Against a liberalism of pre-political foundations and historical destiny, Jacob Levy has been working hard to recover a vision of liberalism that appreciates the complex patchwork of social life, is historically contingent, and accepts the existence of irresolvable tensions. Though he has been influenced by Judith Shklar’s “Liberalism of
Slate chief political correspondent Jamelle Bouie set off a heated online debate with a series of tweets[1] claiming “the concept of race was birthed by the Enlightenment,”[2] which then sparked a full-length article fleshing out his position.[3] His key claim is that colonialism, slavery, imperialism, and racism
Recently, Canadian philosopher Joseph Heath wrote an essay on social constructivism in which he tries to clean up some ambiguities and tensions. I think he’s right to point out that the debate between social constructivism and biological determinism is really just an extension of the old nature versus nurture
Slate writer Jamelle Bouie caused quite a kerfuffle by discussing the racist elements within the Enlightenment, first with a series of tweet threads and then with a more detailed article including, as they say, receipts. Bouie contends that the Enlightenment played an outsized role in creating our modern concept of
As a teenager I would mow lawns. The implicit contract was relatively simple, but it illustrates the relationship between claims and duties. If I mowed Mrs. Nichols’s lawn, then I had a claim of $15, which she had a duty to pay. Similarly, when it is claimed that Internet
In the 2010 Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC, the Court went out of its way to rule on matters never actually brought up in the original brief, making it a landmark case instead of a rather plain and incremental one based on precedent. Yet the decision was far
Michael Polanyi’s preface to his 1951 book The Logic of Liberty begins: “These pieces were written in the course of the last eight years. They represent my consistently renewed efforts to clarify the position of liberty in response to a number of questions raised by our troubled period of
F. A. Hayek was, to use Peter Boettke’s phrase, a “lifelong learner,” changing his position on a variety of topics throughout his long career as he tested the boundaries of his framework and sought to iron out its contradictions. The Hayek I wish to present here is therefore just
In 2002, an unassuming and simple website operating out of Utah outpaced the online traffic of major companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Microsoft.[1] By 2017, the same site’s articles averaged about 200,000 views; respectable, but hardly rivaling the aforementioned corporate giants. The story of Maddox and “The
My fellow editor Paul Crider has critiqued and expanded upon a summary of the history of capitalism and what we mean when we use the term “capitalism” today, which appeared in the pages of Teen Vogue. While Paul’s piece is exemplary for its use of system-level analysis, I think
Kim Kelly has presented a pretty good explainer of capitalism for the uninitiated at Teen Vogue. I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t have issues with the piece, but I want to begin by affirming Kelly’s skepticism of capitalism as it is often portrayed and defended.
“This, indeed this, is bitterness for my bowels, that I can endure you neither naked nor clothed, you men of today. All that is uncanny in the future and all that has ever made fugitive birds shudder is surely more comfortable and cozy than your “reality.” For thus you speak: