Info, news & debate

Philosophy

'Feeding the beast': is democracy obsolete?

Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?

| 3

In the West, there’s a word that usually accompanies ‘democracy’, and that word is ‘liberal’. Liberal democracies – that’s what we have in the West. That’s liberal, as in liberty / freedom; and that’s certainly what classical liberalism stood for in its infancy.

Read more about Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?


On the Wealth of Nations by P.J. O'Rourke

How to misrepresent Adam Smith: review of P. J. O’Rourke’s ‘On the Wealth of Nations’

| 0

I don’t know if you’re familiar with P. J., but he’s an excellent writer, and he’s extremely, acerbically funny. With this book, as with his Give War a Chance, several times he made me spit my tea out and have to stop to wipe tea off the page.

Read more about How to misrepresent Adam Smith: review of P. J. O’Rourke’s ‘On the Wealth of Nations’





Is there common ground between right and left thinking?

What are the roots of right and left thinking, and can we unite left and right against corporate power?

| 12

Why do people who consider themselves ‘left-wing’ seem to embrace a raft of policies that appear unrelated? For example, if you’re of the left, and you believe in (say) progressive taxation, why should that also mean that you believe in gun control, or

Read more about What are the roots of right and left thinking, and can we unite left and right against corporate power?

Is the quest for perpetual economic growth the witch-burning of our times?

Is the quest for perpetual economic growth the witch-burning of our times, and could this be the year we start to challenge it?

| 10

Johannes Kepler was one of the major figures in the 17th century Scientific Revolution. In his day, people were grappling with the question of whether the earth was the centre of the universe, as the Church said it was, or whether it was just another planet, revolving around the Sun

Read more about Is the quest for perpetual economic growth the witch-burning of our times, and could this be the year we start to challenge it?






Lean thinking is already alive and well in many indigenous communities

Reimagining progress: what we can learn about ‘lean thinking’ from indigenous communities

| 0

Here’s a living example of a ‘lean’ economy (outlined by David Fleming in our last blog post), and how you can help to preserve it. The ‘unlean’ economy is encroaching onto the territory of the Kichwa and Sapara communities in the Ecuadorean Amazon, in the form of large oil corporations, and will destroy their communities, as

Read more about Reimagining progress: what we can learn about ‘lean thinking’ from indigenous communities





russell

A brief history of philosophy, part 13: continental vs. analytic philosophy

| 0

Twentieth century philosophy split very roughly into ‘analytic’ (mainly in the English-speaking world) and ‘continental’ (mainly in mainland Europe), and was influenced heavily by contributions to the way we think about ourselves and the rest of existence from two non-philosophers: Freud and Einstein.

Read more about A brief history of philosophy, part 13: continental vs. analytic philosophy