Category: Social and Political Philosophy
-
Realpolitik and What it Excludes
It has been said that war is politics with bloodshed while politics is war without bloodshed. The saying is strongly reminiscent of Carl von Clausewitz: "War is politics by other means." Both exemplify Realpolitik. What does Realpolitik exclude? It excludes any politics based on otherworldly principles such as Christian principles. Does it not? The exclusion is implied…
-
Are Most Muslims Terrorists?
And what is a terrorist? Top o' the Stack. Long but good. I go out on some limbs. Saw 'em off if you can.
-
Why Liberalism and Leftism are Increasingly at Odds
I have merely skimmed through this Substack piece by Nate Silver. But it appears to be worth a close reading.
-
Civil Courage and Practical Dissidence
This just over the transom from Malcolm Pollack: The problem, Bill, with your call for prudence is that courage is what encourages courage in others, and vice versa. But it's true also, as both you and Moldbug remind us, that in a predatory environment we should remember that we are prey. I agree with you about the confrontational folly of open…
-
Anarchism is to Political Philosophy . . .
. . . as skepticism is to epistemology. Top o' the Stack.
-
War, Torture, and the Aporetics of Moral Rigorism
Substack latest.
-
R. P. Wolff on Anarchism and Marxism
Top o' the Stack. Are they logically consistent?
-
Notes on Anarchism III
Substack latest. R. P. Wolff on the conflict between authority and autonomy.
-
Notes on Anarchism II
Stack leader. Second in a series. Robert Paul Wolff on autonomy.
-
Notes on Anarchism I: R. P. Wolff on Authority
Top o' the Stack. One of my better efforts. First in a series. Robert Paul Wolff's In Defense of Anarchism (Harper 1970, 1976) is a good book by a clear thinker and master expositor. Here is a first batch of interpretive and critical notes. I use double quotation marks when I am quoting an actual…
-
Two Related Political Mistakes
Stack man strikes again.
-
The Lapse of Laïcité: Cause and Effect
Substack leader. In this entry I unpack what I consider to be a brilliant insight of Finkielkraut. Alain Finkielkraut: Laicity is the solution that modern Europe found in order to escape its religious civil wars. But contemporary Europe doesn’t take religion seriously enough to know how to stick to this solution. She has exiled faith…
-
More on the Politics of Abortion: Ron Paul and Subsidiarity
Ron Paul. M. D.: I strongly believe that the more difficult the issue is, the more local should be its solution. That is the real success of the Dobbs decision, because abortion should have never been a federal issue in the first place. Overturning Roe v Wade returned us to where we belonged, with state…
-
I Get a Rise out of Aristotle
Substack latest. Is the political life the highest life?
-
Frédéric Bastiat on the Law
To gain historical perspective and philosophical insight as we slide into the abyss, you must read Bastiat among others. Our current situation is nothing new and what the Frenchman writes is directly relevant to our decline. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk. It's twilight time. Can we turn things around? I don't…