• 1      6-oz can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1      6-oz can frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
• 1      cup  catsup
• 4      tablespoons lemon juice
• 3      teaspoons cayenne pepper (less if you’re a pansy, more if you like)
• 4      tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
• 2      2-inch stick cinnamon
• 16    whole allspice
• 8      whole cloves
• 2      15-oz cans diced tomatoes, drained
• 3-5  medium carrots, chopped thinly into disks
• 3      pounds boneless chicken breasts, cut into small to medium-sized pieces
• Hot, cooked couscous.

1. To make sauce, in a medium-sized bowl combine the juice concentrate, catsup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and tapioca. Pour into 3.5-4 quart slow cooker.
2. Make a spice bag by placing cinnamon, allspice and cloves in 100% cotton cheese cloth and tying the package closed with clean kitchen string. Beats having to fish the whole spices out of the finished product one by one when it’s time to serve. Put this in the slow cooker as well.
3. Peel and chop carrots. Open and drain cans of tomatoes. Add to cooker.
4. Prepare the chicken (thaw, clean, cut, etc.), then place in the cooker. Stir.
5. Cover. Cook on low-heat setting approximately 9 hours, high heat setting approximately 4.5 hours. I find this dish tastes best when cooked on low for 9 hours. The chicken browns turns brown and absorbs all the flavors. It’s mouth watering.
6. Discard spice bag. Serve over couscous. Optional substitution: Serve over basmati rice.

In an undergrad philosophy class on problems in ethical theory, taught by libertarian James Stacey Taylor (who introduced me to the IHS), we were required to write 300-words-or-less summaries of each chapter of the philosophy books we were reading. It’s not easy summarizing 10-30 pages of academic philosophy into 300 words or less, and such summaries are not good vehicles for debates, but it was good exercise in learning how to identify what’s essential and what’s not as well as how to write concisely. Anyway, here is my summary from that class of Christine Korsgaard’s entire book, The Sources of Normativity. I can’t remember what the word-count limit was for this, but the summary is only 661 words. Korsgaard is a very prominent modern Kantian. Needless to say, I don’t buy into the Kantian paradigm; but my disagreements are not on display in this summary.

Korsgaard’s Sources of Normativity
PDF Version

In laying out her theory for the source of normativity, Christine Korsgaard attempts to be inclusive by integrating her own variations on voluntarism, realism, reflective endorsement, and appeal to autonomy. Korsgaard’s theory culminates in her account of practical identity and the value of one’s humanity. The result purports to be an objective and universal theory of meta-ethics.

Korsgaard’s goal is to show that we do have moral obligations irrespective of our individual desires. As reflective beings, we must reflexively endorse a desire if it is to be considered a reason to act. Korsgaard turns inward the voluntarist formulation of legislator and citizen, positing the thinking self and acting self as our double nature. The thinking self has the power to command the acting self.

Human beings must act under the idea of free will. To be autonomous, however, one cannot merely follow one’s desires; one must have a goal and one must have a reason to reach that goal. The reason cannot be imposed by an external source. Autonomy requires self-imposed laws, which cannot be picked arbitrarily.

The Categorical Imperative tells us to act only on a maxim that can be consistently willed into a universal law. A good maxim is an intrinsically normative entity. Korsgaard avoids the trap of substantive moral realism by arguing that we have no need for recourse to intuition if we can show something’s intrinsic properties make it a final good. We can do this with a maxim, for it has the form of a law by virtue of its intrinsic properties, and it is this that makes it a final reason for action. This is still procedural realism. Values are created through our legislative wills by the procedure of making laws for ourselves.

Korsgaard distinguishes the categorial imperative from the moral law, which “tells us to act only on maxims that all rational beings could agree to act on together in a workable cooperative system.” The former is the law of a free will, but the traditional Kantian argument does not establish the moral law as the law of a free will. Only a law that ranges over every rational being will be a moral law. It is our practical identities that guide us in our acquisition of moral law and the actions we take based on them. These laws are constrained by the Categorical Imperative.

Our practical identities give us reasons to act in one way rather than another. It is unthinkable to act contrary to our identity. When we are acting under volitional necessity, that is, when all actions but one are unthinkable then we are most autonomous. As autonomous reflective beings that act for reasons, we must value our practical identities. “It is the conceptions of ourselves that are most important to us that give rise to unconditional obligations. For to violate them is to lose your integrity and so your identity, and to no longer be who you are.” If we value our practical identities then we must also value our humanity, for it is our humanity that makes our practical identities possible. It is here, in the Self, that Korsgaard locates the source of normativity.

Like some realists, Korsgaard holds that reasons are intrinsically normative entities. However, she rejects the commonly held belief that reasons are private, and that one can derive public reasons from private reasons. Taking a cue from Wittgenstein’s public language argument, she argues that if private reasons existed then they would be incommunicable to others. A private reason would be a reason only for X, whereas public reasons are reasons for all agents relatively similar to X. Reasons are inherently public. Since human beings have only reasons that can be shared, if we value our own humanity we must recognize that we share that humanity with others and so must value the humanity of others as well. To do otherwise would constitute a failure to be consistent. Herein lies our moral obligations to others.

This is an old list but I’m aiming to add to it. It’s mostly quotes on politics and economics but I’m aiming to expand beyond that too. If you have any great quotes you think might interest me in this regard, please email me or add them in the comments section below. Please provide as much bibliographic information as you can, and if an online source is available please link to it. I might also organize this list alphabetically or by subject when I get the time.

~*~

“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life,
with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
- Ayn Rand

“I swear – by my life and my love of it – that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“I’m no Ayn Rander! She didn’t go nearly far enough!”
- The Question, Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley (2002)

~*~

“My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiskered men with bombs) – or to `unconstitutional’ Monarchy. I would arrest anybody who uses the word state (in any sense other than the inanimate realm of England and its inhabitants, a thing that has neither power, rights nor mind); and after a chance of recantation, execute them if they remained obstinate!” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995), p. 63.

“If we could get back to personal names, it would do a lot of good. Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and the process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people. If people were in the habit of referring to `King George’s council, Winston and his gang’, it would do a long way to clearing thought, and reducing the frightful landslide into Theyocracy” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995), p. 63.

