“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” -A.N. Whitehead
Joined June 2020
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Any visual depiction of Helen—or for that matter any person said to be the most beautiful alive—will necessarily disappoint. The thought of her will always be much more powerful.
What’s so interesting is that—given the key role her beauty played in the Troy myth—there is no detailed description of what Helen of Troy looks like anywhere in Homer (or even in extant Gk tragedy, apart from —if memory serves—something about her hair in Euripides’ “Orestes”).
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I’m not saying that originalist scholarship or originalist lawyering is particularly good. But the critique that “lawyers aren’t historians” has always felt odd to me. The critique reads to me as a complaint that originalists simply aren’t originalist enough!
Mar 30
Lawyers are not trained historians. Originalism is largely and remains largely bullshit. The hubris that backs it leads to nonsense arguments that ignore the plain, unambiguous language of a statue. These professors want to will more bullshit in furtherance of their careers.
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After all, that last statement argues for a “living” view of language by reference to the views of those who set that language down. Thus, if those people had set down a “dead” view of that language, that would then be the meaning of that phrase.
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Also, I don’t think the OP is blind to these concerns. I have just heard other people talk like that, and this post was a good opportunity to rather quickly address what I see as an inconsistency!
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3 Nov 2025
I think people are talking past each other: Most frame this debate as about incentives. “The atheist lacks incentives outside personal preference to be moral,” the theist says. True. But the same may be said of the theist—his personal fear of divine retribution guides his belief.
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3 Nov 2025
The real debate, to me, is whether the content of morality actually can change. The atheist does have incentives—social pressure and personal tastes—to act morally. But the theist likely finds this an insufficient morality because social pressure and personal taste are fleeting.
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3 Nov 2025
So the theist claims that the atheist has no incentive to follow a set morality. Which is hard to argue: if the atheist can act morally only with reference to changeable incentives, then the particulars of morality can change.
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28 Jul 2025
For some people, the money is beside the point. They have an ambition to be great, and material comfort cannot compare (for them) to the thrill of industry.
For others, they have a singular goal that they must accomplish through business.
Still others just like money.
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26 Jul 2025
Some of this, I think, is that teachers of the humanities do not treat the subjects with the rigor they deserve.
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26 Jul 2025
However, a truly bright student excels at all the subjects.
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24 Jul 2025
Genuine question—what is a prof supposed to project if not expertise and authority? I respect letting students have opposing ideas and profs taking a back seat in classroom discussion.
But in a college setting, I expect to have expert guidance to help me grow intellectually?
23 Jul 2025
a few years ago I had a student that hated me so much it radiated off her. she wanted a prof to perform expertise & authority & that’s just not me. on the last day of class she came up to me & said “I’m scared you’ll give me less than an A because you know that I don’t like you.”
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24 Jul 2025
Not an attack on the prof above—just not sure what’s wrong with a student wanting guidance? And perhaps that’s not what the prof means by “expertise & authority.” But not sure what else it could mean.
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24 Jul 2025
Perhaps it means giving the student “right answers” that she can mechanically apply. But, even then, the prof should use expertise (in a nice way) to explain why that approach fails.
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19 Jul 2025
I wonder whether this streak is unique to right wingers or whether this streak arises in anyone who desires stable political authority.
After all, hundreds of Socrates would likely not yield a stable political society (and maybe that’s a good thing!).
19 Jul 2025
The right has always had a pronounced anti-intellectual streak
In The Meaning of Conservatism Roger Scruton applauded "unthinking people" who accept the burdens life imposes on them without complaint.
They want a society of subjects who uncritically defer to their "superiors."
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4 Jul 2025
As has long been custom, events that happen during college don’t count. That is why no college student may be charged with a crime and why so many people leave their college off their resume.
4 Jul 2025
Even if Zohran did lie on his college application (he didn't), I don't care. Oh, you gonna tell me he skipped algebra class next? Did he pretend to be sick to get out of his history test? Did he say a bunch of swears during recess including the really bad ones??
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4 Jul 2025
Also, perhaps Mandani did not lie due to the complexity of his identity. But I suspect that people, even at eighteen, understand the difference between youthful indiscretions at the age of twelve and at the age of eighteen.
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