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Jul 1, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Aeon Skoble |John Locke |Karl Marx |David Hume
Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia was released in 1974, shortly after (and partly in response to) his Harvard colleague John Rawls’ 1971 A Theory of Justice. Anarchy, State, and Utopia included a theory of rights and a right-based account of liberalism in the classic tradition, which offered an alternative not only to Rawls’ progressive redistributionist egalitarianism but also to socialism.
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Nov 2, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
What does it mean to be civil? We can’t discuss whether civility is a virtue unless we know what we mean by “civility.” In her new book, Alexandra Hudson goes to great lengths to define civility, and argues that it is indeed a virtue, both in the personal and social sense. Individually, virtues are characteristics which people develop which are conducive to their leading a better life, and Hudson thinks civility is one of these.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
In previous columns I’ve discussed some reasons why there are insightful contributions from Plato that contemporary audiences might benefit from thinking about. Here’s another: his feminism. For the most part we don’t think of the world of 2500 years ago as especially demonstrative of gender parity.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
Reading Room / In The Reading Room with Plato, Again: Work-Life Balance In our last visit with Plato, we considered what insights he has regarding free speech and cancel culture. Another topic one can’t help but read about these days is the need for psychological balance as we pursue happiness and fulfillment.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
The book is exactly what the subtitle promises: a comprehensive history of the idea and the practice of free speech from ancient times up to today. It is a truly impressive survey of politics, history, law, and philosophy that reveals extensive and rigorously-sourced research, but which is also written in clear, conversational prose.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
Reading Room / Thinking About Government with John Adams In philosophy classes, students sometimes wonder why we continue to read long-dead thinkers like Plato or Descartes, and there are two sorts of answers I usually give. One is that, for better or worse, their ideas set the stage for debates that are still engaging, or raised questions that defy easy answers. The other is that, unlike in physics or chemistry, it’s not the case that the newer stuff is the truer stuff.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
When recommending books that have been around for ages, it’s not uncommon to be faced with questions from skeptics. Why, they wonder, should I bother reading that old thing when there’s all this new stuff to read? I suspect there are two reasons for this.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
Nevertheless, many of the observations Plato makes about the political side of the analogy are worth considering as we try to organize real-world polities. He suggests, for example, that both the rulers and the military should be given dormitory-style accommodations and living expenses but prohibited from accumulating vast wealth. Students generally get a laugh out of this, since literally every ruler they’ve ever heard of enjoys great wealth and luxury.
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Oct 9, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Aeon Skoble
Aristotle was not a native Athenian; he came from Stagira, in northern Greece. In between his leaving Plato’s Academy and his return to Athens to found the Lyceum, he served as tutor to the Macedonian King Philip’s son Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great, who eventually amassed an empire stretching as far south as Egypt and as far east as India. Philosophy professors to this day are pleased when their students are successful in their endeavors.
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Aug 29, 2023 | 
oll.libertyfund.org | Anika T. Prather |Aeon Skoble |Roosevelt Montas
Areopagitica (1644) (Jebb ed.) John Milton (author) This is Milton’s famous defense of freedom of speech and the press, in an edition based upon Sir Richard Jebb’s lectures at Cambridge in 1872, with extensive notes and commentaries. Mlton’s work was a protest against Parliament’s… The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Part 1 (The Oxford Shakespeare) William Shakespeare (author) The 1916 Oxford University Press edition of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poems.
