debt Moralism
I do enjoy reading David Brooks, perhaps because there are few I disagree with so agreeably. David has written a column today praising the responsibility of the Tories for their fiscal responsibility. I suppose responsibility is a relative thing and relative to the Republicans the Tories are indeed responsible. The problem is that nobody has [...]
Posted in topical Tagged debt, ethics, GOP, irrationalism, politics, public finance, sentimentalism, Tories Leave a comment
Fanny and Edmund
This post is part of an essay on Mansfield Park, being posted in instalments.
Mansfield Park
Preface
Introduction
Method
Critiques
The Moral Law Within
Fanny and Edmund
The Crawfords
Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram
Mrs Norris
The Quiet Thing
Enlightenment
Kantian Deontology
King Lear
Romanticism
The Satirical Inheritance
Conclusion
Epilogue: Diminutive Greatness & Fanny Price
3.2 Fanny and Edmund
prig
noun a self-righteously moralistic person
Compact Oxford English Dictionary
In any assessment of Mansfield Park it is important [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, Kant, literary criticism, Mansfield Park, philosophy, rationalism, Romanticism, sentimentalism Leave a comment
Thought Crimes
Over at Crooked Timber, Henry has kicked off an interesting discussion of the importance of intent in the law, based on the US conservative legislator John Boehner’s accusing liberals of thought crimes.
“All violent crimes should be prosecuted vigorously, no matter what the circumstance,” Boehner argued. “The Democrats’ ‘thought crimes’ legislation, however, places a higher value [...]
Posted in topical Tagged conservatism, criminal law, ethics, Jane Austen, Joseph Butler, philosophy, progessives Leave a comment
Sex, Cable TV and the Ecocidal Moment (and MP)
Let us take these in reverse order, coming back to Mansfield Park. Rowan Williams in a speech in Southark Cathedral to mark an Anglican push on climate change is waving the flag over Alastair McIntosh’s latest book.
In his splendid book, Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition, Alastair McIntosh speaks of [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Cowper, environment, Epicurus, ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, Romanticism, sex Leave a comment
Cheapening Life
Galen Strawson has an article Why I have no Future over at The Philosophy Magazine. It is sad to say, but as modern moral philosophy goes I think it is quite unremarkable. It opens.
If, in any normal, non-depressed period of life, I ask myself whether I’d rather be alive than dead tomorrow morning, and completely [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Buddhism, death, ethics, philosophy, physicalism, rebirth, reincarnation Leave a comment
Calvin and the Fall
Paul Helm has an interesting series on John Calvin over at the Guardian CiF belief (part 1, part 2). I was first alerted to the subtlety of Calvin’s thought by Marilynne Robinson’s Death of Adam essays and this series of articles is consistent with what I remember from Robinson.
John Calvin of course was supposed [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Christianity, ethics, John Calvin, philosophy, rationalism, The Fall, theology Leave a comment
Williams on the Ethics of War
Henry at Crooked Timber notes how even centrists are contributing to the shouting match that makes up so much of our contemporary intellectual public discourse, pointing out that a little self-knowledge wouldn’t go amiss where one centrist is concerned. Having my head in Mansfield Park at the moment, I could help adding that some more [...]
Posted in topical Tagged ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, Rowan Williams, war Leave a comment
The Post-rational Discourse
Henry over at Crooked Timber has posted Centrism as Tribalism on how centrists can be just as strident and aggressive as the partisans. This is indeed an excellent point! I am especially fond of it because it highlights something I have been saying, that the breakdown in rationality is systemic to our ethics. Henry [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Christianity, culture wars, Enlightenment, ethics, irrationalism, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, philosophy, sentimentalism Leave a comment
A Bold Choice
But was it wise? The deadline for nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize was two weeks into Barack Obama’s presidency, so the choice of him will be based on his campaign and transition. The citation finishes:
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for [...]
Tariq Ramadan on Love and Detachment
Tariq Ramadan has written a lovely article on Love and Detachment on his blog. Here is the message I have just written to him asking if what I have just written in makes any sense to him.
Posted in topical Tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Jane Austen, love, philosophy, rationalism, Romanticism, Tariq Ramadan Leave a comment
Losing Our Minds
Reading Antti Kauppinen’s ideas on moral philosophy (long version & encapsulation) and Marilyn Butler’s conclusion for Mansfield Park in Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (1975), I am reminded of a crucial mistake repeatedly made in moral philosophy that I can scarcely believe could be made by anyone with a religious training and commitment [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Christianity, ethics, Jane Austen, literary criticism, Mansfield Park, philosophy, rationalism, religion, secularism Leave a comment
Just War Concern Trolling
Austen Ivereigh has posted an article at The Gurdian CiF arguing that Catholics can’t be pacifists, finishing:
That is why Catholic teaching on war and peace is nowadays a combination of just war elements and a strong emphasis on nonviolence. In 1993 the US Catholic bishops summarised it like this: “1) In situations of conflict, our [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Catholocism, ethics, Jane Austen, just war theory, pacifism, philosophy, rationalism, self-knowledge, war Leave a comment
Mansfield Park, The Slave Trade & Iran
The slave trade subtext Mansfield Park were hardly accidental, Austen surely suggesting that the ethical ideas she was exploring in a family setting could be framed by the slavery question (to what extent is ‘absolute authority’ ever just or wise) but also the ethical drama of the family had a bearing on wider issues such [...]
Posted in topical Tagged ethics, GCC, Iran, Israel, Jane Austen, oil, philosophy, slavery, war Leave a comment
Climate Science, Science and Humility
John Quiggin has just posted on the thoroughgoing mess the Australian conservative opposition is getting itself into over climate change in Delusionist disaster down under, which set me thinking about what is going on with the climate change thing. Anyone following this blog will know that I am not only aware of science getting some [...]
Posted in topical Tagged climate change, controversy, ethics, intelligent design, irrationalism, philosophy, religion, science Leave a comment
Classic Novels
Following my previous posts on the subject Matt Yglesias has done a bloggingheads.tv segment where he continues to muse, despite being glad he read classic novels in his youth, whether reading them can really be justified given time needed and all the available options.
As I said before, The Onion may have the key insight here.
Posted in topical Tagged distractions, ethics, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, modernity Leave a comment
Iran
I didn’t expect to be blogging on this. I watched in disbelief as the public was manipulated into the Iraq war in 2002 and blogged intensively on the standoff with Iran over its nuclear programme in 2006/7 until the 16 US intelligence agencies unanimously signed off on the remarkable 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s [...]
Posted in topical Tagged Enlightenment, ethics, Iran, NPT, nuclear, philosophy, politics, sentimentalism, war Leave a comment
Roman Polanski
It saddened me when I saw the news of Roman Polanki’s arrest for skipping bail 30 years ago. It didn’t know a great deal about the case but there seemed to be something a little arbitrary about waiting so long and then choosing this moment to bring him to justice.
I don’t wish Polanski any ill [...]
Posted in topical Tagged controversy, ethics, irrationalism, philosophy, progessives, sentimentalism Leave a comment
Science is Real
Picking up on a John Holbo discussion centred on a video for drumming into children that ’science is real’ Matt Yglesias gives a compressed, elegant explanation of the interdependence of scientific theory and propositions.
Then Matt tries to re-establish the reality of science by more or less saying Darwinism is true because Young Earth Creationists are [...]
Lost in Zombies and Sea Monsters?