Category Archives: politics

“When Plato attempts to establish the existence of natural right, he reduces the conventionalist thesis to the premise that the good is identical with the pleasant.”

This is something I have to work harder to see in Plato, partly because Strauss is working with a more refined definition of conventionalism than the one I typically use: Contrary to our first impression, conventionalism does not assert that the meaning of right or justice is altogether arbitrary or that there is no universal …

January 27, 2012 – 9:01 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics | Comments (1)

Re: Eliza Griswold, “Everyone Is an Immigrant”

Eliza Griswold, “Everyone Is an Immigrant” Griswold visits Lampedusa, an Italian island receiving refugees while the civil war in Libya is raging (not to mention the Arab Spring generally). If you’re a refugee who survived the violence of others back home and the violence of the sea, you had this to look forward to: As …

January 26, 2012 – 12:57 am | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (0)

The South Carolina Primary is a PR Disaster for the Republican Party

The candidates are making a mess of this, but they’re nowhere near the biggest problem. I do think Newt was right to fire back after the question asked about “open marriage” (btw: not approving of anything he said. The media is liberal. But as a whole, it is not some grand conspiracy to discredit conservatives). …

January 20, 2012 – 10:20 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (1)

Not the party of grievance, but the party of genuine unity

1. Austan Goolsbee’s op-ed in the WSJ is pointed at Republicans, but isn’t partisan tripe by any stretch of the imagination. It isn’t clear that cutting spending magically fixes everything. Moreover, the downturn means we have virtually no good options: The Congressional Budget Office forecast a $1.2 trillion deficit before the Obama administration even came …

January 16, 2012 – 9:36 pm | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (1)

The Relevance of Plato’s Minos

Lungs not in the greatest shape – been taking repeated nebulizer treatments and inhaler puffs yesterday and today. More on this later. Not taking any chances: this will be delivered in little more than an hour but was promised to many others ahead of time. Paper here – it is considerably different than these remarks, …

January 12, 2012 – 5:50 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, plato, politics | Comments (2)

God made Man: On Euripides’ Bacchae

Unless otherwise indicated, numbers in parentheses are line numbers. SUMMARY Dionysus, god of wine, returns with an Asian following to the place of his conception: Thebes. His mother was one of Cadmus’ daughters (Cadmus being Thebes’ legendary founder). Asia now understands his creed and dances accordingly. Thebes still rejects him. Its current ruler, Pentheus, will …

January 1, 2012 – 6:37 pm | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, politics | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Skyrim and Political Philosophy

Spoilers galore ahead. Not intended to be correct or comprehensive by any means. Certainly not objective. I simply want to make a few observations and get the Elder Scrolls community talking. 1. Once upon a time there were dragons whose power may have stemmed from words. They established a rule of sorts over men. Then …

December 26, 2011 – 3:01 am | By ashok | Posted in media, philosophy, politics | Tagged | Comments (1)

On the Concept of Class in American Life

Dear L.: 1. Some abstract art impressed me recently. The paintings looked like collages from fragments of home and garden design magazines, with elements flowing into each other haphazardly. Roads would become a roof with a window-like object almost like a shingle peering into a flower-bed. But none of that was there, perhaps. The aesthetic …

December 14, 2011 – 6:49 pm | By ashok | Posted in personal, politics | Comments (2)

Political Philosophy and the Popular Will

1. Megan McArdle’s musing on the failure of the Supercommittee rightly targets the central issue: I don’t really care how much better things could be if we were more like Europe/19th century America.  Given events in Europe, this doesn’t really seem like a good time to be talking up the virtues of larger welfare states …

November 23, 2011 – 4:46 am | By ashok | Posted in politics | Comments (5)

“Liberty to all…gives hope to all”

Abraham Lincoln, “Fragment on the Constitution and the Union” Thanks to Cole Simmons for mentioning this. The problem: the Declaration of Independence does not have legal standing. One could say it’s like acid on nearly any set of laws. An appeal to “nature’s God” could yield anything. The problem was very acute when slavery was …

November 16, 2011 – 3:28 am | By ashok | Posted in lincoln, politics | Comments (2)