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.

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freedom slipped

Forty Years of Freedom Slipped Away So Quickly 

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We dare not relent lest the despotism we experienced only very recently be repeated and entrenched. We know now that it can happen, and that there is nothing inevitable about genuine progress. Our job now is to regroup and recommit to living free lives, never again believing that there are magical forces at work in the world that make our role as thinkers and doers unnecessary. 

Forty Years of Freedom Slipped Away So Quickly  Read Journal Article

expert

Time to Trust Your Inner Expert 

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The problem in our current world is that “experts” demand our behaviors conform to their self-proclaimed expert prognostications, for which they are never held responsible in any way. No costs to those predicting the future are associated with prognostication errors. All costs of future-telling errors are borne by not-prognosticators. Those costs are borne by the people, by society, by the economy, all too often by children, etc. The rest of us bear the costs.

Time to Trust Your Inner Expert  Read Journal Article

plan a or plan b

Plan A or Plan B?

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My Plan A, in the event of unsavoury political developments unfolding, such as it was, involved writing letters of protest to politicians and others. It wasn’t really a plan, more of a reaction, and an orthodox one at that. In any event, it was a pathetic failure. It didn’t even give me the illusory comfort of a response, let alone a tangible improvement.

Plan A or Plan B? Read Journal Article

De Las Casas

De Las Casas and the 500-Year Struggle for Liberty 

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In the end, the truths that De Las Casas preached did prevail but the human project is always at risk of going backwards in time. We know this now better than many previous generations, simply because we’ve been witness to such horrible abuses over these last three years. Human sacrifice is clearly not vanquished from the earth; it only takes a different form today that it did 500 years ago. 

De Las Casas and the 500-Year Struggle for Liberty  Read Journal Article

recovery

How Long Is the Road to Recovery?

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We may eventually get out of the Covid panic. But as long as the soil is fertile; as long as we do not question, do not doubt, but blindly believe and obey, the sword of mass panic, and all the damage done by it, still hangs over our heads. We have to rid ourselves of this threat. What is at stake is freedom and democracy.

How Long Is the Road to Recovery? Read Journal Article

progress

Are We at the End of Progress?

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All those dreaming of control like to believe that they should rule the world in order to save it from some great danger. At the end of the day, this is simply a selfish fascist fantasy. The West is now encumbered by huge layers of parasites whose living is made out of exaggerating fears and stealing from people under the guise of saving them. The EU Commission is a particularly glaring example of such a group, but they are everywhere today: people just trying to make a buck, but costing their society dearly.

Are We at the End of Progress? Read Journal Article

talking about vaccine

Why I’m No Longer Talking to People About the Vaccine

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As citizens, concerned citizens, we engage in debate not to hear ourselves talk, but to convince others of the truth of what we claim. What is supposed to happen, in a debate, ideally speaking, is that the person who makes the best and most convincing argument carries the day. What that means in everyday language is that if I best you in a debate, you change your mind. The same goes for me. Evidence changes people’s minds. 

Why I’m No Longer Talking to People About the Vaccine Read Journal Article

ideological possession

Ideological Possession Is the Real Pandemic

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Although pandemics of ideological possession can be fatal to entire societies, the disease provides immediate benefits to each afflicted individual, such as intellectual certainty and stability, feelings of moral superiority, an apparent simplification of life’s difficult decisions and questions, avoidance of true moral responsibility, and a sense of belonging among others similarly afflicted. All of these tend to prevent self-treatment. 

Ideological Possession Is the Real Pandemic Read Journal Article

we are still locked down

We Are Still Locked Down

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Two Christmases came and went when we were told that meeting and celebrating the season was a biohazard and not recommended. In some places, it was forbidden. It’s hard to imagine a more grim policy and it still shocks us to think back and realize that it was all deliberate. One means to reverse this horror is simple: find friends, celebrate together, share stories and ideals, promote peace and love, and work to rebuild what we have lost.

We Are Still Locked Down Read Journal Article

thou shalt not

We Need a List: Thou Shalt Nots of Public Health 

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Civil society in general and public health specifically needs a list of “Thou shalts” and “Thou shalt nots.” Without them, any evil imaginable can be justified when the next panic hits. If we want to avoid a repeat of 2020 or, God forbid, something even worse, we must make it clear what we will never ever do, no matter how scared we might get. Otherwise, the siren call of “just saving one life” may lead us to previously unthinkable evils.

We Need a List: Thou Shalt Nots of Public Health  Read Journal Article