If-Then Knots ---------------------->

Libertarians Love Rawls.

UPDATE (12/12/06): More from Wilkinson.

I had no idea.  Brink Lindsey's recent article "Liberaltarians" has sparked some interesting discussion at the CATO Institute's blog and elsewhere around the web, including the at lefty hub DailyKos (I picked this up initially at the left-libertarian blog Freedom Democrats).  Will Wilkinson in particular has applauded the idea of "Rawlsekianism"; basically taking Hayek's empirical findings in economics and plugging them into a Rawlsian framework.  That post got me wondering why a libertarian such as Wilkinson would count Rawls (and not Nozick, e.g.) with Hayek as " the greatest social/political thinkers of the 20th Century."  Well, in a recent post  by Wilkinson I have my answer.

Knowledge by Inference from False Testimony

Over at Certain Doubts Claudio has a post about knowledge by inference from false testimony.  Here are the cases:

The Spokesperson: The very reliable spokesperson for the president assures me that (q) the president is in Jordan. Based on my belief that q, I infer that (p) the president is not in the Oval Office. Suppose that p is true and q is false: A last-minute change in his Middle Eastern tour schedule now has the president in Israel, not Jordan. Don’t I know that p?

The Santa Claus Case: Mom and Dad tell young Virginia that Santa will put some presents under the tree on Christmas Eve. Believing what her parents told her, she infers that there will be presents under the tree on Christmas morning. She knows that.

Philosophy Isn't Easy

I'm having a difficult time understanding the sentiment expressed here, regarding Hannah Arendt:

Yet if her star shines so brightly, it is because the American intellectual firmament is so dim. After all, who or where are the other political philosophers? The last great political American philosopher, John Dewey, died in 1952. Since then American philosophy — with the partial exception of Richard Rorty — has vanished into technical issues; within the subfield of political philosophy, the largest of its figures, John Rawls, remains abstract and insular. His work may quicken the attenuated pulse of academic philosophers, but it does not move the rest of us.

No kidding.  Philosophy is abstract?  Who'da thunkit. 

Breyer and Scalia

The American Constitution Society has video of a recent discussion between the two justices.

Identity Crisis

I can't seem to settly on how I want the blog to look.  Ultimately, I think I'm just going to have to upgrade my subscription so that I can customize more. 

SciFri on SC Greenhouse Gas Case

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