So apparently this photo got a lot of press in the UK.
But when you take a look at it in widescreen, as it were, you get a somewhat different impression. (CHT François.)
Archive | April, 2011
Exploitation By the State
Here are my comments for the upcoming panel on state exploitation in San Diego.
River and Pond
Here are two more previews of the upcoming Doctor Who premiere. If you’re strongly spoiler-averse, you probably shouldn’t watch. But these are officially released previews and so presumably don’t give away the store.
I like the hostile way that Matt Smith curls his lip when he says “I love a bad girl, me.” To play the Doctor, you need to be goofy and zany; but you also need, sometimes, to be icy cold and menacing. Smith hasn’t gotten to do that too often, but he’s very good at it when given the opportunity.
In related news, here’s what you get if you merge the faces of all eleven incarnations of the Doctor from 1963 through the present. And yes, I really can see most of them in there (though I’m not sure I’m seeing all of them).
Reaching Left
Here’s my paper for the upcoming Mises Circle in Chicago. It’s my usual left-libertarian song and dance, spun for a Mises audience and for the conference topic, “Strategies for Changing Minds Toward Liberty.”
Call for Papers: Anarchy at the APA – Molinari Society 2011 Symposium on Philosophical Anarchy
The Molinari Society
Call for Papers
for the Society’s Symposium to be held in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division meeting December 27-30, 2011, Washington, D.C.
Symposium Topic:
Explorations in Philosophical Anarchy
Submission Deadline:
May 18, 2011
The past two decades have seen a resurgence of interest, both in activist and academic circles, in Anarchist politics and theory, with new and challenging work from several different directions. Renewed academic interest in Anarchism has drawn attention to the importance, vitality and philosophical fruitfulness of key Anarchist arguments and concepts – such as the conflict between authority and autonomy; tensions between collectivism and individualism; critical challenges to hierarchy, centralized power, top-down control and authoritarian conceptions of representation; and the development of concepts of spontaneous social order, decentralized consensus, and the knowledge problems and ideological mythologzing inherent in relations or structures of domination.
Most of this discussion has, naturally enough, taken place within the field of political and moral philosophy. But Anarchist theory (like marxist or feminist theory) embodies more than a policy orientation or a system of moral or political theses. The Anarchist tradition offers a wide-ranging, diverse and vigorously argued literature, concerning the nature and foundations of human society, with implications for every aspect of philosophy, including not only political and moral theory but also aesthetics, social-science methodology, epistemology, and the philosophies of science, religion, history, language and logic. We are looking for papers that address possible connections, approaches, challenges or insights that anarchy and its conceptual environs may suggest for philosophy broadly – or that philosophy may suggest for anarchy – beyond the familiar territory of political and moral theory, especially in such areas as epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of logic, and metaphilosophy or philosophical method. Papers from all analytical and critical standpoints (both with regard to philosophy and with regard to Anarchism) are welcome.
Please submit complete papers of 3,000-6,000 words for consideration for the 2011 Symposium by May 18, 2011. Papers should be of appropriate scope and length to be presented within 15-30 minutes. Submitting authors will be notified of the acceptance or rejection of their papers by May 31, 2011.
Submit papers as e-mail attachments, in Word .doc format or PDF, to longrob@auburn.edu or feedback@radgeek.com.
For any questions or information, contact us at the above email addresses.
* * *
You can download a PDF of the Call For Papers to print and post on a bulletin board near you.
Some possible topics include – but are by no means limited to:
- Authority and Epistemology
- Anarchy and Logic
- Illusions of control in philosophy
- Decentralism or spontaneous order in philosophy of language
- Philosophical implications of the work of “canonical” Anarchist theorists (Godwin, Proudhon, Molinari, Tucker, Spooner, Kropotkin, Tolstoy, De Cleyre, Goodman, Bookchin, Rothbard, Wolff, Zerzan…)
- Anarchy and Rationality
- Hierarchy, legibility and knowledge problems
- Philosophical Method and Anarchism
- Claims of representation and claims of knowledge
- Etc.
Please spread the word to anyone who you think would be interested in the symposium topic!