“The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit to it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (1995), p. 64.

“The destiny of man is an individualistic destiny.” – Merlyn, The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White

“I am an anarchist, like any other sensible person.” – Merlyn, The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White

“All forms of collectivism are mistaken, according to the human skull.” – Merlyn, The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White

“Nobody can be saved from anything, unless they save themselves. It is hopeless doing things for people – it is often very dangerous to do things at all – and the only thing worth doing for the race is to increase its stock of ideas. Then, if you make available a larger stock, people are at liberty to help themselves from out of it. By this process the means of improvement is offered, to be accepted or rejected freely, and there is a faint hope of progress in the course of millennia. Such is the business of the philosopher, to open new ideas. It is not his business to impose them on people.” – Merlyn, The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya

“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.” – Murray Rothbard

“The State is that great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.” – Frederic Bastiat

“The probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping-master in a slave plantation.” – Frank Knight

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with a series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” – H.L. Mencken

“It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favour of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.” – H.L. Mencken

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.” – Mark Twain

“I have often wondered why the sounds of the beating drums do not make the marching soldiers shoot their officers and go home.” – Albert Jay Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943)

“Americans have a strange notion that the ordinary laws of economics do not apply to them. So doubtless they will think they are prosperous if the boom starts, and that deficits and indebtedness are merely signs of how prosperous they are.” – Albert Jay Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943)

“The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” – George Orwell

“Libertarianism in One Sentence: Other people are not your property.” – Roderick T. Long

“Silence is golden but when it threatens your freedom it’s yellow.” – Edmund Burke

“The two-party system is a bad joke on the American people; when it comes to Republicans and Democrats remember they are two sides of the same coin. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil and not an answer to our problems. A vote for a Republican or a Democrat will not fix anything and is a wasted vote.” – Aaron Russo, 2004 Libertarian Presidential Candidate

“The question isn’t who is going to let me, it is who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice.” – Adam Smith

“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” – Thomas Sowell

“[W]hat economists should be able to do is to figure out a system that works without shooting people.” – Leonid Hurwicz

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is hacking at the root.” – Henry David Thoreau

“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“First, what is it you want us to pay taxes for? Tell me what I get and perhaps I’ll buy it.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“The power to tax, once conceded, has no limits; it continues until it destroys.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“In past history popularly elected governments have been no better and sometimes far worse than overt tyrannies.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“That we were slaves I had known all my life – and nothing could be done about it. True, we weren’t bought and sold – but as long as Authority held monopoly over what we had to have and what we could sell to buy it, we were slaves.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Excerpt from the notebooks of Lazarus Long, from Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love

“An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.” – Thomas Jefferson

“He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future.” – George Orwell

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” – Einstein

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” – Einstein ”

The hardest thing to understand is the income tax.” – Einstein

“Historical experience suggests that policy makers are dense…” – Stephen D. Krasner

“Stupidity is not a very interesting analytic category.” – Stephen D. Krasner

“Mathematical equations cannot take into account creative human decisions based on the categories of cause and effect, before and after. What they describe is a timeless world of correlations from which causation is absent. Human intentions play no part in the model, as the model assumes all humans know everything relevant to their situation and can only accept it as a given.”-Gene Callahan

“Mathematical equations can be useful for modeling the result of people following through on previously made plans, for capturing “equilibrium-like” phases of markets. Such a model cannot capture the change of perception in the market, which is the beginning of the creation of a new plan. That is the moment of human choice, as the plan must aim for one goal while setting aside others, and choose some means to achieve that goal while rejecting others. Mathematical economics models the equilibrium-like phases of markets, when no plans are being created or revised.”-Gene Callahan

“But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.” – W. B. Yeats, He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven

Top

That was to be the subtitle for my chapter in Open Court’s recent addition to their Popular Culture and Philosophy series, Transformers and Philosophy: More Than Meets the Mind. Alas, no subtitles made it into the book.

I have received official permission to provide a pdf copy of my chapter, “Freedom Is the Right of All Sentient Beings,” on my website. Technically, I don’t think I really need legal permission; I don’t recall signing over to Open Court the copyright that federal law automatically vests in me as the author. Anyway, download it from that link and enjoy!

The chapter title comes from a quote by Optimus Prime in the first of the recent live action movies. The chapter itself is kind of a condensed and lite version of the Aristotelian-liberal theory of virtue ethics and natural rights explained in more detail in my dissertation, applied to the transformers and to artificial intelligences more generally.

This is from a page of notes I put together in grad school for a presentation on Aristotle’s Prime Mover.

Sources: De Anima III.5, Metaphysics XII (especially 7 & 9), Physics VIII (especially 8-10).

PDF version.

Characteristics of the Prime Mover (Divine Nous)

• First principle
• First mover (logically, not temporally); itself unmoved and unmovable/unalterable
• Substance (and arguably form) without matter
• Self-thinking thought
• Eternal and in eternal possession of its object (thought); therefore always active and never passive, always actuality and never potentiality.
• Simple and one
• Final cause; that for the sake of which; moves others by love; produces movement through infinite time (not a temporal first cause)
• Necessary
• Most good
• Living, insofar as thought itself is the highest expression of life
• No magnitude (and so neither finite nor infinite)
• Without parts and indivisible

The Ordered Universe

• “[T]he universe is of the nature of a whole” (M XII.1). “[T]he world is not such that one thing has nothing to do with another, but they are connected. For all are ordered together to one end” (M XII.10). “There always was motion and always will be motion throughout all time” (P XIII.9), i.e., the universe is eternal; not created or generated ex nihilo. The Prime Mover is the original source of motion in the universe and is the ordering principle that makes the universe a whole. The Prime Mover, God, the Divine, “encloses the whole of nature” (end of M XII.8).

Human Nous and Divine Nous

• Men participate in the divine insofar as they contemplate the higher things (Nicomachean Ethics and M XII.7).
• Can the human soul survive death? In Metaphysics XII.3 Aristotle suggests that it can, “albeit not all soul but [only] the reason.”

