A collection of 30 posts
Furet feared that there now appeared to be a simultaneous deadening of politics as the apparently unchallengeable hegemony of quasi-liberal democracy grew, and a dangerous backlash against the system.
The rise of populism, of Trump, of opiate epidemics, of bitter polarization, and of yawning economic inequality have tempered the triumphalism of those who once celebrated the inevitable victory of markets and democracy.
A standing citizens’ assembly would reveal the people’s considered opinion as opposed to their unconsidered opinion measured by endless opinion polls.
Harassment and the advocacy of violence are serious issues, and there is nothing morally objectionable about social media companies.
Complaint sometimes reflects an honest desire to be able to ask the unaskable, speak the unspeakable, and ponder the imponderable.
Among academics, it is considered a badge of honor to be paid in copies, or not at all. After all, you can’t put a price tag on genius!
Suspicious reading is applied to any and every medium as well as every form of individual expression.
The transhumanist perspective insists that humans have a distinctly separate mind and body, and that what happens to one need not affect the other.
The fact that the complex history of liberalism is largely ignored by both its opponents and its alleged friends
Marxian critique of liberalism is powerful and penetrating. It splits liberalism into two parts—an intellectual part and a social part—and shows a conflict.
For only then can reason ensure that the moral and social bonds of universal human brotherhood are sustained.
By the end of the twentieth century, liberal democracy seemed not only triumphant but, to some, inevitable.
The bonds of nationalism, ethnicity, and religion would either wither away or perhaps allow numerous tribes to co-exist in and open and tolerant multicultural setting.
Mark Lilla has written a book asserting that liberals should be more committed democrats.
As a young man the great economist was influenced by positivist circles in his native Austria. He expressed no faith or belief in God, and adopted a scientific materialism.