Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

NASA Needs a Philosopher

According to Tom Wolfe , our space program needs a philosophic justification to get the “godlike” adventure that gave us all that right stuff going again. Here are a few random thoughts in that direction. I’m not saying I agree with them or that I’m volunteering to be a . . . . Continue Reading »

Delayed Adulthood and Decade Analysis

Over at The New Ledger, Ben Domenech takes on Conor over whether the rising generation has the right stuff when it comes to getting on with adulthood. Specifically, we’re given to ask, what’s with delaying marriage? Is it the product of capitalism gone wild? Is it simple . . . . Continue Reading »

Dignity Now?

David Brooks’ recent column, called “In Search of Dignity,” is of pomocon interest. Just as Brooks tends to view genius as the practical result of expeditiously logging big hours of disciplined rehearsal, he sees the survival of dignity as dependent upon the persistence of a . . . . Continue Reading »

Postmodern Conservatism and Civil Rights

Here’s an excerpt from an article on the Sixties of mine in THE INTERCOLLEGIATE REVIEW . It supports the Tocquevillian thought that things are mainly getting better and worse, as well as the thought that the aggressive nationalizing of the civil rights movement was in response to a state and . . . . Continue Reading »

Stoicism, Solitude, Solidarity

A brief remark as I hang out with my newly home-birthed son. (The goods of home birth definitely transcend all isms.) A recent portion of our pomocon/FPR critical saga has involved a fascinating exchange of allegations of stoicism and praise for certain kinds of stoicism. And it is true that . . . . Continue Reading »

In Praise of Peter Lawler and Dixie

Peter’s delightful post, “Localism,” takes his work to a new level of literary achievement. This is the stuff of anthologies and “Greatest Works” collections. It is singularly brilliant, it reveals him not as your stereotypical “pointy-headed” philosophy . . . . Continue Reading »

Solidarity, Hegemony, Individuality

Our PAL has made a comment down there that deserves some above-the-fold riffing. He writes that Locke knew nominalism would become more true as a description, but it could never become completely true. Part of the description of world where words are weapons and nothing but is of the incessant . . . . Continue Reading »

Filter Tag Articles