Dr. Hancock in his latest post has hit upon a problem that has plagued philosophy since the age of the Greeks in writing that "thinkers" should, " . . . .appreciate the dependence of their own transcendence on the intimations available in ordinary, pre-philosophic life." It . . . . Continue Reading »
Bowing to relentless and overwhelming demand from postmodern-leaning lovers of truth and virtue waiting somewhere out there in cyberspace, I offer this extended version of the Draft Manifesto from a few weeks ago. (I include the previously published first 8 points here, so you won’t . . . . Continue Reading »
Cherry-picking my way through Nicola’s re-rejoinder , here’s what pops out: 1. Nicola seems to agree with me that we can’t be certain about our truths because certainty is the wrong standard of assessment for truths. But she says: I don’t know how truth can function as a . . . . Continue Reading »
Loyalty is immoral ? Color me skeptical. Without further ado, here’s the avalanche of questions that come to mind upon reading Helen’s post: First question: "Loyalty is immoral—I won’t bother trying to deny it. Morality is universal and objective; loyalties are . . . . Continue Reading »
So this is my ‘much-anticipated’ rejoinder to Freddie . The best way I know how to do this is like sewing a button. I want to sew Freddie to my fabric of understanding (but not so close that he, the button, is too tight to the fabric to be usable as a button!). The back of that fabric, . . . . Continue Reading »
This is an unusual month — polls, pols and so on. But this is an unusual paragraph too. How quickly can you find out what is so uncommon about it? It looks so ordinary that you may think nothing is odd about it, until you actually match it against most paragraphs this long. If you put your . . . . Continue Reading »
The problem with constructing a manifesto for postmodern conservatism is that principles, once propositionally articulated, have a way of organically untethering themselves from the experience out of which they were borne. So we idealize generalizations from our lived and pre-theoretical experience . . . . Continue Reading »
I should start off by confessing that this post isn’t at all topical, except insofar as Freddie has challenged the Pomocon stable to explain why postmodern conservative doesn’t just mean "a conservative who should know better" ( TM ). So, with that half-hearted . . . . Continue Reading »
Freddie DeBoer, PoMoCon commenter extraordinaire, has fired a broadside in our direction . James is working on a response . I’m getting ready to do the same. Nicola has penned a snarky rebuttal . Eve rebutted this long ago . Here’s hoping that this heats up. . . . . Continue Reading »
My own attempt to define the conservatism I believe in - the antithesis of much of the current Bush-Cheney-Palin GOP - is in my book, " The Conservative Soul ." If you’re interested in a more abstract and academic account of the philosophical roots of my take on post-modern . . . . Continue Reading »
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