Austin Stone

I used to engage in Marxist class analysis simply for the sake of shoring up my lefty street cred, an indispensable commodity for Yale undergraduates. This time around, though, it’s because I don’t know any other way to explain a particular kind of argument wandering the hallways of the . . . . Continue Reading »

It is often correctly pointed out that Kant saw himself as carrying out a grand Socratic mission inherited from Rousseau. However, as Kant himself makes clear in his Logic , this had less to do with the recognition of the aporetic character of philosophy and more to do with the distinction . . . . Continue Reading »

Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing; ‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands: But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed. OTHELLO, III.iii The most interesting sentence in the most . . . . Continue Reading »

Every once in a while — or maybe often — it’s worth a reality check to see if theory matches up to practice. Of course those of us inclined to note that being precedes consciousness (or practice precedes reason) are inclined to pay attention to what’s going on in the real . . . . Continue Reading »

Bill Kauffman is one of the best writers pounding the keyboard today. Consequently, when he publishes a book, I review it, because (1) the man can write history, (2) he’s the funniest political theorist around, and (3) I get a copy free (the "f" word!). . . . . Continue Reading »

As I observed the musicians (including my adorable 14-year-old soprano) and their adoring parents at a recent school concert, my thoughts turned to one of my late father’s favorite movies, “The Music Man.” I was thinking of the concluding scene in which the inept, untutored . . . . Continue Reading »

Our own Peter Lawler insightfully examines the evidence that, despite breathless exertions in the service of creating a secular paradise, the modern attempt to "master and possess" nature has failed to make us fundamentally happier. The crux of the problem has to do with our . . . . Continue Reading »

A possibility Helen doesn’t explore explicitly is that Obama’s broad but thin and vague popularity is in some significant measure the consequence of stale ideas on the right — or at least of the inability of the right to translate their ideas into practice. We should wonder more . . . . Continue Reading »

I know it’s a little immodest for me to offer a history lesson—for those of you who don’t know, I’m twelve years old —but I want to stop Conor from buying into a liberal version of history that’s just wrong. He links approvingly to this piece by Tim Fernholz: . . . . . . Continue Reading »

Don’t take offense at my use of the second person, but you know what it’s like to write something in a late night haze—the "liquor-induced" is silent—only to find the next morning that your big epiphany was gobbledygook. Back when I was hung up on whether or not I . . . . Continue Reading »