I used to be against all tariffs, but I changed my mind a few years ago. The philosophical argument is straightforward. The initiation of force is evil. Therefore, it is evil for government to initiate force. Tariffs are a form of force. Therefore, it is evil for government to initiate tariffs. But … The proper […]
In my last blog post, “Grok is Still Biased, Needs a New Kind of Chain of Thought,” I wrote, The antidote to ideological bias in large language models (LLMs) is a new kind of Chain of Thought, which reasons backwards to identify and scrutinize unstated premises—if necessary, all the way back to first principles. In […]
(Download the 44-page PDF.) Abstract The antidote to ideological bias in large language models (LLMs) is a new kind of Chain of Thought, which reasons backwards to identify and scrutinize unstated premises–if necessary, all the way back to first principles. When considering an argument for a conclusion, a rational thinker does not merely […]
As always, I celebrate Ayn Rand’s birthday, February 2nd, by opening one of her novels to a random page and reading a passage. Here is the passage from The Fountainhead that I read this year (Part 1, Chapter VIII). “… You don’t have to use the Ionic order, use the Doric. Plain pediments and simple moldings, or […]
Since my last blog post, on October 30, I have been immersed in long-range projects in the two greatest normative domains: a project in artificial intelligence, applying my work in epistemology; and a book on ethics. While President Trump was being sworn in on January 20, I was attending a small reading group that is […]
Four years ago, I wrote that I am an Anti-Trumper for Trump. Five months ago, I explained why “I am now an anti-Trumper for Trump in spades.” All I have to add now is to recommend this recent interview: “Victor Davis Hanson: The Final Case for Donald J. Trump.” Who will win? I think that, […]
It’s About Moral Agency In 2012, when I relocated to a small Utah town from New York City by way of Los Angeles, I thought I was giving up seeing and performing in theatre. But I soon realized that I had landed by serendipity in arguably the theatre capital of the country: Cedar City, home […]
Last year I posted to Rumble an interview of me by Peter McAllister, on the subject of whether reason and science require faith. A friend suggested that I post philosophical videos on YouTube. And so I have started a philosophy channel. The first video is the interview from last year, and the second video is […]
The title of this post states the theme in a positive light. To state the matter another way, most conservatives have better ideas than most Objectivists on numerous important cultural and political issues. In this post, I limit my discussion to six issues, listed in order of importance, that I have already written about. To […]
Arshak Benlian (@ArshakBenlian), host of The One in the Many podcast, has now conducted two interviews of me on my book, Masculine Power, Feminine Beauty: The Volitional, Objective Basis for Heterosexuality in Romantic Love and Marriage. Last month, I posted a link to the podcast of the first interview. Now, embedded below, are videos of both interviews. The […]