Questions today’s philosophers are asking
Philosophers, please take a moment to write down, in a comment on this post, one question you are currently working on. (Yes, just one.) Read more
Month: November 2022
Conquest and its impacts on the Gibe Oromo states: Evidence from Limmu Enarea Ca. 1880s-1910
The last two decades of the nineteenth century witnessed the conquest and colonization of independent states and peoples of southern, southwestern and western Ethiopia. The Gibe Oromo states were among the southwestern states that were targeted for conquest by both Shawa and Gojjam in the late 1870s. In fact, the time was unfortunate time for …
The Arrow of Time: Towards a New Epistemology of Science
The events which we see in the universe are classified into two categories: the reversible and the irreversible. The arrow of time is relevant to the latter than the former. It is alongwith the reversible-irreversible syndrome that a major light can be thrown on the notion of time’s arrow. Read more
Introduction: The Meaning of Law
Law is a social phenomenon and has been of interest to sociology since the early days of the discipline. However, much discussion of law has been and remains monopolized by legal practitioners and legal theorists who primarily focus on legal doctrine; they are concerned to analyse patterns, directions and inconsistencies in judicial thinking and decision …
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
Since processes take place by chance alone, and this leads to increasing randomness, we can say that in any spontaneous process (one that takes place of its own accord and is not driven by outside influences) entropy increases. This is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics and is probably the most fundamental physical law. So processes that …
Advancing the Ideas of the Good Society
We believe that ideas within the classical liberal tradition serve as the foundation for the good society — an intellectually open, tolerant, and pluralistic society — in which individuals and communities thrive in peace, prosperity, and mutual respect. For those ideas to take root, it is essential they are taught, explored, challenged, and developed in higher …
Three Forces That Threaten Liberalism and How to Counter Them
Liberalism is the philosophical, moral and political system that begins with the presumption that we human beings—all of us—are one another’s dignified equals. From this starting point follows other liberal principles such as individual liberty, equal rights, the rule of law, toleration, intellectual openness and pluralism. Read more
The Four Corners of Liberalism: Mapping out a Common Ground
Liberalism, Adam Gopnik tells us in A Thousand Small Sanities, “suffers from being a practice before it is an ideology, a temperament and a tone and a way of managing the world more than a fixed set of beliefs.” While I mostly agree with Gopnik’s characterization, I disagree that liberalism suffers for it. The liberal temperament …
Conservative U.S. Statecraft for the 21st Century
American conservatives should be pleased. They hold a set of beliefs and assumptions that, when applied to current policy challenges, will enable the United States to navigate a difficult and complex global environment. The principles that undergird a conservative foreign policy—the primacy of liberty, national sovereignty, military power, and a realistic appreciation for the inherently competitive nature of …
Physicists are Wrong (Neil Turok)
Renowned physicist Neil Turok, Holder of the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh, joins me to discuss the state of science and the universe. is Physics in trouble? What hope is there to return to more productive and Simple theories? What is Peter Higgs up to? Neil Turok has been director …