Contra Plato (M XII.5-6):

• For Plato everything in the phenomenal world is a mere imperfect, particular manifestation of the Ideas or Forms. Each Idea or Form is universal in the sense of being one. In Metaphysics XII (and also in NE), Aristotle rejects universals of this sort. “The primary principles of all things are the actual primary ‘this’ and another thing which exists potentially. The universal causes, then, of which we spoke do not exist. For the individual is the source of the individuals. For while man is the cause of man universally, there is no universal man” (M XII.5). For Plato, the Agathon (the Good), at least in the Symposium and the Republic and prior to the Sophist, is beyond being. One might argue that Plato’s “mature metaphysics” expressed in the Sophist precludes this, however.
• For Aristotle it is particulars that exist and the forms are always forms of individual particulars. Aristotle’s universals are not physically separable and independently existing things but rather are aspects of the nature of particulars, which we can separate out mentally by a process of abstraction. For example, the universal ‘man’ does not exist for Aristotle except insofar as it can be located in all the individual men who have ever lived, are living, or will ever live. The same might be said of the Prime Mover; insofar as it is the first mover, the organizing principle of the universe, and encloses the whole of nature, it might be reasonable to say (although I’m not certain that Aristotle would agree) that it is the form of reality, the logical structure of reality. Arguably the Metaphysics introduces separable substances, but even so for Aristotle nothing, not even the Prime Mover, is beyond being.

~~~

Now, I’m an atheist, but I believe there is a logical structure of reality. I don’t think my views are entirely inconsistent with Aristotle’s idea of the Prime Mover. For more on this, see Roderick Long’s “Theism and Atheism Reconciled” and “The Unspeakable Logos.”

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A 10-year-old boy is taking a stand for “liberty and justice for all,” refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance until gays and lesbians enjoy equal rights. Good for him. But this will be best achieved by getting the state out of marriage entirely. Let people define marriage how they will. Barring that, the second best option so long as the state monopolizes the definition and the legal system is to insist that the state has no right to limit marriage to opposite-sex unions, thus denying homosexuals equal legal rights, tax benefits, etc., within its auspices.

The state can never bring “liberty and justice for all” so it is incoherent, though a good rhetorical device, to make one’s pledging allegiance to it contingent on its doing so. Pledging allegiance is itself morally suspect insofar as it carries connotations of feudalism, and morally bankrupt insofar as allegiance is pledged to the state. I think it is no accident that the Pledge was not created until after the Civil War, in 1892, roughly a hundred years after the signing of the Constitution and not long before the US government’s first overseas imperial war. Nor that its creator, Francis Bellamy, was a statist-socialist intent on promoting nationalism in public indoctrination camps schools. (Incidentally, as an aside, the phrase “under God” wasn’t added to the Pledge until 1954, and “in God we trust” wasn’t the official US motto until 1956.)

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The “final” issue of the Journal of Libertarian Studies is finally available online, although it looks like there will be one more final issue for all the other accepted but unpublished articles. This is the Atlas Shrugged Symposium issue, the last issue edited by Roderick Long, and I’m proud to say it includes an article by me. Head on over to the Mises blog and check out Jeff Tucker’s announcement. You can also download my article, “Atlas Shrugged and the Importance of Dramatizing Our Values,” directly.

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• @feedly_chrome Awesome! Thanks! in reply to feedly_chrome #
• Flying back to Sulphur this afternoon with wife and babby form to see family and friends for the weekend. #
• @aniceberg Thanks! Interesting search engine. Found some interesting news and task icons I might use but no luck on the Google front. in reply to aniceberg #
• @hackernewsbot That article confuses regulated capitalism w free markets & misses govt's decisive role in the crisis. http://tr.im/ElCG in reply to hackernewsbot #
• @hackernewsbot The Fed's artificially low interest rates & govt's push for subprime mortgage loans + counterproductive regs = root cause. in reply to hackernewsbot #
• RT @matociquala: Democrats want to take our $ & spend it on social programs, Republicans want to take our $ & give it to their friends. #
• RT @MaryRobinette This week my column at @SciFiScanner covers The Eight Worst Anachronisms in Fantasy http://bit.ly/1bhSo9 #

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• New link for blogpost “Stackpole, Doctorow, and Intellectual Property.” Sorry, have been tweaking plugins & permalinks. http://bit.ly/21w1Wb #
• New blogpost: New Website & Blog!: Attention all my readers and subscribers – assuming I still have any after not po… http://bit.ly/3o4rPj #
• is making tuna salad for a sandwich while catching up on Stargate Universe on Hulu Desktop for Linux. W00t! Thanks @hulu ! #
• RT @bantamspectra: 3 more minutes for a chance to win Elizabeth Bear books (RT me, live in the US or Canada, and use #bearsf hash-tag)! #
• RT @CatoInstitute: Tell people libertarian means “fiscally conservative & socially liberal,” 44% will accept the label http://bit.ly/3yYQON #
• RT @BoingBoing: Google Wave as an RPG environment http://bit.ly/eEDQL #
• @vanguardist I upgraded last week. in reply to vanguardist #
• RT @Wiltster: Thought for Today: “I did not go to his funeral, but I wrote a nice letter saying I approved of it.” ~ Mark Twain #
• @jfcarpio “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.” – Nietzsche in reply to jfcarpio #
• RT @google: RT @googlesidewiki Sidewiki now available for Chrome & other browsers. Try our new bookmarklet: http://bit.ly/4yKXWM #
• RT @Wiltster: RT @LPIN A Chart You Need to See: Cato: Federal Education Results Prove the Framers Right http://lpin.org/node/803 #
