Philosophy

Philosophy articles feature reflection and analysis about public life, values, ethics, and morals.

All philosophy articles at Brownstone Institute are translated into multiple languages.

Filter posts by category

brownstone institute most popular

The Inside Story of Brownstone Institute 

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

Now only two years since its conception, Brownstone Institute has millions of readers and thousands of backers, people who refuse to go along with whatever they are attempting to build in place of the freedoms we once knew. Our successes are many but the job is far from complete. As we approach the anniversary, we should reflect on our successes but also be realistic about the daunting challenges ahead. 

The Inside Story of Brownstone Institute  Read Journal Article

enlightenment

The Retreat From the Enlightenment Can be Stopped

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The globalist class will continue to burn down the West to prevent their own demise. But while they burn down their own house, we offer hope and joy. We have self-belief, new art, passion, and the huge legacy of the first Enlightenment. On top of that, we have Novak Djokovic. 

The Retreat From the Enlightenment Can be Stopped Read Journal Article

artificial intelligence

The Morality of Language in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

ChatGPT and the like remind us that machines are not human beings and human beings are not machines. Machines do not approve and disapprove as human beings do. Machines do not have sentiments. They do not have a conscience. They do not have moral responsibility. We do.

The Morality of Language in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Read Journal Article

smart people failed

How Did the World’s Smartest People Fail So Miserably?

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

It’s over, that phase of American history, when a bunch of people baptized in the values of the 1960s, could be expected to provide the intellectual framework necessary to move society forward. There is no recovery from what they did, they collaborated with the enemy when the fate of society was on the line. To use their favorite phrase — they became “constitutive of” the predatory system they once sought to critique. Our society is so corrupt that the term “intellectual” no longer has a coherent meaning. 

How Did the World’s Smartest People Fail So Miserably? Read Journal Article

Albert Camus on the Denial of Freedom

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

And then we realized that the separation was destined to continue, we had no choice but to come to terms with the days ahead. In short, we returned to our prison-house, we had nothing left us but the past, and even if some were tempted to live in the future, they had speedily to abandon the idea—anyhow, as soon as could be—once they felt the wounds that the imagination inflicts on those who yield themselves to it. 

Albert Camus on the Denial of Freedom Read Journal Article

platform censorship

Don’t Let Them Memory-Hole This 

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The tellers of tales can write stories but they cannot invent their own realities. There will be no restoration of liberty, rights, and truth until we come to terms with what happened, why, and how to prevent it in the future. Playing along with this conspiracy of silence surrounding a policy that effectively blotted out every advance in human rights since the Magna Carta is a disastrous error that could lead to the entrenchment of a new dark age. 

Don’t Let Them Memory-Hole This  Read Journal Article

darkness to light

Reflections on the Triduum: Can the Darkness Turn to Light?

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

Three years ago I felt the depth of the darkness which had entered the world, and I was moved to choose defiance in favor of the light. This brought my path to be part of the good work being done here at Brownstone. A Happy Easter to all, and let us continue the good fight against weaponized fear which seeks to prevent us from experiencing our highest goods.

Reflections on the Triduum: Can the Darkness Turn to Light? Read Journal Article

Machiavelli and the Globalists

Machiavelli and the Globalists: Why the Elites Despise Independent Thought

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

If it turns out that the population is not so vulnerable after all, and men, women and families can improve themselves and their communities without the aid of the state, then the entire structure upon which the edifice of raison d’État rests becomes radically unstable. This is at least part of the reason why these movements are so frequently smeared and traduced by the chattering classes which are so reliant themselves upon the state and its largesse. 

Machiavelli and the Globalists: Why the Elites Despise Independent Thought Read Journal Article

theory of evil

A Unifying Theory of Evil

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

Many of us can recognize the results of evil intuitively: evil causes vast human suffering; revokes our sense of human dignity; creates an ugly, dystopian, or disharmonic world; destroys beauty and poetry; perpetuates fear, anger, distress and terror; causes torture and bloodshed. Nevertheless, there are always some people who seem to remain ignorant of its presence — or, incredibly, see specific visceral atrocities as justified and even good. 

A Unifying Theory of Evil Read Journal Article

human rights

What Happened to the Human Rights Lobby?

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

They have little interest in traditional liberal values such as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of conscience, and in fact are often implicitly contemptuous of those values and think them to be dangerous. And they are fairly comfortable with the idea of the authorities bossing people around so long as it is for their own (purported) benefit. They, in other words, see themselves as being something like Plato’s class of ‘guardians’, who possess the wisdom to coordinate society as they see fit.

What Happened to the Human Rights Lobby? Read Journal Article

inherent deceit

The Inherent Deceit of Modern Medicine

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The dominant Western culture of the modern era will not relinquish its ingrained deceitfulness without first going through a nasty and lengthy transformation in which we are acutely reminded that life is risky and humans are imperfect. It is conceivable that long-run side effects of the covid vaccines will help to remind us of this. The best we can hope for in the longer run is to design our institutions to lead the population gradually into a mindset of comfort with human limitations.

The Inherent Deceit of Modern Medicine Read Journal Article