Over at The American Prospect, I have a piece up based on the research I did while studying political liberalism in China (courtesy of a fellowship from the U.S. Fulbright program). As part of my research, I interviewed liberal scholars, … Continue reading
Lilia Shevtsova has an essay in The American Interest arguing that American liberals, and Western liberals in general, are no longer a model for liberal reformers around the world: The way liberal democracies are currently trying to revitalize themselves raises … Continue reading
Richard Posner has a review at the New York Times responding to How Much is Enough?, a book by Robert and Edward Skidelsky that makes the argument that society would be better off if we used our wealth to dramatically cut work … Continue reading
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is the latest to jump on the Gross National Happiness bandwagon: The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being. Economic measurement accordingly must encompass measures of well-being and … Continue reading
The tiny, ethnically Greek town of Corigliano d’Otranto in Italy has created a new position: an officially designated “Municipal Philosopher,” who hangs around City Hall for philosophical consultation between 3pm and 7pm on Fridays: Lupo [the first one to hold the … Continue reading
There’s a wonderful, very long interview with philosopher T.M. Scanlon posted recently at The Utopian. Scanlon is one of the most respected living philosophers, and has lots to say, but one thing that struck me in particular was his discussion … Continue reading
On Monday, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released its Trends in American Values report, a survey that the Center has been conducting since 1987 to determine where Americans stand on 48 “political values” like national security, … Continue reading
The Philosopher’s Beard has a post up asking “Does moral theory create extremism?“ As usual for TPB, it’s a thoughtful and interesting essay; this time around, though, I found myself disagreeing with a fair amount of it. First, TPB does a … Continue reading
When I started this blog, one challenge was figuring out how to differentiate its subject matter from the kind of “politics” writing that focuses on campaigns and politicians. I settled on “political ideas” as the catch-all phrase, but I wanted … Continue reading
It’s the first time a Chinese architect has been awarded the prize. From NPR: Wang started drawing as a two-year old boy in Beijing. He drew on everything — from books to the walls of his house in a crowded … Continue reading
