Necessity is the word of tyrants. Expediency is foundational to our current administrative state, wherein one body writes the laws, executes the laws, alters the laws case-by-case, and judges the laws, with minimal interference by representative government or the judiciary.
Martin, Warhammer, Tolkien: The Relationship of Morality With Power Morality’s relationship to power is a classic problem (one I brush up against in my novel). Is righteousness doomed? Does might make right? Is morality a silly pretense in a world of
The description given by an Anglo-Saxon poem holds true today. My second favorite poem in all the world is The Wanderer, an Old English work narrating the contemplations of a man deprived of his place in the world, sent forth an
I have no great respect for Kant. In his most benevolent role, this famous philosopher features as the pun-pair with ‘can’t’ in highbrow dad jokes that aren’t funny out of context. In his more famous position, Immanuel Kant stands among
Does determinism eliminate the possibility of rational thought? On a short and fanciful foray into the world of quantum physics, I encountered the (rather philosophical) assertion that determinism makes rational thought impossible. This assertion I, as proximate to a determinist
The modern day is cold and swift and made of mechanism, number turning number…. To Eomer, nephew of Theoden, Aragorn declared a reminder apt to us in the modern day (as Tolkien is wont to be): “The green earth, say
Intellectual rigor and consistency means applying our principles across the board. Intellectual rigor and consistency means applying our principles across multiple situations, without exceptions that aren’t justified by the principles themselves. In the current situation, that means evaluating the reasons
A beautiful artform with more subtleties than is often taught. The first poem which made me want to read more poetry was The Fall of Arthur, an unfinished work by J.R.R. Tolkien. I had already read Beowulf (Heaney’s translation), but The Fall of Arthur drove
Is ‘evil’ a substance? In his Confessions, Augustine of Hippo proposed a peculiar idea of sin: that sin did not exist as a separate substance but rather as a lack of goodness. In a word, sin was a nonexistence, something omitted rather
All 7 posts Six Answers for Kevin DeYoung on ‘Christian Nationalism’ (I) A good article, with questions I can answer What is Christian Nationalism? I pinned a question something like that to the top of my X account for a while (and