Since the end of the Middle Ages, intellectual life in Europe seems to have evolved along two major lines. The first of these was the liberation of thought and belief from the sway of all authority. In practice this meant the struggle of Reason, which at last felt it had come of age and won its independence, against the domination of the Roman Church. The second trend, on the other hand, was the covert but passionate search for a means... Read more

HEARTS FULL OF YOUTH! HEARTS FULL OF TRUTH! SIX PARTS GIN TO ONE PART VERMOUTH! Megan McArdle on lowering the drinking age, and reducing DUIs. Read more

THE VERY SHORT MIMES OF THE SNOW GODS DO NOT WISH AT ALL THAT THE VERY GREAT BURDEN OF DISTRIBUTING THE WINE OF THE WALLS WILL BE LIGHTENED IN THEIR LIFETIME. Also, FKS is right that these recipes for happiness are worth reading (in order); and some of them would make nicely provocative debate resolutions…. Read more

Men like Abelard, Leibniz, and Hegel unquestionably were familiar with the dream of capturing the universe of the intellect in concentric systems, and pairing the living beauty of thought and art with the magical expressiveness of the exact sciences.–Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game, tr. Richard and Clara Winston More from this later, but for now, I just liked the inversion of our–or my–expectations. I mostly hear “thought and art” praised for their “magical expressiveness,” whereas when the sciences get... Read more

CAESURA: Radio silence will end either Friday or Saturday; I’ll also reply to your emails then. Thanks so much to everyone who’s written, esp. about the “How to Make Your Child a Gay Activist” piece! I’m sorry it’s taking me so long to reply, but I will get to everyone this weekend. Blog posts on deck: why I connect aesthetics and leadership; three kinds of multivocality; maybe some thoughts on “Project Runway.” Probably some other stuff. In the meantime, enjoy... Read more

LEGALIZE IT! Read more

“NFP IS… THE WORST POSSIBLE METHOD, EXCEPT FOR ALL THE OTHERS.” Read more

HEY, AUGUST 15–A.K.A. FRIDAY–is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s a Holy Day of Obligation. Go to church! If you’re Christian but not Catholic… take some time on Friday to think about Our Lady as Ark of the Covenant; or her lifting-up after such great sorrow as a parallel to Christ’s lifting on the Cross; or her Heaven, with her Son. Read more

DON’T READ A PUNCHLINE AS A TREATISE, would be my immediate reply to BDFAR’s dismissal of the mixed-sex-dorms question. It’s really not the point I was making; in fact I purposely chose a ridiculously trivial situation to link because the situation in the previous link (torture) was so obviously untrivial. My less-immediate reply would be, read the article. And then tell me that it wasn’t a shopworn paste-up of reasons no one should care about sex difference. “I live in... Read more

RESURRECTED WORDS BATTLE ZOMBIE WORDS: So of course someone put his finger squarely on the weakness of my Parmenides/Huckabee post: What now? Well, I want to say a few things. I’m going to do my thing first, because this is my blog, and then if I think it will help to respond to my interlocutor I’ll do so; otherwise I’ll yield the floor. First: Does BDFAR actually disagree with my premise? That is, does he actually think that “reason” or... Read more