political

June 28, 2024

Whenever two people “desire the same thing[s]” … compare Aristotle and Hobbes.

I present the following two quotes (Aristotle and Hobbes, respectively) for comparison, without analysis. Aristotle Book II, Chapter IV Friendship and Enmity, 1381b 15 And [we also feel friendly] towards those who are like ourselves in character and occupation, providing they do not get in the way or gain their living from the same source… Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric

aristotle, co-operation, competition, desire, Hobbes, negotiation, Philosophy, policy, political, rhetoric, war
June 15, 2024

Thoughtlets. LII. Malthusian Trivia: Not an Enemy of Population Growth

About 10 years ago I spent what I call The Summer of Malthus. By which I mean that one of the tasks I was set to as a research assistant was to read Robert Thomas Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population, searching for what Malthus takes to be ‘vice’. I read a copy… Continue reading

Thoughtlets

abstinence, AOUM, discipline and trial, economic, health, Malthus, misery, moral, Philosophy, political, poor, restraint, social, vice
June 11, 2023

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. “AS EVERYONE KNOWS …”

DON’T LET THE ARGUMENT TO THE HAND-WAVE WIN THE DAY Continue reading

Pam-Toons

argument, belief, cartoon, dismiss, eopistemology, fallacy, graphic, hand, hand-wave, justification, pencil, Philosophy, photo, political, politics, rhetoric, sketch, sloppy, warrant, wave
March 20, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. In Matters of Love and War — And All Matters In Between — There is No Dearth of Armchair Psychiatrists

Continue reading

Pam-Toons

ad hominen, armchair, cartoon, CNN, code, conspiracy, diagnoses, diagnosis, diagnostic, discourse, doctor, drawing, ethics, Fox, Goldwater Rule, gossip, graphic, judge, mainstream, media, mental health, MSNBC, opinion, pencil, PhD, political, politics, psychiatrist, psychiatry, psychologist, psychology, rhetoric, satire, sketch, social
February 24, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. And from this, an entire political theory.

Thomas Hobbes, A.P. Martinich and Brian Battiste, Eds, Leviathan, Broadview, 2011.Part I, Chapter XIII, 3. (p 122) Continue reading

Pam-Toons

cartoon, contract, contractarian, delectation, desire, game theory, good, graphic, Hobbes, jus ad bellum, jus in bello, justice, Leviathan, pencil, Philosophy, photo, political, politics, possession, property, resources, right, Russia, survival, Ukraine, war
February 24, 2022

Bread and Circuses

(Originally posted Oct. 24, 2020) Somewhere around the second century CE, the Roman satirist Juvenal coined the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ which has come to mean placating one’s populace with cheap bribes to distract them from their political grievances. Here’s the logic. Thomas Hobbes observed that “If any two men [sic] desire the same thing,… Continue reading

Social and Political Commentary

bread and circuses, children, conservation, delectation, entertainment, Hobbes, iGen, iGeneration, intelligence, Juvenal, political, revolution, social, social media, survival, technology
February 12, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Why would I lie on my mandatory diversity pledge? (Scroll down)

Universities Canada principles on equity, diversity and inclusion, October 26, 2017, “Universities Canada make an explicit public commitment to seven principles [on equity, diversity, and inclusion],” available here. (accessed 11 February 2022) “A Guide to Preparing Your Diversity Statement,” Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada, accessed 11 February 2022. Excerpt: “If you have been invited for a… Continue reading

Pam-Toons

academic freedom, allegiance, applicant, application, Canada, career, Coerced, coercion, coercive, compelled, diversity, diversity statements, drawing, employment, faculty, graphic, hiring, loyalty oath, mandatory, Mao, McCarthyism, oath, pencil, pledge, Pol Pot, political, principles, speech, Universities Canada, university
February 7, 2022

Saturday Morning Pam-toons. Of the Right to be Right or Wrong. (With updated article, C2C Journal.)

Update : A comprehensive article on the Frances Widdowson case and the state of academic freedom in Canada, generally: Peter Shawn Taylor, “Academic Freedom vs. Wokeism: The Frances Widdowson Affair“, C2C Journal, February 2, 2022, accessed 7 February 2022. (Thank you, A.R., for bringing this article to my attention.) Frances Widdowson has been fired from… Continue reading

Pam-Toons, Social and Political Commentary

academia, academic freedom, Calgary, cancel culture, censorship, Chicago Principles, FIRE, fired, Frances Widdowson, Free Expression, free speech, heterodox, indulgences, mobbing, Mount Royal University, MRU, orthodoxy, political, politics, SAFS
October 14, 2021

What, if anything, is wrong with MSNBC, CNN, and FOX? (Part 1 of 2)

My other half habitually surfs through a number of national and international news channels in the evenings. Our house is small, so I’m captive to whatever noise emanates from these rotating broadcasts. Sometimes this noise really gets under my skin. Such as? Such as the current tabloid coverage of the Gabby Petito case by the… Continue reading

Philosophy, Political Rhetoric, Social and Political Commentary

analyses, analysis, beliefs, CNN, critic, criticism, determinants of health, divisions, doxa, doxastic, emotion, entertainment, epistemology, Fox, health, hyper, hyper-partisan, information, informed, internet, media, MSNBC, natural selection, news, newspapers, opinion, partisan, Philosophy, political, postman, rhetoric, smartphones, social, stability, tabloid, television
July 16, 2021

Thoughtlets. XLVI. Observing patterns of human behaviour.

Some find Tacitus’ Annals tedious. Some of it is. But his work keeps me riveted. I’m not so interested in history, per se. Rather I’m interested in identifying patterns of human behaviour, events that repeat over millennia, and asking why they repeat themselves. But then, so was Tacitus, “Perhaps there is a sort of cycle… Continue reading

Thoughtlets

ambiguity, ambiguous, Annals, behaviour, control, Darwin, hard sciences, hisotry, meme, memes, memic slection, occurences, patterns, Philosophy, political, prediction, social, social and political, Tactitus