• RT @sfsignal: RT @sci_fi_o_rama: Amazing set of nearly 1000 #sciencefiction & #fantasy book covers on flickr http://ow.ly/xce0 #
• RT @CatoInstitute: Surprise! Illegal cig trade n Ireland reaches “epidemic proportions” after draconian regs on tobacco http://bit.ly/3nQaRV #
• Sophia almost rolled over today, rolled to her side for a second, and her dancing reminds me of Elaine. #
• RT @IndependentInst: LOL RT @vaxen_var “We tax everything that moves.” – H. Clinton http://bit.ly/3DfBwz Yeah, b@*%#, we know! #
• RT @IndependentInst @InjusticeNews police review board overturns disciplinary findings n 2/3 cases, rarely fires bad cops http://is.gd/4HAeC #
• RT @TheOnion: [audio] Department Of Transportation To Add Earth-Friendly Walking Lanes To Highways http://ow.ly/15YeP1 #
• RT @TheOnion: In Focus: Senate Ethics Committee To Meet In New Ethics Committee Mansion http://ow.ly/15YnZB #
• @waggz @gragek Y’all want a Google Wave invite? I have a couple left. #
• @matt_morton Hi. @waggz said you want a Google Wave invite. DM me your email address and I’ll send you one. in reply to waggz #
• I’m not giving out Google Wave invites to random people I don’t know. Sorry. #
• @noor91 Send me your email address. in reply to noor91 #
• RT @TheOnion: [audio] World’s Dietitians Urge America To Reduce Its Mayonnaise Footprint http://ow.ly/15YtIx #
• Testing @firefox 3.6b1 on @geteasypeasy. #
• @gragek Send me the email address you want to use via DM. in reply to gragek #
• @doctorow You’re late! Have fun! in reply to doctorow #

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This is coming a bit late, since I’ve already made a few posts (automated and not), but welcome to my new website with an integrated and self-hosted blog. I’ve switched to using WordPress as my publishing platform as you can probably tell. I’m still in the process of transferring content over and updating the website. All posts and comments from my old blog have been copied over to my new one. I recently set up Feedburner for it and I’m not sure if it’s kicked in yet or working properly so please let me know if you have any problems and keep in mind that the rss feed may change in the near future. You should be able to subscribe to a variety of feeds one way or another, from the general website/blog and comment feeds to individual post comments to individual post categories and tags. If you have any comments, suggestions, criticisms about or technical difficulties with the new format, please post them here.

Cory Doctorow recently announced an experiment to prove that giving away free ebooks works. Michael Stackpole responded with a deconstruction of Cory’s experiment. He makes a number of good points about the experiment, though I think he comes off unnecessarily harsh on Cory personally. And one gets the impression that he feels threatened by the growing anti-IP movement. He has his own (antiquated) business model and bottom-line to protect after all, though I applaud him for being a pioneer in experimenting with ebooks and podcasting. One remark of his in particular, in his second blogpost on Cory’s experiment (“What is Cory Doing Right?“), cuts right to the heart of the matter. I left a comment on his blogpost in response but for whatever reason it hasn’t appeared yet and might never appear [Update: must have been stuck in moderator limbo, it finally appeared] , so I’m reproducing it below:

“For some reason folks think it’s okay to say to a creator of intellectual property that the product of our labors should be free; yet they never convincingly press that argument at a farmer’s market.”

This is because intellectual property is not legitimate property, whereas a farmer’s produce is. You might check out the following:

• Stephan Kinsella, “The Case Against IP: A Concise Guide,” Mises Daily (Sept. 4, 2009).
• Stephan Kinsella, Against Intellectual Property, Mises Institute (2008).
• Roderick T. Long, “The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights,” Formulations Vol. 3, No. 1 (Autumn 1995).
• Michelle Boldrin and David K. Levine, Against Intellectual Monopoly, Cambridge University Press (2008).

Due to human error, fiddling with settings for the Twitter Tools plugin, this post actually contains my tweets for the past two weeks (in chronological order from oldest to most recent).

• @gragek @waggz This college tweeple aggregating site might be of interest: http://globalquad.com/ | Linked to other cool aggregaters too. #
• C4SS: An IgNobel History http://bit.ly/14QGxG #
• RT @torforgeauthors: Charles Stross: Why I hate Star Trek http://bit.ly/OfYMw #
• RT @WiredGeekDad: New on GeekDad: A Perspective on Reading to Children (through verse): GeekDads all know the impo.. http://bit.ly/1mAlYs #
• RT @WiredGeekDad: New on GeekDad: A Nerd or a Geek? It’s all in What You Think!: It wasn’t until a little ov.. http://bit.ly/9Jx1k #
• RT @bradspangler: RT: @libertysnippet: Reading Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns, free online by War Resisters’ Int’l: http://is.gd/4hsAo #
• @Wiltster Good comment. in reply to Wiltster #
• RT @IndependentInst: Higgs: “Amid all the partisan sound & fury, hardly anybody notices that political reality boils down to two ‘parties’…” #
• RT @IndependentInst: “…(1) those who, …., use state power to bully & live at the expense of others; & (2) those unfortunate others.” #
• RT @michaelshermer: Capitalism—A Propaganda Story (my review of Michael Moore’s film): http://bit.ly/toquz #
• <–fellow LSU alum | @THE_REAL_SHAQ Yo momma so fat that before God said “Let there be light,” he said “Get your big butt out the way!” ;o) in reply to THE_REAL_SHAQ #
• @jfcarpio Best not to encourage a person’s inner tyrant with the sight of many rules inevitably being broken. Simplicity is key. in reply to jfcarpio #
• I’m Wavin’ baby yeah. | RT @mashable: First Google Wave Firefox Add-on is Here: Google Wave Notifier – http://bit.ly/1q3t2a #
• RT @mises: The House That Goldman Sachs Built: The U.S. Treasury Department is the central headquarters of Wall Street.. http://bit.ly/cgsW2 #
• RT @2020science: New blog posting, Do peer review journals need a media code of conduct? – http://2020science.org/2Q #
• @waggz @gragek Testing Google Wave, can’t wait until it’s mature enough to replace, or supplement, services like Angel & Blackboard. #
• RT @Lifehacker: Google Wave’s Best Use Cases http://lifehacker.com/5381219 #googlewave #wave #
