Charles Kenny observes that the world is growing wealthy: “The last 10 years have seen developing countries grow far more rapidly than high-income countries, closing the gap in average incomes. Economist Arvind Subramanian estimates that China in 2030 will be about as rich as the whole . . . . Continue Reading »
News from Africa is often bad, but, as Alessandro Bruno says, there’s a fair bit of good news these days: “Africa is discovering a new spirit of optimism, reminiscent of the first decade of its post-colonial era. Despite inadequate infrastructure and at times even poorer governance, . . . . Continue Reading »
In The Construction of Social Reality and now again in Making the Social World, John Searle has explored the ontology of social facts. How can things that are themselves basically atomic particles and forces become objects like dollar bills and Presidents? Social facts are attributed . . . . Continue Reading »
Natural law theories often claim that there is a universal moral code acknowledged by all peoples in all times and places, derivable from nature. Bestiality would seem to be a good test case: Natural law arguments against bestiality are pretty straightforward, and then there’s the . . . . Continue Reading »
Rosenstock-Huessy devotes one of the essays in Die Sprache Des Menschengeschlects to an evaluation of modern urban culture, which includes a brilliant (albeit one-sided) screed about suburban life:“In the new suburbs provision will be made for all the denominations. . . . . No one faith . . . . Continue Reading »
Progress, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy points out (Christian Future), was originally a plural term. “Les progres” was Condorcet’s phrase. What he had in mind were improvements, new gadgets and machines and gizmos.The singular form of the term came from early Christianity and referred to . . . . Continue Reading »
Sciences today often occupy ruts, separated from each other, each as incomprehensible to non-specialists as languages were at the tower of Babel, and separated too from the larger currents of culture.But it is a myth, Rosenstock-Huessy says (Christian Future), to believe that “sciences can . . . . Continue Reading »
Milbank argues in Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People that “antiquity by and large knew of no ‘pure nature’, but already referred the natural to the supernatural, albeit this was too confined to intra-cosmic terms. Thus, as . . . . Continue Reading »
Natural law arguments often conclude that every human being can know, without the help of revelation, that there is some deity, an ultimate reality, an absolute.Paul says that human beings know “about God” from creation, but also that they “knew God” (Romans 1:19, . . . . Continue Reading »
My latest First Things column sparked some reflections on apocalyptic politics from the Economist’s Erasmus columnist. He moves my observations about apocalyptic philosophy to apocalyptic politics. It comes up in all sorts of places.“Iran’s former president, Mahmoud . . . . Continue Reading »
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