Blog Profile / Darwinian Conservatism
| URL : | http://darwinianconservatism.blogspot.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Academics / Philosophy | |
| Posts on Regator: | 154 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.6 | |
| Archived Since: | July 6, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
The Timidity of John Hibbing and the Grandeur of Biopolitical Science
Perspectives on Politics is one of the quarterly journals published by the American Political Science Association. The new issue (June 2013) is devoted largely to articles on the theme of "nature and politics," with special attention to the application of biology to politics. Show More Summary
Explaining the Modern Revolution: Ideas? Institutions? The Survival of the Richest? Coal? All of the Above?
If we look over the evolutionary history of human society, we see two great revolutions--the Ancient Revolution that occurred 5,000 to 10,000 years ago and the Modern Revolution that began about 200-250 years ago, The Ancient Revolution...Show More Summary
Adam Smith's Theology as Secret Writing
Adam Smith's handling of theological ideas in his books is a good illustration of what Leo Strauss called "the art of secret writing." It also shows the importance of Darwinian science in fulfilling Smith's liberal understanding of social...Show More Summary
Part 2 of "Liberalism, Anarchism, and Darwinism"
While liberalism seeks a society that is largely self-regulating with a minimal state, anarchism seeks a society that is completely self-regulating with no state. If so, then it might seem that anarchism is a radical form of liberalism. Show More Summary
Liberalism, Anarchism, and Darwinism
In Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School (Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2012), Ralph Raico claims that the fundamental idea of liberalism is that "civil society--that is, the whole of the social order based on private property and voluntary exchange--by and large runs itself" (98). Show More Summary
Does the Evolution of Open Access Societies Show Moral Progress in History?
Looking over the deep evolutionary history of human social order, we can see two great social revolutions. The First Social Revolution was the Neolithic revolution 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, when our human ancestors for the first time...Show More Summary
Do the Bee Police Enforce God's Law? Or Are They Darwinian Nihilists?
The public cheering of the police in Boston after they successfully hunted down the terrorist bombers reminds us of our dependence on police to protect us from violence. Thomas Hobbes might have seen this as confirming his argument that...Show More Summary
A Darwinian Profile of the Boston Bombers
Based on a Darwinian understanding of criminal behavor, couldn't we have provided the FBI with a early profile of the Boston bombers?Couldn't we have predicted a few days ago that the Boston bombers would be two white unmarried men between...Show More Summary
Hobbesian Political Philosophy as Empirical Science
It has always seemed odd to me that scholars in the history of political philosophy pay so little attention to empirical evidence. I was thinking about this while attending some of the panels on political philosophy at the annual conference in Chicago of the Midwest Political Science Association. Show More Summary
Nihilism as Disappointed Platonism
Is Darwinism nihilism?If you are a Platonist, yes. If you are not a Platonist, no.Most Platonists today are disappointed Platonists--people with Platonic expectations that are unfulfilled, because they accept Darwinian evolution as true,...Show More Summary
Abbey, Franco, and Johnson on Nietzsche's Middle Period
I have written a long series of posts defending the writings of Nietzsche's middle period as superior to his early and late writings, and I have argued that the strength of those middle writings depends largely on Nietzsche's embrace of Darwinian science. Show More Summary
Nietzsche--Aristocratic Radical or Aristocratic Liberal?
Bruce Detwiler's Nietzsche and the Politics of Aristocratic Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 1990) is the best single study of Nietzsche as a political philosopher.I have three reasons for saying that. First, Detwiler makes a good case for aristocratic radicalism as the political teaching of Nietzsche in his early and late writings. Show More Summary
A Grand Tour--From Chicago to the Galapagos to Freiburg
Over the next year, I will be travelling around the world for some lecturing.I begin in Chicago at the Midwest Political Science Association convention on April 14 and Prairie State College on April 17. At the MWPSA convention, I will...Show More Summary
The Religious Longing for Myth in Nietzsche and Nazism
The contradictory and incoherent character of Friedrich Nietzsche's writings arises from his ambivalent stance in the debate between Platonic idealism and Darwinian naturalism. The writings of his middle period--such as Human, All Too...Show More Summary
Nietzsche's Aristocratic Liberalism
In the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche's middle period, when his thinking was shaped by Darwinian science, he embraced what I will call "aristocratic liberalism." I use that term to convey the thought that while a liberal regime secures...Show More Summary
Incest Taboos as Secular Transcendence
In October of 2006, I wrote a post with the title "So What's Wrong with Incest?" For the past six and a half years, that post has regularly had more pageviews than any other post that I have ever written. Apparently, people are Googling "What is wrong with incest?" and my post pops up. Show More Summary
Lyric Opera's "Die Meistersinger" (2): Is Hans Sachs a Nihilist?
I have a nose for nihilism. I can smell a nihilist a mile away. Years ago, when I first read the libretto of Die Meistersinger, I thought I detected the odor of nihilism around Hans Sachs, particularly in his famous monologue on Wahn. Show More Summary
Lyric Opera's "Die Meistersinger": Wagner, Hitler, and the Nightwatchman State
The most striking phrase coined by Leo Strauss is reduction ad Hitlerum. In National Right and History, Strauss argues that Max Weber's teaching about values leads to nihilism. Just as he begins to make this argument, Strauss observes:"... Show More Summary
Nietzsche, Liberalism, and the Second Reich
In contrast to the common association of Nietzsche with the Third Reich, William Altman's book on Nietzsche makes a brilliant argument for seeing Nietzsche as the philosopher of the Second Reich.Nietzsche's first book--The Birth of Tragedy--was...Show More Summary
Will Altman's German Trilogy and Leo Strauss's Third Wave of Modernity
At the end of the summer, the American Political Science Association will be meeting in Chicago. For that meeting, I have proposed a panel on William Altman's book The German Stranger: Leo Strauss and National Socialism (2011), which makes the provocative argument that Strauss was the secret theoretician of National Socialism. Show More Summary