MacIntyre believes that contemporary modern statements are ultimately ’emotivist’: in the absence of a clear telos (purpose / function / end), the statement “You ought… Read More »Ends and Meanings (2): Alasdair MacIntyre on the modern self
Below is MacIntyre’s description of the Aristotelian model of morality. He believes this model began to break down during the Enlightenment, leaving us with the… Read More »Ends and Meanings: Alasdair MacIntyre on the three-legged stool of Aristotelian ethics
Why does there seem to be no rational way of securing moral agreement in our culture? Why do competing moral claims (for example between the… Read More »A disordered language of morality: Alasdair MacIntyre’s disquieting suggestion
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a… Read More »At the Mountains of Madness: Edwardian* Science; Lovecraftian Cosmology
In reality, what more agreeable entertainment to the mind, than to be transported into the remotest ages of the world, and to observe human society,… Read More »Children in Understanding: David Hume on Reading (history)
If on a winter’s night a whippet I want to share a quote with you that I think about a lot. It’s from a book… Read More »McKinley Valentine (and Italo Calvino) on how reading changes the past
With apologies for the anachronism… Nothing, at first view, may seem more unbounded than the thought of man, which not only escapes all human power… Read More »David Hume on combinatorial innovation and hybridity
Schopenhauer had quite a lot to say about reading. He liked good books, but was highly skeptical of most books, and especially of contemporary ones.… Read More »Schopenhauer on reading yourself stupid
Here’s more from C.S. Lewis on reading old books – this time highlighting their virtues as lenses for helping us to spot and evaluate the… Read More »C.S. Lewis on reading old books
I love this thought from Lewis, and I’ve found it to be both true and hugely rewarding whenever I’ve acted upon it. There is a… Read More »C.S. Lewis on reading the originals