A month or so ago I saw an academic talk with the inciendiary title, “Aristotle’s Worst Idea”. It concerned the notion of “monotelism” in Aristotle, a word the speaker had coined to express Aristotle’s judgement that things which had a single purpose are superior to those with many purposes. This principle, that a thing out [...]
Archive for November, 2008
Polytelism and cultural objects
Posted in Body Phenomenology, Capitalism, Ethics, Philosophy, Pragmatics, Technology on November 26, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig)
Posted in Art, Body Phenomenology, Ethics, Philosophy, Pragmatics, Technology, writing on November 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
On one level, Zen is a book about a motorcycle journey taken by John and his son Chris from Chicago to San Fransisco. On another, it’s a treatise about how mechanics ought be practiced. On another it’s a recollection of John’s previous life before a nervous breakdown, when he pursued the ghost of reason, and [...]
Unresolved question #1
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy on November 12, 2008 | 2 Comments »
1. Is there a neutral moral perspective from which union and employer demands can be adjudicated?
Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike
Posted in Capitalism, Ethics, Philosophy, Pragmatics on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It seems clear to me that freedom of association means the freedom to unionize – freedom to bind many wills together around a common goal.
There is a lot of talk right now about the union “screwing students”. We’ll, strictly speaking, the cause of the strike is the inability of the union and the employer to [...]
Which has more net wealth, a Country or a Family?
Posted in Capitalism, Ethics, Philosophy on November 6, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Since conspiracy theorists are obsessed with international bankers, I thought to ask the question – how influential can a rich banking family really be next to countries? I mean, the country must have a lot more value than the family, even if its value isn’t liquid (it’s bound up in cars and houses and roads, [...]
World Monetary Policy
Posted in Ethics, Philosophy, Technology, beginning on November 6, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The current currency structure in the US is on the brink of collapse. They can prop up the dollar for a few more months because they’ve, in Bernakee’s words, “Engineered it so it works like gold”. He’s quite right – they’ve convinced the world that it’s US treasury bonds are the most stable thing you [...]
The Un-Romantic Return of Steam Locomotives
Posted in Capitalism, Ethics, Pragmatics, Technology, beginning, writing on November 4, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Steam trains are wonderful to behold – to watch one go by is to experience the power of the machine. Unlike modern diesel locomotives which start instantly, never make a fuss, Steam locomotives take hours to get going, and must let off steam when being shut down – literally spewing energy away in a wondrous [...]
