“Why Did We Destroy Europe?” It’s an arresting title, chosen by Michael Polanyi for a 1970 essay that looks back on the conflagrations that consumed Europe between 1914 and 1945. (The essay can be found in Society, Economics & Philosophy, a posthumous volume of selected papers by . . . . Continue Reading »
When our exterminator, Ervin Humes, showed up at the house back in September 2023, he and I did what Alabamians do: We talked football and Jesus, the two forms of Alabamian religion. Ervin enthused over Paul’s hymn to Christ in his epistle to the Colossians, we lamented the state of the world, and . . . . Continue Reading »
On August 3, more than 92,000 people filled Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, to view a women’s college volleyball match between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Omaha Mavericks. It was the largest crowd ever assembled for a women’s sporting event—in any sport, at any level, anywhere . . . . Continue Reading »
If muscles and speed is how your community says you ought to flourish, the frail among us will be absorbed into a spectating mass useful only as an audience for a mighty few. Continue Reading »
Moral principles are either true or false, sound or unsound, regardless of their foundation. We should not, and indeed cannot, separate the beliefs of faith from the convictions and evidence of reason. Continue Reading »
From Curry there’s no malice, no taunting, no improper pride. His laughs and gestures and shimmies spring from delighted surprise at his own excellence. He’s the Aristotelian Principle incarnate. Continue Reading »