CINXE.COM

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Reviews</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgcolor="#000000" rgb="#000000" text="#ffffff" link="#ff6666" vlink="#9999ff"> <center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> <center><a href="./#server"><img src="images/borrome6.gif" align=left border=0></a><a href="./#server"><img src="images/borrome6.gif" align=right border=0></a>Reviews <img src="images/greek/the-fp-p.gif" align=middle>  <img src="images/greek/critique.gif" align=middle></center> <center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> <img src="images/tampopo.jpg" align=right><blockquote><center>How precious [are] our teacher's teachings. Time flies swiftly in this garden of learning. So swiftly [/soon] after all these years We must part. Goodbye. Song from Tampopo, Juzo Itami, 1986 <hr> On any other day, that might seem strange. Nicolas Cage, Con Air, Touchstone Pictures, 1997</center></blockquote> <center><img src="images/bar-0.gif"></center> <center><table cellpadding=10 width=630><tr><td valign=top width=300> Editorial Book & Article Reviews <ul> <li><a href="space-1.htm#note-1">The Political Corruption of Scientific American magazine [120.9K]</a> <img src="images/update.gif"> <ul> <li><a href="space-1.htm#hunt">Patriarchy the Hunter! Mass Hysteria!</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> </ul> <li><a href="moral-2.htm#gorsuch">Over Ruled, The Human Toll of Too Much Law, by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze, HarperCollins, 2024 [122.7K]</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> <li><a href="histindx.htm#kaldellis">Byzantium Unbound, by Anthony Kaldellis, Arc Humanities Press, 2019 [162.6K]</a> <img src="images/update.gif"> <ul> <li><a href="romania.htm#athena">The Children of Athena, Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 BC0-400 AD, by Charles Freeman, Pegasus Books, 2023 [1372.7K]</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> <li><a href="romania.htm#quinn">How the World Made the West: A 4,000 Year History, by Josephine Quinn, 2024</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> </ul> <li><a href="penaluna.htm">How to Think Like a Woman, by Regan Penaluna, 2023 [103.3K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="penaluna.htm#hypergamy">Hypergamy and Self-Inserts</a> <ul> <li><a href="penaluna.htm#acolyte">The Acolyte, 2024</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> <ul> <li><a href="penaluna.htm#note-2">The "Snow White" Fiasco</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> </ul></ul> <li><a href="poly-1b.htm#note-7">The Fairest of Them All, by Maria Tatar, Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 2020 [238.1K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="newspain.htm#discovery">The Dehumanizing Legacy of Anti-Colonialism [245.5K]</a> <img src="images/update.gif"> <li><a href="fries.htm#beiser">"Jakob Friedrich Fries and the Birth of Psychologism," The Genesis of Neo-Kantianism, 1786-1880, by Frederick C. Beiser, Oxford University Press, 2014, 2017 [139.2K]</a> <li><a href="emre.htm">A Window on Totalitarian Ideology, "The Illusion of the First Person," by Merve Emre, The New York Review of Books, Volume LXIX, Number 17, November 3, 2020 [60.1K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="emre.htm#thurman">A Left Handed Woman, Essays, by Judith Thurman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022</a> </ul> <li><a href="henry.htm">Grete Henry's "The Significance of Behaviour Study for the Critique of Reason," Ratio, Volume XV, No. 2, December 1973 [102.2K]</a> <li><a href="impiety.htm">"The Impiety of Socrates," by M.F. Burnyeat, Ancient Philosophy, 17, No. 1, 1997 [88.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="impiety.htm#note-7">Plato makes a mistake?</a> </ul> <li><a href="otto.htm#goodman">Rudolf Otto in Lenn Goodman's Judaism, A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation, Routledge, 2017 [243.5K]</a> <li><a href="foundatn.htm#note-2">Philippa Foot, Rationality and Virtue [147.6K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="nietzsch.htm#philippa">Philippa Foot on Nietzsche [173.0K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="decdenc1.htm#cameron">Averil Cameron's Byzantine Matters [543.9K]</a> <li><a href="dilemma.htm#note-2">"When Beasts Make Beauty," by Heller McAlpin, The Wall Street Journal, April 15-16, 2023, C7 [87.4K]</a> <li><a href="deutero.htm#note-8">Iris Murdoch's "The Sovereignty of Good" [170.3K]</a> <li><a href="hist-1.htm#netflix">"Blackwashing" Cleopatra [545.6K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="hist-1.htm#mcinerney">Hellenistic History with Jeremy McInerney</a> <li><a href="hist-1.htm#durant">The Distorted Story of Will Durant</a> </ul> <li><a href="poly-1b.htm#atonal">The War on Music, Reclaiming the Twentieth Century, by John Mauceri, Yale University Press, 2022 [238.1K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="poly-1.htm#note-4">Transfixed by Music [188.0K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="ethiopia.htm#krebs">"Post-Colonial" Analysis by Verena Krebs, Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe [71.5K]</a> <li><a href="poly-1b.htm#note-11">"A Tangled American Family Tree," by Jane Kamensky, The Wall Street Journal, December 3-4, 2022, pp.C7-8 [238.1K]</a> <li><a href="racism.htm#tanner">Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) [92.4K]</a> <li><a href="poly-1b.htm#note-10">"A Need to Settle Accounts," The Wall Street Journal, January 29-30, 2022, p.C9 [238.1K]</a> <li><a href="bloom.htm">When Intentions Don't Matter, by Paul Bloom, The Wall Street Journal, March 13-14, 2021, C1,4 [31.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="bloom.htm#note-1">Roseanne Barr</a> </ul> <li><a href="wilczek.htm">Fundamentals, Ten Keys to Reality, by Frank Wilczek, Penguin Press, New York, 2021 [65.7K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="wilczek.htm#note-1">Note On Mind</a> </ul> <li><a href="begin.htm#note-2">Whose Blunder? Entropy: The Greatest Blunder in the History of Science, by Arieh Ben-Naim, eBookPro Publishing, 2020 [70.9]</a> <li><a href="hist-1.htm#lindley">The Dream Universe, How Fundamental Physics Lost Its Way, by David Lindley, Doubleday, 2020 [545.6K]</a> <li><a href="rovelli.htm">Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli, Riverhead Books, New York, 2016 [41.4K]</a> <li><a href="bellos.htm">Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, Translation and the Meaning of Everything, by David Bellos, Farrar, Straut and Giroux, 2011, 2012 [93.1K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="wisdom.htm#note-4">Translating Machiavelli and Two Bible Verses [116.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="wisdom.htm#stranger">Exodus 2:22; Stranger in a Strange Land</a> <li><a href="wisdom.htm#burn">1 Corinthians 7:9; Better to Marry</a> </ul> <li><a href="bellos.htm#note-0">Claire North's Fractured Arabic</a> <ul> <li><a href="islam.htm#letters">Arabic Transcription Issues [470.6K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="bellos.htm#dupre">Ashley Dupre's Fractured Arabic</a> <li><a href="bellos.htm#valui">Ashley Dupre's Latin Tattoo</a> <li><a href="bellos.htm#grande">Ariana Grande's Tattoo</a> <li><a href="cognates.htm#note-3">Katy Perry's Sanskrit Tattoo [65.8K]</a> <li><a href="tombs.htm#preston">Preston and Child Quote Aeschylus [93.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="tombs.htm#shakespeare">Mark Anderson quotes Greek</a> </ul> </ul> <li><a href="decdenc1.htm#harper">The Fate of Rome, Climate, Disease, & the End of an Empire, by Kyle Harper, Princeton University Press, 2017 [543.9K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="romania.htm#note-1">Norwich's Byzantium, Mary Beard's Anti-Semitism? [1372.7K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="fall.htm#note">"The Road From Ruin," Peter Stothard, The Wall Street Journal, September 25-26, 2020, C7 [46.5K]</a> <li><a href="bees.htm">The Fable of the Bees, Bernard Mandeville [111.1K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="bees.htm#note-1">The Broken Window Fallacy</a> <li><a href="bees.htm#note-3">Mutual Aid Societies</a> <li><a href="bees.htm#note-2">F.A. Hayek on