Reviews and News:
Who was David Hume? “Hume’s life may…seem to have been a drama in two very different acts. In the first, he tried unsuccessfully to make his mark in philosophy. In the second, he produced lighter works in order to make money and become famous. Hume the philosopher thus became Hume the popular historian and essayist. But is that the best way to see his career?”
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Prussia’s enlightened despot: “In 1717, Frederick William, the king of Prussia, gave his 5-year-old son a full company of lead soldiers for Christmas. This was in keeping with the monarch’s insistence that the boy’s education should be guided by the principle ‘that there is nothing in the world that bestows on a prince more fame and honor than the sword.’ But his son, who later would be called Frederick the Great, barely glanced at his father’s gift. Instead, as Tim Blanning writes in this fascinating new biography of the Prussian ruler, ‘the little boy . . . turned away to a magnificently bound volume of French melodies and was soon entrancing his female audience with his lute.'”
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What’s the problem with adult coloring books? “Real adult activity takes effort and often courage. Colouring in someone else’s designs is always easier than making your own, just as forming your own opinions – after gathering and weighing information – is always harder than parroting other people’s views. This is why Kant wrote that thinking for oneself is the key to growing up.”
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Remembering Arnaud de Borchgrave: “His life seemed to have been sketched from some leftover Ian Fleming manuscript. Born into an aristocratic Belgian family, he escaped the Nazi takeover of Europe, renounced his title, joined the British Royal Navy (lying about his age to do so), and landed at Juno Beach on D-Day. After his wartime service he quickly made his name in journalism, leading European bureaus for the United Press wire service before joining Newsweek as a foreign correspondent.”
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Juliana Geran Pilon reviews Ryzsard Legutko’s The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies: “His main thesis, that the increasing similarities between communism and liberal democracy are systemic, even inevitable, will undoubtedly stir controversy.”
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No, we don’t need to “take back America.”
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Essay of the Day:
In The New Atlantis, Brendan Foht examines the promise and pitfalls of human gene editing:
“Imposing our expectations and wishes on children can be harmful in normal cases, but at least children can assert their individuality and set off in their own directions. A boy who is more interested in art than baseball can tell his father that he would rather paint than try out for the team. But a boy who has been genetically designed to have more muscular arms to better hit home runs can say nothing to push back against the way his parents’ expectations are inscribed in his body. Of course, he can still choose not to play baseball, but he will then not only be disappointing his parents’ expectations but also, in a sense, frustrating the design of his own nature, which has been deliberately shaped by his parents to be suited to a particular way of life of their choosing, not his. Far from licensing more extensive control over the genetic traits of our children, the fact that parents have been susceptible to imposing their expectations of how their children should be is just what should make us suspicious of projects for human enhancement in the future.
“Few subjects raise the same levels of fear and hope as genetic engineering, but a prudent approach, drawing on lessons from history, will help to mitigate both the alarmism and the utopianism that characterize debates over new genetic technologies. The legacy of the eugenics movement should teach us of the dangers of elevating abstractions like the ‘germline’ above the needs and medical interests of actual patients. This means that we should remain open to allowing gene therapies to cure or prevent genetic disease, even when doing so may affect future generations. At the same time, we must recognize the dangers of increasing our power over future generations. These dangers lurk in the ways our society sometimes treats children as objects to be manipulated rather than as new human beings who call for unconditional love, acceptance, and nurturing from their parents. Looking to our past, we should cultivate a sense of gratitude and reverence for what our ancestors have bequeathed to us — our evolved human nature, which brings forth bodies and minds that are awe-inspiring, frail, and beautiful beyond anything in this world: It is a gift that we should steward responsibly for our children and for generations to come.”
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Image of the Day: The Lesedi la Rona diamond
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Poem: A. M. Juster, “Cuttyhunk, Late Afternoon”
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