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Garden Gnomes and Nazis

As the National Post ’s Robert Fulford points out, on the back jacket of Roger Scruton’s new book, Beauty , you can find a tiny drawing of a garden gnome while on the front there’s a woman’s face by Sandro Botticelli. “The two illustrations point us toward the sharp line . . . . Continue Reading »

What We Mean By Empathy

Prof. John Hasnas is an excellent seminar leader, and, like Conor , I cheer on his clearsighted reiteration of the kinds of blindness to future or systemic consequences that a viscerally emotional approach to jurisprudence can bring. Yet Bastiat, whom Hasnas cites, seems to me vulnerable to perhaps . . . . Continue Reading »

Emma-ization

I respect Stephen Barr’s writings on science and religion, but his response to my brief post is an exact example of the process that I was writing about, and that I called “Emma-ization,” after Darwin’s gentle and supportive wife. Notice the shape of his argument, which really . . . . Continue Reading »

Stephen vs. Stephen vs. Stove

I’m eager to hear Stephen Webb’s reply to Stephen Barr’s response to Webb’s earlier post on Darwin . And while it would be foolish for me to include myself in a debate between a scientist and a philosopher, I see no reason not to throw another philosopher in the mix. . . . . Continue Reading »

Darwin’s Beliefs

I find Stephen H. Webb’s reflections on Darwinism (“ How Darwin’s Wife Saved His Theory ”) very interesting, but I think there are questionable assumptions embedded in some of its verbal formulations. Consider the statement, “Critics of Darwinism . . . have long argued that . . . . Continue Reading »

LaserMonks of Spring Bank

The New York Times has a story on the Cistercian monks of Our Lady of Spring Bank and the women who run their online business, LaserMonks: The Rev. Bernard McCoy, the monastery’s superior, had the idea for LaserMonks.com. But the enterprise really took off when the monks turned it over to two . . . . Continue Reading »

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