Mandeville</a> <li><a href="bees.htm#allen">"Greece, Rome, Columbia," by Brooke Allen, reviewing First Principles, by Thomas E. Ricks, "Books," The Wall Street Journal, November 14-15, 2020, p.C7</a> <li><a href="bees.htm#smith">George H. Smith on Mandeville & Atheism</a> </ul> <li><a href="machiav.htm#delves">"A Poetics for Tyrants," by Philip Delves Broughton, reviewing Machiavelli: The Art of Teaching People What to Fear, by Patrick Boucheron, The Wall Street Journal, January 25-26, 2020, C12 [96.2K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="machiav.htm#parks">"Whatever It Takes," by Tim Parks, reviewing Machiavelli: The Art of Teaching People What to Fear, by Patrick Boucheron, and Machiavelli: His Life and Times, by Alexander Lee, The New York Review of Books, October 22, 2020, p.41</a> </ul> <li><a href="myth.htm#magic">"The Lure of Hocus-Pocus," Review by Filipe Fern醤dez-Armesto of Magic: A History, by Chris Gosden, "Books," The Wall Street Journal, 31 October 2020, C7 [31.4K]</a> <li><a href="longing.htm">"A Longing for Truth and Meaning," by Alan Hirshfeld, "Books," The Wall Street Journal, April 7-8, 2018, C7 [27.0K]</a> <li><a href="satan.htm#noonan">Response to Peggy Noonan, "Who'll Be 2020's Margaret Chase Smith?" The Wall Street Journal, December 5-6, 2020, p.A15, and "The Monday When America Came Back," December 19-20, 2020, page A13 [340.4K]</a> <li><a href="weiner.htm">"Philosophy for A Time of Crisis" by Eric Weiner, The Wall Street Journal, August 29-30, 2020, C5 [10.9K]</a> <li><a href="baggini.htm">"Old Ways of Thinking, Overturned," by Julian Baggini, review of The Time of the Magicians, by Wolfram Eilenberger, The Wall Street Journal, August 15-16, 2020, C7,9 [31.3K]</a> <li><a href="satan.htm#white">Duncan White's review of Demagogue, by Larry Tye [340.4K]</a> <li><a href="goldstei.htm">"What Would Aristotle Do in A Pandemic?" by Rebecca Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal, April 18-19, 2020, C4 [31.3K]</a> <li><a href="delusion.htm">Science Set Free, 10 Paths to New Discovery, by Rupert Sheldrake, Deepak Chopra Books, Crown Publishing, 2012 [49.3K]</a> <li><a href="atheism.htm#note-7">Sam Harris Flunks His Hume Exam [107.8K]</a> <li><a href="speech.htm">The Speech I Heard -- The Address of Robert Gooding-Williams to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, October 6, 2018 [25.4K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="speech.htm#didnt">The Speech I Didn't Hear -- The Address of Rakesh Khurana, Dean of Harvard College, to the Class Day Graduating Seniors, May 29, 2019</a> </ul> <li><a href="trade.htm#kulick">A Death in the Rainforest, by Don Kulick, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2019 [87.8K]</a> <li><a href="lieb.htm">Past, Present, and Future, A Philosophical Essay about Time, by Irwin C. Lieb, Illinois, 1991 [87.8K]</a> <li><a href="turkia.htm#anderson">Lawrence in Arabia, by Scott Anderson, Anchor Books, 2013, 2014 [327.4K].</a> <ul> <li><a href="islam.htm#note-2">Lawrence of Arabia, 1962 [470.6K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="lorraine.htm#winder">Lotharingia, A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country, by Simon Winder, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2019 [188.5K]</a> <li><a href="notes/oldking.htm#romer">A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume II, From the Great Pyramid to the Fall of the Middle Kingdom, by John Romer, 2016, Penguin Books, 2017 [264.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="greek.htm#note-16">"Money's Murky Origins," by Bruce Bower, Science News, Volume 194, No. 3, August 4, 2018 [274.9K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="outremer.htm#note-2">Norman Davies and the Fantasy of Jagiellon Liberalism, in Vanished Kingdoms, The Rise and Fall of States and Nations, Viking, 2012 [234.6K]</a> <li><a href="sangoku.htm#note">Moghuls and Mughals: South Asia in World History, by Marc Gilbert, Oxford University Press, 2017 [699.