 Towards a Moral Science
by Joseph Rowlands
Philosophy, properly understood, does not lend itself to the methods of science. It deals with fundamental assumptions and understandings about the world. It provides a mental framework for understanding and evaluating. Philosophical premises are not as easily refuted as a scientific theory. Science can make predic... (Read more...)
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Theism, Atheism, and Communication -- From the perspective of an "atheist."
by Ed Thompson
Some analysis of my attempt to communicate a personal position to someone who displayed curiosity about it. Possible lessons here. (Read more...)
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Sad State of the Union
by Tibor R. Machan
President Obama delivered a state of the union address that made no secret of his essentially statist political-economic philosophy. Apart from the details, the major message was that Americans must become part of a herd whether they actually want to involuntarily serving the country. Even the conservative commentator, Charles Krauthammer, characterized Mr. Obama's viewpoint without reference to its coercive nature. That is how ingrained statism is in America now. (Read more...)
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Qualitative Predictions
by Joseph Rowlands
All too often people think about predictions as being quantitative. A physics problem might ask you to predict how far a bullet will fly given an initial velocity and position. Economic forecasters will try to predict the change in inflation, or unemployment, or the trade surplus. Engineers will make predictions abo... (Read more...)
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Reflections on Victor Hugo's Les Miserables
by Edward W. Younkins
This essay is not a review of Tom Hooper’s recently released film of the tremendously popular 1980s stage musical. However, the release of this film has given me the occasion to read and to reflect upon the original text of Victor Hugo’s 1862 classic, Les Misérables, a mosaic of social indictment, history, social philo... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 20, 2013 |
The Republicans’ Achilles Heel
by Tibor R. Machan
In a recent Wall Street Journal essay, “Generational Theft Needs to be Arrested,” three men advanced some suggestions to Republicans. Their main focus was the need for Republicans to address what they, following others who have chimed in on the topic, have criticized as current members of the public robbing future members of their resources by means of various welfare statist policies, specifically accumulating massive debts that those in the future have no opportunity to vote on, to argue against, and to oppose. (Read more...)
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Saturday
February 16, 2013 |
The Boundary of Philosophy and Science
by Joseph Rowlands
The history of science begins with a new way of thinking about knowledge. Before the development of science, it was viewed as appropriate for philosophers to make statements about the nature of the world. They might speculate that everything is made of fire, earth, water and air. They might claim that heavier object... (Read more...)
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 Obama’s Macabre Politics
by Tibor R. Machan
If you check the president’s inauguration speech accepting his election to a second term as president of the country, there is in it evidence of a decisive tone of postmodernist political thinking, the road to confusing the public. (Read more...)
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False Freedom
by Joseph Rowlands
One common criticism of free markets is that they aren't really free. When an employer and an employee negotiate terms, the employer has an unfair advantage. The employee needs a job in order to make a living. It is said that his choice isn't really free because he really don't have much of a choice at all. He has ... (Read more...)
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 The Democratic Ideal
by Tibor R. Machan
In this essay I wish to revisit democracy since all the power that our current administration is claiming for itself is supposedly justified by way of the democratic method. But in fact only a properly limited democracy is politically just and justified. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 30, 2013 |
"It is STILL a sin to write this..."
by Joseph C. Maurone
Reaction to the recent graphic novel of Ayn Rand's Anthem reminds us that “it is still a sin to write this.” (Read more...)
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Secular Altruism
by Joseph Rowlands
Atheists are often on the defensive when it comes to morality. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 23, 2013 |
In Honor of Jack Keworkian
by Tibor R. Machan
No sophistry can obscure the fact that by the lights of the American founders everyone has a natural right to his or her life. This means that what one does about one’s life--cultivate it, wastes it, sacrifices it for a cause, develops it, etc.--must be one’s own choice. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 23, 2013 |
 The Pleasures of Humiliation?
by Tibor R. Machan
The cynicism and misanthropy of the two installments of Suits that I have seen are for me very unpleasant. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 23, 2013 |
Sobbing for Dictators!
by Tibor R. Machan
As the BBC reported, the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il was provided with mass marches throughout the country in mourning of his recent death. As the thousands were shown on TV, they did what is routine on such occasions in countries with absolute rulers. The people gyrate and undulate and holler, supposedly expressing their earnest grief, although it is remarkable that no tears were in evidence from any participants. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 23, 2013 |
TSA & a Free Country: Are the Compatible?
by Tibor R. Machan
Why does the TSA annoy so many of us? Not having the resources to do a survey, I resort here to what might be called educated speculation. I suspect it is because free men and women consider it invasive for government agents to order them around--pat them down, make them endure electronic surveillance, being ordered around by TSA agents, etc.--unless they give their permission. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 23, 2013 |
MLK’s Public Philosophy of Freedom
by Tibor R. Machan
As I flew home across the country from NYC on January 16th, the holiday this year in honor of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I had the opportunity to watch several programs on television devoted to his legacy. I was especially struck by the fact that commentators -- for example Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!," a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program" -- keep imputing to him a welfare statism that seems not to have been part of his thinking. (I have no idea what Democracy Now! is independent of since all the programs on it evidence a distinct perspective, no less so than those on Fox TV.) (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 23, 2013 |
Obama’s Immigration Machinations
by Tibor R. Machan
Not for a moment do I buy that President Obama has suddenly grasped the plight of illegal immigrant children. For one, he is on record declaring that the law ties his hands about the matter--that he cannot act unilaterally, or so he said in a widely available video from just a year or so ago. (Read more...)
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Induction and Identity
by Joseph Rowlands
One of the famous problems of induction is how to go from some number of specific occurrences to a generalization. The classic example is someone seeing white swans and concluding that all swans are white. When the first black swan is discovered, it proves the original generalization false. It also raises the questi... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
January 16, 2013 |
My Recent Kafkaesque Experience
by Tibor R. Machan
It may not be the kind of experience many others have had other than at the Department of Motor Vehicles but I recently went through one that brought to mind Franz Kafka. (Read more...)
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On Kant's Ethical Theory
by Merlin Jetton
The purpose of this essay is to give a brief overview of Kant's ethics, including some comparisons to Ayn Rand's ethical theory and references she made to Kant. (Read more...)
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Economic Problems of Charity
by Joseph Rowlands
One of the unintended benefits of a free market is the way the price system creates efficiency in the production of goods and services. Businesses seek to gain profits, and they can do so only if they can sell a product for more than it cost to produce. Products that can't sell for more than the cost will be disconti... (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 26, 2012 |
The Plowman : A Parable
by Kyle Jacob Biodrowski
A history of the American producer. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
December 19, 2012 |
Workplace Freedom and Right to Work Laws
by Edward W. Younkins
On Tuesday December 11, 2012 Michigan, the birthplace of the nation’s organized labor movement, became the country’s 24th right-to-work state. This short excerpt from pages 81-83 of my 2002 book, Capitalism and Commerce, explains the propriety of right-to-work laws. Before the Norris-La Guardia and National Labo... (Read more...)
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Machan’s Archives: A Note on Socialism as Elitism
by Tibor R. Machan
Since ancient times some people have considered the market place an unruly forum in which to determine whose work and what commodities are worth how much. With Marxism this view acquired a pseudo-scientific status. The complaint that when free individuals and groups exchange goods and services some will get more for their contributions than they deserve reaches the level of a total ideology. (Read more...)
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