• Whoa! | RT @newscientist: First black hole for light created on Earth http://bit.ly/4h7AKo #
• @DrPrettyBad It’s still cool. in reply to DrPrettyBad #
• @waggz @gragek Still invite only, early preview stage. in reply to waggz #
• RT @chuckmoulton: “Apparently Buchanan didn’t get the memo from Virgil: everyone at GMU is an anarcho-capitalist.” – Larry White #
• RT @webgeekcom Q: How many Marxists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: None: The lightbulb contains the seeds of its own revolution. #
• RT @Techmeme: Walmart Offering $45 Unlimited Cellphone Plan Nationwide (Mark Wilson/Gizmodo) http://bit.ly/1By3CJ #
• RT @ahp: John Mackey on healthcare, the history of Whole Foods, and dealing with government interference: http://tinyurl.com/yjbxgz7 #
• RT @rationalreview: Judge blocks public from Blackwater hearings http://tinyurl.com/yf6va9x #
• RT @hackernewsbot: Senate blocks transparency, refuses to put bills online… http://bit.ly/uEGu7 #
• RT @nprnews: Should Biden Resign In Protest Over An Afghan Build-Up? Arianna Says Yes http://su.pr/3f0ySB #
• @wombatron Shhhh!!! Now I’m going to have poor “cousins” I never knew I had hitting me up for my dwindling riches! in reply to wombatron #
• @wombatron I added you to some waves. in reply to wombatron #
• RT “I want V @torbooks” Random drawing @ 3PM EST. #
• @seesmic Want Want. RT @mashable: TweetDeck Adds New Notification System and New Follower Column – http://bit.ly/1CA6V #
• RT @Sheldon_Richman: Obama should read Elinor Ostrom. Bottom-up beats top-down rule-making. #
• RT @reasonmag: John Stossel on Michael Moore: Government power is the problem, not capitalism http://bit.ly/TNhWi #
• RT @sfsignal: [RT @MerecalBksSciFi] Political Science Fiction (Paperback) is out December 17th http://merecal.com/1202Z #scifi #fantasy #fb #
• RT @C4Liberty: “Pro-Obamacare Republicans in the pay of the #healthcare industry” http://is.gd/4l9tH #
• RT @paolobacigalupi: “GNP is a measure of throughput, not welfare.” – Herman E. Daly #
• To be a complete economist, a man need only be a mathematician, a philosopher, a psychologist, an anthropologist, a… http://ff.im/-9Tdzu #
• RT @bantamspectra: Want to know how a writer reads? Check out C.L. Anderson (BITTER ANGELS) recent @suvudu post http://bit.ly/1W6xGa #
• RT @reasonmag: Now Playing at Reason.tv: Whole Foods and Health Care http://bit.ly/QoZEg #
• @Greg2812 Luckily people don’t have to shop at Whole Foods all the time for everything, but those who want to, & can afford it, can. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 As for insurance, you can blame the government-corporate partnership for unrealistic expectations, high prices, hidden pricing,… in reply to Greg2812 #
• ….restricted competition, and distortion of what insurance is actually used for. #
• Haha! ASCAP. What a fitting name/acronym for obnoxious IP socialists. | http://bit.ly/JFZg2 #
• RT @JazzGuru Obama to appoint “Balloon Czar”, use stimulus money to create government agency regulating balloons. #balloonboy #tcot #tlot #
• Rt @JazzGuru Obama to hold press conference on #balloonboy incident pending the programming of his teleprompter. #TCOT #TLOT #
• @Greg2812 Government, insurance companies, hospitals, the AMA, producers of medical equipment. Break up the partnership. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 Eliminate subsidies, allow competition across state lines, eliminate regulations that stifle competition, …. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 …eliminate the employer tax break and offer individuals tax breaks for having insurance, … in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 …stop mandating the content of insurance policies and who insurers have to provide insurance to, … in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 …end legal support for the AMA’s medieval-style guild, phase out social-welfare programs. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 Encourage people to comparison shop on price, discourage them from relying upon insurance or govt to pay for their health care. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 People and the HC industry have gotten used to having procedures done without talking price. Consumers don’t realize what it… in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 …all costs until long after the fact. They aren’t paying out of pocket. Doctors and hospitals get away with charging… in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 …ridiculous things. Ex: My wife & I had a baby recently. One hospital charged $80 for disposable (why?) BP cuffs,… in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 …$25 for disposable (why?) fetal monitor bands. There’s no good reason for this. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 RE: not-for-profit insurance corp… Maybe, but for-profit insurance as such isn’t the problem. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @Greg2812 The problem, partly, only partly, is big insurance getting in bed with the govt. in reply to Greg2812 #
• @tobiasbuckell Haha! Yeah. LA also licenses florists, to protect us from bad floral arrangements I guess…. Guess who administers the test? in reply to tobiasbuckell #
• @johnjosephadams RE: Lightspeed. Awesome! in reply to johnjosephadams #
• RT @johnjosephadams: Announcing new SF online magazine, Lightspeed: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com I’ll be the fiction editor! #
• @johnjosephadams Beautiful cover image on http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com. #
• 4 hours of sleep, 2 X 2, yay fatherhood! #
• http://twitpic.com/lqeru – Who is the worst villain in this pic? #
• RT @hackernewsbot: Goldman Sachs Is Robbing Us Blind… http://bit.ly/13ALg8 #
• RT @nprnews: Bank Of America Racks Up $2.24 Billion Loss http://su.pr/6aq7jP #
• RT @Sheldon_Richman: TGIF: Frustrating Michael Moore http://bit.ly/4sOvCN #
• RT @radleybalko: Streaking now a sex crime. Larry Dallas forced to live under a bridge in Florida. http://tinyurl.com/ykdpxrz #
• RT @markchitty Great SFF publishers @torbooks @_TheVoyager_ @Pyr_Books @SolarisBooks @UKTor @angryrobotbooks @gollancz @orbitbooks #ff #
• RT @reasonmag: Only Jokes Thrived Under Communism http://bit.ly/4yMFOz #
• RT @jfcarpio What did the Nazis learn from the American Leftist Progressives in the 1910’s and 20’s? > http://tinyurl.com/yjf2ztk #
