Eric Scheske

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Philosophy

Over at CE

My weekly column is up at Catholic Exchange [http://www.catholicexchange.com/vm/index.asp?vm_id=1&art_id=34331]. Excerpt: > It seems that nothing good has ever come from worrying, writing about, or theorizing about “man.” Granted, we need to consider rights and dignity and laws

Augustine

It's St. Augustine's feast day. By coincidence, I ran across this yesterday in Fr. James Schall's new book, The Life of the Mind [http://www.isi.org/books/bookdetail.aspx?id=ef780213-9c15-4bc6-8a82-c6e480d0aab4] : > One of the books that we must have in our library

The Radical Academy

Wow, this is possibly the best web find of the year: The Radical Academy [http://radicalacademy.com/homepage.htm]. It's inspired by Mortimer Adler, the philosopher-turned-Catholic. There's lots of good stuff there, like this short essay about St. Bonaventura [http://radicalacademy.com/adiphiloessay13.htm] by Etienne

Conning Smart People

Clever, though not terribly-novel, article at Paul's Tips this morning [http://www.paulstips.com/brainbox/pt/home.nsf/link/30052006-The-easiest-way-to-fool-smart-people] : > Most smart people have a hidden weakness and it's this ”“ they're absolute suckers for anything that sounds clever. > As soon as you

The Sunday Eudemon

Well, the big day is tomorrow: I turn forty. We celebrated last night with KFC and ice cream cake. I also got some cool gifts: Walk the Line Deluxe DVD set, a good portable breathalyser (it might make me the most popular guy at the drinking club), a wireless speaker

Natural Grace

> Scientists have some remarkable new advice for anyone who is struggling to make a difficult decision: Stop thinking about it. [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/17/thought_for_thinkers/?page=full] It rings true. There's a reason that the best ideas hit people

Conservatism

The New York Times this morning has a review by George F. Will of two books about conservatism [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/books/review/26will.html?_r=1&oref=slogin]. It's worth reading, if you're interested in the philosophy of conservatism, though

Happy Birthday, Artie

Today is nineteenth-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's birthday. I enjoyed his little book, Studies in Pessimism, which I can easily summarize: Life sucks. Schopenhauer, for instance, disdained the ontological truth that evil is a mere privation of goodness. Said Arthur, "It is the good which is negative; in

A Natural Law Primer

> In Britain, a poll of Muslims last night found evidence of growing alienation, with four in 10 calling for religious sharia law to be imposed in parts of the UK with a mainly Muslim population. The law specifies stonings and amputations as punishments, and involves religious police bringing suspects

Something for Sunday Morning

> [T]he strength of any falsehood consists in the impotence of the corresponding truth, and the strength of an evil consists in the impotence of the corresponding good. Vladimir Solovyov