“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal…” (Matthew 6:19) I. Introduction Book VIII of Plato’s Republic presents a genealogy of political constitutions, outlining the process by which the ideal city, namely, aristocracy or kingship, degenerates first into timocracy, then into oligarchy,…
“I have called you friends…” (John 15:15) I. Introduction Among the many kinds of relations in which we find ourselves with other people, friendship seems to be one of the most familiar to us. After all, every man has some idea of what it is to be a friend, even if he himself may have…
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics presents an account of virtue that relates it to the function of man, that for the sake of which man exists. According to Aristotle, man, by virtue of being what he is, i.e., human, has a characteristic function which provides the basis for understanding what it means to be virtuous, and, conversely,…
I. Introduction Throughout the history of mathematical thought, the age-old philosophical debate between realism and nominalism has produced various perspectives on the ontological status of abstract entities such as functions, numbers, and sets, the most notable of which include intuitionism (or constructivism), formalism, fictionalism, and indispensabilist platonism. According to the predominant position held by mathematical…
The history of economic thought is fraught with stimulating methodological controversies, many of which occurred between different schools of thought that laid claim to the “correct” approach. Most notably, the Methodenstreit of the late-nineteenth century fundamentally challenged the role of theory in economic science, with the German Historical School, led by Gustav Schmoller, defending the…
There is a very common and widespread misconception about the worldview and mindset of a conservative. Most people really tend to believe that conservatism is all about distaste of modernity, of irrational opposition to progress, in contrast to the cherished old-school values they claim to follow. Granted, some conservatives are particularly vicious in their attacks…
Yes, you read that right. It is not an incoherent nor a rhetorical figure. It is not a self-accusation of contradiction of our non-liberal thinking either. It is pretty much the sum of our ideas, both in its basis and in its consequences, even when it puzzles everyone and makes them ask how someone can…