• RT @jfcarpio State funding of science is neither necessary nor beneficial: http://bit.ly/3yVld #
• @tobiasbuckell Could be worse. You could be in Louisiana! in reply to tobiasbuckell #
• RT @XaqFixx: RT: @RichardMorrison: New study – TN, CA, WA, OK & LA have highest combined state & local sales tax rates: http://bit.ly/SyvPS #
• RT @reasonmag: How The British Welfare State Excels at Creating Bums http://bit.ly/fneaR #
• http://bit.ly/eWWwD #
• Whoops! Gnome Do Operator FAIL. That last tweet is a link to Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s latest album, on sale for $5 at Amazon. Get it! #
• @vanguardist Heroic! #
• @feedly_chrome How are the invites going out? By DM? in reply to feedly_chrome #
• Just installed @feedly_chrome for Google Chrome Linux. Time for some private alpha-testing fun. Thanks! in reply to feedly_chrome #
• @feedly_chrome Awesome! Didn’t even have to log in manually. in reply to feedly_chrome #
• @feedly_chrome I like that it doesn’t make the bottom toolbar show up on Linux Chrome like other extensions. Can’t hide it on Linux Chrome. in reply to feedly_chrome #
• @feedly_chrome I just turned Feedly into a desktop app. W00t! in reply to feedly_chrome #
• @feedly @feedly_chrome Feedly works…fast…on Google’s official Linux Chrome build too. Thanks! in reply to feedly #
• I think this is the Android phone I’ve been waiting for. | RT @Techmeme: Motorola Droid hands on! (Boy Genius Report) http://bit.ly/K9K8m #
• http://xkcd.com/651/ on airport security theater. #
• RT @Lifehacker: Turn Your PC into a Home Surveillance System http://lifehacker.com/5385018 #security #
• RT @sfscope: SciFinal aims to be the TV Guide of sci-fi web series: http://tinyurl.com/yljuue5 (Category: Websites/Organizations) #
• @wombatron Troll a certain someone. That’s always fun. #
• About to watch @wilw on Big Bang Theory on CBS. Geekfest! #NOK #
• Damn @wilw, that was cold, using meemaw like that. But funny! #
• Rodrigo y Gabriela live on NPR. Heavy metal flamenco. Pure awesomeness. | http://tr.im/Cn8g #
• RT @TechCrunch: Android Avalanche: A Complete List Of The Android Phones So Far http://bit.ly/OTt6b by @Nik #
• @aspireonenews I think you’ve been hacked. in reply to aspireonenews #
• RT @bruces: http://tr.im/CErR “The old fashioned novel really is dead” – killed by telephone in 1896. #steampunk #nook via @alexismadrigal #
• Recovery! | RT @nprnews: Jobless Claims Rose By 11,000 Last Week http://su.pr/1xu0UK #
• RT @nprnews: Poll Shows ‘Sharp Decline’ In Percentage Who Believe In Global Warming http://su.pr/1JDufu #
• RT @CatoInstitute: 9 huge problems w. Medicare system http://bit.ly/l4XV4 & you want to extend Medicare to every1? #hcr #p2 #handsoff #tlot #
• Yes, Mr. President, a Free Market Can Fix Health Care (CATO) | http://tr.im/CHAz #
• Wha…!?! | RT @Techmeme: Chase Carey: Hulu to Charge in 2010 (Claire Atkinson/Broadcasting & Cable) http://bit.ly/izo8u #
• Wha…!?! | RT @suvudu: And awaaaaaaaaaay we go! RT @scifirules: Fox pulls Dollhouse from November schedule #scifi http://bit.ly/1B5R60 #
• @suvudu Will yet another Whedon show be killed off by Fox, sweeps and the World Series? Will he learn his lesson this time? in reply to suvudu #
• RT @XaqFixx: “This is congress masturbating to the sound of it’s own voice.” – Flash Forward #
• RT @TheOnion: [audio] Pack Of Chimps In Tuxedos Crashes Nobel Prize Dinner http://ow.ly/15WJBJ #
• Nook’s lending feature very overrated. Very disappointed, but can’t say I’m surprised. Down with IP! | http://bit.ly/304l3p #
• Note to publishers/sellers: I won’t buy #ebooks that cost as much as the hardcover/paperback. Even $9.99 is (generally) too high. #
• RT @suprisinglyf Internet angels: the story of private security providers http://bit.ly/TLZhJ #
• @scalzi @wilw TMI!!! #
• “Obama’s ‘Change you can believe in’ means ‘After the bailouts, all we’ll have left is some change’.” – Arsenio Hall, Jay Leno Show #
• I just noticed a @feedly icon on the top toolbar of Linux Chrome. Neat. Better than on the bottom toolbar like other extensions. #

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• RT @nprnews FTC Says Bloggers Must Disclose Paid Endorsements http://su.pr/1rgmv6 | The corporatist nanny state strikes again. #
• @noor91 Homework sucks. Glad I’m done for good. But now I have to GRADE homework. in reply to noor91 #
• RT @bradspangler Over & over again, it’s the same story. The establishment can’t diagnose the problem b/c the establishment IS the problem. #
• @noor91 Currently I teach State & Local Politics & an intro seminar on globalism, both online. My specialty is political philosophy though. in reply to noor91 #
• @scodtt Thanks! in reply to scodtt #
• @noor91 The globalism seminar is new, mostly global warming/environmentalism stuff (I didn’t design it). in reply to noor91 #
• @noor91 It’s something all online students have to take at Buena Vista U. now, focuses also on research/writing/oral presentation skills. in reply to noor91 #
• RT @bradspangler Another indication gov’t is the reason health care is unaffordable: http://tinyurl.com/ydnsy68 #
• RT @hackernewsbot Use an Old Linux Computer to Put your Baby to Sleep… http://bit.ly/KyLtC #NOK #
• @thefraggle Google Chrome for Linux has desktop app functionality now. Plus you can activate the flash plugin. Pretty stable. in reply to thefraggle #
• @tobiasbuckell @KarlSchroeder But note that “local communities manage forests better than governments…” That’s key. | http://bit.ly/xn76c in reply to tobiasbuckell #
• SQUEE!!! RT @TechCrunch Hulu Labs Cooks Up Linux Support For Hulu Desktop, New Publisher Tools http://bit.ly/8hmGf by @jasonkincaid #
• @tobiasbuckell I knew there was a reason you were a finalist for the 2008 Prometheus Award! ;o) in reply to tobiasbuckell #
• @tobiasbuckell Aw. Well, I still like your fiction. Incidentally, I consider myself libertarian, but neither left- nor right-leaning. in reply to tobiasbuckell #
• @XaqFixx Do you have any invites? I’d love one. in reply to XaqFixx #
• @feedly_chrome What about the Linux build? That’s what I’m using. in reply to feedly_chrome #
• @feedly_chrome Yeah, the extension page is there. in reply to feedly_chrome #
• is wondering how a warring, detaining, torturing, murdering, sitting president wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Have people lost their minds!?! #
• Answer: Govt bureaucracy. RT @Gizmodo: How Did NASA Manage to Make a Moon Bombing Boring??? http://gizmodo.com/5377937 #rant #lcross #
