Taxes and Tyranny
Nonetheless…if there is one thing we Americans take seriously, it is money But even on that most vital subject, we cannot bring ourselves to tell the truth.
Tagged: Classics
Abortion and the Laws of Nature, Part II
On abortion and other forms of infanticide, Nature gives us the sort of answer she always gives–general rules and statistical averages to which there are exceptions, but, from the Christian perspective, Nature is the tarnished mirror in which we can only glimpse, obscurely, the true reality
Autodidact: Herodotus
Since the Persian Wars—like the Punic Wars, the Crusades, and the West’s ongoing struggle with Islam—serve to define who we are, it will be useful to reread Herodotus, particularly the books that are directly relevant to the cultural struggle between the West and its enemies.
Autodidact: The Ancient Wisdom of Theognis
Surveys of Western Civ usually convey the impression that Greek literature was dominated by Athenians and their Ionian Greek cousins.
Unjustified Justifications
On FB I am forever seeing disputes breaking out over various theological points, disputes between Catholics and Protestants of course, but also between Tridentine and Vatican II Catholics and between various schools of Protestant thought (Lutheran, Calvinist, Pre-millennialist).
The Autodidact: Homer
The Homeric Mind: Introduction In this series, I want you to do your best to forget what have been told to believe. We are going to concentrate more on what the Greeks said about themselves, and, more than that, we are going to compare what they said with how they lived. In other words, we are going to do something like what an anthropologist does when he goes to visit an alien and primitive culture. We must set aside our preconceptions, interview the subjects, and observe their behavior. What we find may be shocking, but we shall report the truth,...
The New Index, Part III: Adam Smith
Adam Smith is one of the heroes of Anglo-American conservatism. Some years ago, movement conservatives used to sport an Adam Smith tie to tell the world of their allegiance.
The Autodidact on Aristotle
The one figure who defines modern thought is Aristotle, not of course because modern thinkers have followed him, but because since Galileo and Descartes and Bacon, scientists and philosophers have defined themselves by their opposition to Aristotle
The Life of an Autodidact
This is a revised version of a piece first published in 2014. Once upon a time I decided to learn Japanese. I had none of the usual practical reasons: no business interests that would take me to Japan nor even an academic project comparing Noh plays with Attic tragedy. I knew next to nothing of Japan, though as a child my imagination had been stirred by the Mikado, and later, when a college friend persuaded me to read the Tale of Genjii, my mind was haunted by images of beautiful men and women spending languorous evenings composing allusive verses to...
The Autodidact on Aristotle
The one figure who defines modern thought is Aristotle, not of course because modern thinkers have followed him, but because since Galileo and Descartes and Bacon, scientists and philosophers have defined themselves by their opposition to Aristotle. That is my first introductory point, as obvious as it is true. Let me add a second point, no less true but more controversial: In all that is most important, Aristotle is more often right than wrong, and consistently right on those points where he has been most attacked. Life Aristotle was born in 384, an Ionian Greek in Stagira in Chalcidice. His...
