Bad News, Good News

by James Poulos

Something to lift Rod out of his necrosexual funk : urban chickens have hit Drudge . . . . . Continue Reading »

12 May 2009 0

A Darwinian Telos. What Faith!

by James Poulos

Andrew has a fairly careful and modest essay at the Times on the progress of religious faith in the face of scientific progress. The issue of whether faith should gird us to not fear scientific truth is an intriguing one; the Holocaust was scientifically true, after all, meaning the facts could not . . . . Continue Reading »

11 May 2009 0

The Disenchantment of Genius

by James Poulos

I’ve just finished a draft of a dissertation chapter that dredges up one of Richard Rorty’s few, all-too-few references to Philip Rieff. Rorty liked Rieff’s remark that “Freud democratized genius by giving everyone a creative unconscious.” Harold Bloom, no antagonist . . . . Continue Reading »

1 May 2009 0

Obama, Bush, and the Politics of Science

by Ivan Kenneally

Here is a short excerpt of an aticle I just finished writing and that is relevant to Ralph’s Manifesto 1.3.1: The differences between Bush’s “Executive Order Expanding Approved Stem Cell Lines” (June 20, 2007) and Obama’s Executive Order overturning it are striking . . . . Continue Reading »

29 Apr 2009 0

Obama the Scientist

by Ivan Kenneally

So I spent a few days this week attending a conference at Berry College in Rome, Georgia hosted by Peter Lawler and Eric Sands. It was a terrific and well organized series of events capped off by a thought provoking presentation by our own Jim Ceasar on Tocqueville, his consideration of the . . . . Continue Reading »

26 Apr 2009 0

Happy Birthday to Lincoln

by Ivan Kenneally

Here is a short excerpt of an address I’ll be delivering at Geneseo College devoted to Lincoln’s Bicentennial: Of course, the occasion for my lecture today is the Bicentennial celebration of Abraham’s Lincoln’s birth. It’s worth noting that today is also the bicentennial . . . . Continue Reading »

12 Feb 2009 0

Techno-Politics, Tragedy, and the Rejection of Prudence

by Ivan Kenneally

Here is an excerpt from an article on Chantal Delsol I have forthcoming in Perspectives on Political Science : In the place of “true judgment” or prudence, the defenders of international justice satisfy their hunger for rational certitude and analytical specificity with mere . . . . Continue Reading »

30 Jan 2009 0

The “Proper Place of Science” and Politics

by Ivan Kenneally

One of the most telling but least commented upon lines in President Obama’s inaugural speech was his promise to “restore science to its proper place”. Since he doesn’t expand upon this restoration in the remainder of the speech it’s not immediately obvious what this . . . . Continue Reading »

24 Jan 2009 0

Heating Up

by Patrick J. Deneen

This one will stir up a hornet’s nest . . . .  The words “global warming” may have achieved Pavlovian status.  Like the ringing of the bell that accompanied the Alpo fed to Pavlov’s dogs, the words foster an immediate and instinctive response by adherents of our . . . . Continue Reading »

23 Jan 2009 0

Self-Medication and Modernity

by Ivan Kenneally

Matt Crawford ably explains how college campuses have become incubators of schoolmarmish therapeutic supervision. No longer confident in the mission of higher education and therefore too hobbled to resist becoming an adjunct of popular society versus an engine of . . . . Continue Reading »

27 Sep 2008 0