• RT @feedly: RT @feedly_chrome Announcing the Feedly for Chrome preview http://bit.ly/1Mh2Lz #
• @TheRenaissance Sorry. I’ve never used Wiffiti. in reply to TheRenaissance #
• So the warring, detaining, protectionist, torturing, murdering Obama won the Orwellian Nobel “Peace” Prize. Congrats. #
• RT @IndependentInst: Two-parter: #Nobel is for “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, #
• RT @IndependentInst: for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” -Alfred Nobel #
• @noor91 I’ve heard worse, like mining the moon for water could damage its biology and ozone layer. in reply to noor91 #
• RT @C4Liberty: The “general Welfare” clause was actually meant as a limit on power – not an excuse to expand it http://is.gd/48xUE #
• RT @vanguardist: The Peace Prize Body Count Afghanistan, Feb-July: 886 Iraq, Feb-Aug: 2,629 http://bit.ly/17kzC0 #
• The Peace Prize Body Count – Civilian Casualties: Afghanistan, Feb-July: 886; Iraq, Feb-Aug: 2,629 | http://bit.ly/17kzC0 #
• RT @masstrovato: RT @SetonMotley Whoopi Goldberg: “Well there’s peace, and then there’s peace peace.” #tcot #tlot #
• First-Year Grad Student Wins Nobel Prize in Economics! | http://tr.im/BnsK #
• Spangler (too soft) on Francois Tremblay. “Franc’s not a bad guy, but he can be a bit limited at times.” | http://tr.im/BtQM #
• @Franc28 You’re confused. in reply to Franc28 #
• RT @XaqFixx: Health Care: A Future Free-Market Alternative (plz Read!)http://tinyurl.com/ly873n #
• RT @CatoInstitute: Americans catching on that health care overhaul is really about redistributing health. http://bit.ly/QJeea #tcot #hcr #p2 #
• RT @IndependentInst: Exemptions from minimum sentences for violent cops? http://bit.ly/RGOKJ #
• RT @TheEconomist: Right to bear arms – Support for banning handguns continues to fall in America http://ow.ly/15UptM #
• @susanhogarth So I shouldn’t switch for the Android phones then? Spring just got one too, I think; should I stick with Sprint? in reply to susanhogarth #
• RT @michaelshermer: Econ Nobel 4 research on private solutions 2 “tragedy of the commons” (top-down governance not needed) http://tr.im/BA5o #

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Short Story Ideas

• “The Capitalist Man Who Homesteaded Titan” (Heinlein meets trounces Bacigalupi)

Novel Ideas

• The Dawnbringer Tetralogy     (fantasy or science fantasy)
  1. A Mirror for Princes
  2. The Shade of Leviathan
  3. The Light of Reason
  4. The Prismatic Cosmopolis

Reviews 

• My JLS Atlas Shrugged Article, Finally! - November 12, 2009
• Movie Review: Cloverfield, with Star Trek XI Teaser Trailer - January 26, 2008
• Movie Review: Children of Men - January 26, 2008
• American vs. British SF - December 19, 2007
• Economic Ignorance Among SF Writers and Reviewers - December 19, 2007
• Book Review: Sagramanda: A Novel of Near-Future India - October 18, 2007
• Book and Movie Review: Transformers - October 18, 2007

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Teaching Philosophy

“Qui docet, discet.” (He who teaches, learns.)
- Seneca

“Such is the business of the philosopher, to open new ideas. It is not his business to impose them on people.”
- Merlyn, The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White

My teaching philosophy is aptly summed up by the two epigraphs above. My experience in teaching, limited as it is at this early stage in my career, has taught me the truth of the old adage that you do not really know how well you know a subject until you attempt to teach it. Teaching is a learning process on several levels. When you set out to teach something, you find that you have to constantly maintain and improve your knowledge of the subject in order to keep up with the field and to convey the information and skills to your students clearly and effectively. And one can learn surprising things from one’s students as well. At the same time, it is not enough simply to have a firm grasp of the subject matter about which you are trying to educate your students. Teaching itself is an art or skill. It is not enough simply to dump the information on students in stationary, dull, monotone lectures class after class. A good teacher is friendly and accessible to his students both inside and outside of class. He finds ways to engage their interest and keep it, encouraging them to learn and, ideally, to fall in love with learning itself. This involves being a lively instructor and showing students how the subject matter is relevant to their own lives as well as encouraging interaction and developing critical thinking skills. I have learned much from the classes I have taught thus far, and though I have much still to learn I am committed to improving my abilities as a teacher.

As a teacher and a philosopher I believe my job is, following T.H. White’s Merlyn, to open my students to new ideas, not to impose a particular set of ideas on them. We all have our own preferred set of ideas and they will unavoidably be reflected in our classes, both in content and presentation. While I am not sure that we do our students any service by attempting to thoroughly disguise or suppress our own judgments about the material we are teaching, it is important that teachers, especially teachers of philosophy, not impose those judgments on our students. It certainly would be wrong to create an environment in which one’s students felt they had to parrot back what they think their teacher wants to hear in order to get a good grade or an A. I do not expect my students to agree with my judgments about the material I am teaching, if they can glean them. Nor do I desire such agreement, actual or pretended, if it is not an honest belief arrived at on their part, voluntarily and without pressure, by thoughtful consideration of the issues. My goals are for my students first to learn the material well, not merely just well enough and long enough to pass a test, and secondly to develop from this foundation their own considered opinions about the material. To this end I make an effort to present a range of views, often mutually opposed and sometimes controversial. My aim is to expose my students to new ideas, both inside and outside the mainstream, so that they can evaluate the ideas side-by-side on their own merits and make up their own minds about them.

