Freedom and Flourishing

 Alexander Hamilton was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as secretary to the Treasury from 1789 to 1795 during the presidency of George Washington. I knew little about Alexander Hamilton’s contribution to American e...

 In the most popular post on my blog, written in 2009, I asked: What are the characteristics of a good society? I began the post by suggesting that a good society would have good institutions – norms and laws that are good for its members. I n...

 I began blogging about 16 years ago, when blogging was somewhat fashionable. At that time, many blogs were like public diaries in which people discussed daily events in their lives. I have the impression that blogs of that kind have become less...

 David Schmidtz advocates “ecological justice” in his book, Living Together: Inventing Moral Science. Although Schmidtz does not refer to Friedrich Hayek in this book, his general line of argument is similar, in many respects, to that develo...

 I asked myself the question posed above as I was reading Michèle Lamont’s book, Seeing Others, How to Redefine Worth in a Divided World. The passage quoted below seems central to Michèle Lamont’s book: “The hegemony of the American dr...

 Some readers will be wondering what the question means. What is this daimon? How does it relate to eudaimonia? How can you identify your daimon? Your daimon In his book, Personal Destinies, David L Norton explains that your daimon is your inn...

 I have read a great deal of the fiction written by Jean Paul Sartre, but my knowledge of his philosophical works is second-hand. I read Nausea, The Age of Reason, The Reprieve, and Iron in the Soul, when I was in my 20’s. Those novels still s...