George H. Smith Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 From Optimism to Pessimism: The Case of Herbert Spencer, Part 3 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #39 is now available. This deals with Spencer's views on war, militarism, and patriotism. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 Freedom and Freethought: The Politics of Deism Smith explains the political implications of the deistic repudiation of special revelation and miracles. My Libertarianism.org Essay #169 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 I'm a miracle. Refute that! --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 My interview with Aaron Powell and Trevor Burrus of Libertarianism.org has just been posted. THE RADICAL NOTION OF INDIVIDUALISM George H. Smith joins us to talk about Libertarianism.org’s first book, which is a reader on the topic of individualism. This week George H. Smith joins us to talk about Individualism: A Reader, the first in a series of readers published by Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute. In it, Smith and his co-editor Marilyn Moore have compiled 26 selections from 25 writers on the topic of individualism. How has the idea of individualism evolved over time? What are some common misconceptions about individualism? Is a commitment to individualism somehow antithetical to the idea of community? Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #40 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 Freethought and Freedom: Skepticism Pyrrhonic skepticism had a tremendous influence on religious debates in post-Reformation Europe. My Libertarianism.org Essay #170 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 I just found out that George Smith won the 1916 Kentucky Derby!Belated congratulations, George!--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guyau Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 George, I have the second edition of Popkin's book (2003), which has in its subtitle the span: From Savonarola to Bayle. Marvelous intellectual history. Popkin notes rightly that any inference from Pyrrhonist skepticism to keeping with tradition and with the Catholic faith is a non sequitor. Likewise for any inference to questioning tradition and Catholic doctrine. Naturally, I wonder if any uses made of Pyrrhonism in the modern era either in support of political conservatism or in support of political liberalism or in support of the state or in opposition to it are also one and all non sequitors. I suppose it need not concern all skeptics that inferences from their skepticism to religious or political conclusions are fallacious, but surely it should concern one like Montaigne who tried to craft a wholly rational path into Pyrrhonism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 6, 2015 Author Share Posted May 6, 2015 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #41 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #42 is now up. This part discusses the role that self-ownership played in Spencer's sociological analyses. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Freethought and Freedom: Francis Bacon and the Rise of Secularism Smith explains Bacon’s defense of certainty and his contributions to a secular worldview. My Libertarianism.org Essay #171 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #43 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Freethought and Freedom: Benedict Spinoza Smith discusses Spinoza’s pantheism and his criticism of the Design Argument. My Libertarianism.org Essay #172 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Looks like #200 will arrive in time for Christmas.I have never seen such a gigantic cascade of high quality intellectual productivity. Is this how Gibbon worked when he wrote about Rome?It might be helpful for future readers if these essays were conglomerated by subject emphasis and electronically published.--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Looks like #200 will arrive in time for Christmas.I have never seen such a gigantic cascade of high quality intellectual productivity. Is this how Gibbon worked when he wrote about Rome?It might be helpful for future readers if these essays were conglomerated by subject emphasis and electronically published.--BrantMega dittos on that idea!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #44 is now up. Titled "Jack and Jill and Two Kinds of Freedom," this is among my personal favorites. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaalChatzaf Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 The Libertarianism.org podcast of my Essay #44 is now up. Titled "Jack and Jill and Two Kinds of Freedom," this is among my personal favorites. GhsIf one goes by objective judgement based on -what is observable- there is little difference between a Prudent Predator and a Good Guy. In terms of social regulation the winning repeated Prisoner's Dilemma strategy Tit-For-Tat will work out just as well as trying to reform the Prudent Predator and make him a Moral Operator..Moral Principles function primarily as constraints rather than prescriptions. That is why social organizations in which Moral Principles are the operating norm use less energy to do their business than prescription based modes. Ba'al Chatzaf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Freethought and Freedom: Spinoza on the Bible Smith explains why Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise became one of the most scandalous books ever published. My Libertarianism.org Essay #173 is now up. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Great, great, great!Hey, Greg! If you can walk on hot coals read this. If you can't, just the last two paragraphs.--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Great, great, great!Hey, Greg! If you can walk on hot coals read this. If you can't, just the last two paragraphs.--BrantI believe that Darrow used a variation of this in the Scopes trial when he examined William Jennings Bryant as an expert in the Bible [which is the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, as one of my fundamentalist friends refers to it]:Darrow related the stopping of the sun in the sky for Joshua ?? and why the buildings and people did not fly off the ground having no gravity anymore...Bryant responded that he believed in a God that created everything and that he could stop those natural laws if he chose.Perhaps the most scandalous part of the Theologico-Political Treatise was its unequivocal rejection of miracles. A miracle is said to be an event that contravenes the laws of nature. According to Spinoza, however, those natural laws are themselves manifestations of the divine nature, so to say that God contravened natural law is to say that God “acted against his own nature—an evident absurdity.” Indeed, since God is perceived through the “immutable order of nature,” our knowledge of God increases along with our understanding of nature. But a miracle defies rational comprehension, so it actually diminishes our knowledge of God.In addition, a miracle would be an insult to the divine nature, because it implies that “God has created nature so weak, and has ordained for her laws so barren,” that he must repeatedly tinker with his flawed creation through miracles. Deists would later have a field day with this argument. It was even used by the German philosopher Leibniz against the claim of Isaac Newton that God must occasionally intervene in the natural course of events to keep the universe running properly. This would suggest, according to Leibniz (who was not a religious skeptic), that an omnipotent and omniscient deity was unable to create a perfect universe on the first try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted June 12, 2015 Author Share Posted June 12, 2015 My weekly Essays were wearing me down a bit, so Libertarianism.org agreed to give a some time off. I won't be posting again until early next month. Meanwhile, I will use the extra time to finish up the next Libertarianism.org book: "Critics of State Education: A Reader," which is overdue. I just need to finish the introduction and the anthology will be ready to go. It contains many wonderful, hard-core pieces by 19th-century voluntaryists (Baines, etc.) and other principled opponents of state education. I would wager that most of the selections will be new to even well-informed libertarians. After that book is published next in line is "Herbert Spencer: A Reader." The content of future Readers after Spencer is still being deliberated. As with the first Reader on Individualism, Marilyn Moore will be the co-editor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted July 15, 2015 Author Share Posted July 15, 2015 I've gotten lazy and neglected to list my recent postings on Libertarianism.org. Here they are. My latest essay in the series on Freethought and Freedom: "Spinoza on Freedom of Religion and Speech." http://www.libertarianism.org/columns/freethought-freedom-spinoza-freedom-religion-speech?mc_cid=be766b0d64&mc_eid=68fdc83f45#.qebnxb:vS17 The first two parts of my series "Ayn Rand and Altruism" are now available on podcasts. Part 1 Part 2 Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 You didn't get lazy. You got married.--Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Freethought and Freedom: Spinoza’s Political Theory Smith explains the fundamentals of Spinoza’s theory of rights and government. My Libertarianism.org Essay #176 has been posted. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George H. Smith Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 Freethought and Freedom: Jean Meslier Smith explains some of the libertarian ideas of Jean Meslier, the notorious atheist-priest. My Libertarian.org Essay #178 has been posted. Ghs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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