Finally, I’d like to say a few words about a professor’s dual roles as teacher and scholar. I believe it is both possible and obligatory to maintain a healthy balance between these two roles. I am committed to being a productive and respectable scholar but also, and no less importantly, to giving my students a quality education. Indeed, as I’ve indicated above, I believe the two roles can be complimentary.

Syllabi

Louisiana State University, Department of Political Science

• Fall 2005: Introduction to Political Theory (POLI 2060) (Original / Post-Hurricane Katrina Revision)
• Spring 2005: Introduction to Political Theory (POLI 2060)

Scholarly & Student Resources

• News/News & Blog Aggregators
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• Political Philosophy
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• Free Seminars and Paid Fellowships in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law
• Philosophical Humor
• Political Humor

Recommended Reading for a Well-Rounded Education (Under Construction)

Curriculum Vitae

Current Research

Book Projects

• Aristotelian Liberalism (Based on my dissertation.)
• I also want to edit an anthology of essays on Aristotelian liberalism.

Working Papers

• “Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy” (Also my philosophy M.A. thesis, see below; I plan on revising and shortening it for publication.)
• “Moral Legislation and Democracy: The Devlin-Hart-Dworkin Debate Revisited.”
• “Life, Death, and Harm: An Austro-Aristotelian Account.” (Last Updated: 08-19-05) (See here for my research proposal and annotated bibliography submitted to IHS in application for their summer research fellowship. Update: Unfortunately, I was not awarded the fellowship, but I did get to present the paper at their Social Change Workshop, June 2005.)
• “Ayn Rand, the Austrians, and Aristotelian Apriorism?” (I presented this paper at this year’s Austrian Scholars Conference in Auburn under the title “On Praxeology and the Question of Aristotelian Apriorism. So far it is sans Rand and work still needs to be done on the rest, but a healthy start has been made.)
• “On the Myth of the Founder-Legislator in Political Philosophy.”
• “On the Social Contract and the Persistence of Anarchy.”
• “Roman Virtue, Liberty, and Imperialism: The Murder-Suicide of Classical Civilization.”
• “On the Origin and Poverty of State-of-Nature Theorizing.”
• “Against Idealism: Rand and Daubert vs. Husserl’s Ideas I.”

Papers I want to write (when I get the time)

• “Is Libertarianism Only a Political Philosophy?”
• “The Speaker for the Dead: Narrator of the Search for Eudaimonia.”
• “On the Free Market and Eudaimonia: Nonexchangeable Goods, Praxeology, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
• “In Defense of Crusoe and the ERE: Culture and Imaginary Constructions in Economic Theory.”
• “Rousseau and Marx Against Society: The Necessity of the Division of Labor.”
• “Enlightenment Constructivist Rationalism and Social Engineering.”
• “The Search for Something to Be.”
• “The Roots of the Totalitarian Impulse.”
• “Democracy, Gnosticism, and Political Religions.”
• “The Ethics of Nonviolence.” (Hint: It won’t be a defense of pacifism, but rather will be an attempt to lay out an Aristotelian framework for distinguishing when violent and nonviolent resistance are justified both politically (i.e., by justice and rights) and, in the broader context, morally (i.e., in terms of the virtues).)

Publications

Journal Articles

• 2007. “Atlas Shrugged and the Importance of Dramatizing Our Values.” Journal of Libertarian Studies Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter): 25-36. Symposium Issue on the 50th Anniversary of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. (Invited)

Chapters in Books

1. 2009. “Freedom Is the Right of All Sentient Beings.” Transformers and Philosophy: More Than Meets the Mind. Popular Culture and Philosophy Series. Edited by John Shook and Liz Stillwaggon. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company.

Book Reviews

1. 2007. “A Review of Mark A. Young’s Narrating the Good Life: Aristotle and the Civil Society (2005).” Journal of Value Inquiry Vol. 41, No. 2-4 (December): 387-393.

Ph.D. Dissertation in Political Science (May 2009)

• Aristotelian Liberalism: An Inquiry into the Foundations of a Free and Flourishing Society (It can also be found at LSU’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)
  • Prospectus
  • Front Matter (Title page, acknowledgments, table of contents, abstract)
  • Chapter One: Introduction
  • Chapter Two: Eudaimonia and the Right to Liberty: Rights as Metanormative Principles
  • Chapter Three: Eudaimonia, Virtue and the Right to Liberty: Rights as Both Metanormative Principles and Interpersonal Normative Principles
  • Chapter Four: Eudaimonia and the Basic Goods and Virtues
  • Chapter Five: Liberal and Communitarian Conceptions of Society
  • Chapter Six: The New Left and Participatory Democracy
  • Chapter Seven: Immanent Politics and the Pursuit of Eudaimonia
  • Chapter Eight: Free Markets and Free Enterprise: Their Ethical and Cultural Principles and Foundations
  • Chapter Nine: Conclusion
  • Bibliopgraphy and Vita

M.A. Thesis in Philosophy (December 2006)

• “Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy” (It can also be found at LSU’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)

M.A. Thesis in Political Science (August 2004)

• “Tyranny, Natural Law, and Secession” (My manifesto!…er, I mean Master’s Thesis. It’s long as theses go, but virtually guaranteed to blow your socks off unless you are already a radical libertarian. Can be found at LSU’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)

Other Essays

Reaction Papers

Written for in-class presentation, these were generally written in a rush the day before and/or late at night. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in these (anymore) but they are interesting.

• Machiavelli and Voegelin vs. “Machiavellianism”
• On John Milton’s Areopagitica
• On Algernon Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government
• Feudal and Canon Law vs. Liberal Law
• On Liberty
• Platonic Idealism: Too High a Standard for Political Activity (Upon reflection, perhaps unrealistic standard would be more apt.)
• Roman Imperialism and the Murder-Suicide of Classical Civilization
• On Roman Liberty, Virtue, and Eudaimonia
• On Tyranny, Virtue, and Habituation to Subjection

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