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="sangoku.htm#diacritics">Diacritics</a> <li><a href="upan.htm#indus">The Indus, by Andrew Robinson, Reaktion Books, London, 2015, 2017 [153.1K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="apology.htm">Commentary on Plato's Apology of Socrates [331.1K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="lefkowiz.htm">Euripides & the Gods, by Mary Lefkowitz, Oxford, 2016 [31.4K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="romania.htm#note-6">Mary Lefkowitz on Homer [1372.7K]</a> </ul></ul> <li><a href="perifran.htm#individual">The Origins of English Individualism: The Family, Property and Social Transition, by Alan MacFarlane, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1978 [499.6K]</a> <li><a href="buddhism.htm#note-1">Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment, by Robert Wright, Simon & Schuster, 2017 [156.4K]</a> <li><a href="romania.htm#note-7">Anna Komnene, by Leonore Neville, Oxford, 2016 [1372.7K]</a> <li><a href="hegel.htm#sublime">The Hegelian Sublime and Revolutionary Slaughter of Slavoj Žižek [124.0K]</a> <li><a href="foundatn.htm#note-a">Bronowski's "Knowledge or Certainty," The Ascent of Man, 1973 [147.6K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="foundatn.htm#heisenote">Note on Werner Heisenberg</a> </ul> <li><a href="bliss.htm#postrel">The Power of Glamour, by Virginia Postrel, Simon & Schuster, 2013 [107.7K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="bliss.htm#nemesis">Ou Nemesis</a> <li><a href="bliss.htm#note-5">Helen and Aphrodite</a> </ul> <li><a href="scotch.htm#hollow">"The Serfs of Appalachia," by Beth Macy, The Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2017, A15 [60.7K]</a> <li><a href="potter.htm#note-2">Death by Government, by R.J. Rummel's, Transaction Publishers, 1994 [19.6K]</a> <li><a href="satan.htm#mallon">Thomas Mallon, "The President Fells a Demagogue" [340.4K]</a> <li><a href="horror.htm">Metaphysical Horror, by Leszek Kołakowski, 1988, University of Chicago Press, 2001 [44.8K]</a> <li><a href="decdenc1.htm#haldon">The Empire That Would Not Die, The Paradox of Eastern Roman Survival, 640-740, by John Haldon, Harvard, 2016 [543.9K]</a> <li><a href="wittgen.htm#roger">Roger Scruton's Wittgenstein, A Short History of Modern Philosophy, From Descartes to Wittgenstein, Routledge, 1981, 1995, 2002 [192.8K]</a> <li><a href="fall.htm">The Fall of Rome, and the End of Civilization, by Bryan Ward-Perkins, Oxford, 2005, 2006 [46.5K]</a> <li><a href="sayslaw.htm#makers">The Money Makers, by Eric Rauchway, Basic Books, 2015 [176.1K]</a> <li><a href="mumford.htm#dirac">The Strangest Man, The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom, by Graham Farmelo, Basic Books, 2009 [42.7K]</a> <li><a href="republic.htm">The Byzantine Republic, People and Power in New Rome, by Anthony Kaldellis, Harvard University Press, 2015 [120.1K]</a> <li><a href="key.htm#envy">Envy and Jealousy in Peter Toohey's Jealousy [191.5K]</a> <li><a href="wittgen.htm#hacker">Peter Hacker's Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy, Blackwell, 1996, 1997 [192.8K]</a> <li><a href="paper.htm">Burning Money, The Material Spirit of the Chinese Lifeworld, by C. Fred Blake, University of Hawai'i Press, 2011 [49.7K]</a> <li><a href="dilemma.htm#edmonds">Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us about Right and Wrong, by David Edmonds, Princeton University Press, 2014 [82.1K]</a> <li><a href="imagine.htm#martinez">Negative Math, How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent, Princeton U. Press, 2006, and The Cult of Pythagoras, Math and Myths, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012, by Alberto Martínez [74.6K]</a> <li><a href="machiav.htm#berlin">"The Question of Machiavelli," by Isaiah Berlin, The New York Review of Books, November 4, 1971, & March 7, 2013 [96.2K]</a> <li><a href="decdenc1.htm#kaldellis">Hellenism in Byzantium, The Transformations of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition, by Anthony Kaldellis, Cambridge, 2007, 2011 [543.9K]</a> <li><a href="moral-1.htm#note-1">Kant's Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten [171.0K]</a> <li><a href="hicks.htm">Nietzsche and the Nazis, A Personal View by Stephen Hicks, Ph.D., DVD, Ockham's Razor Publishing, 2006 [21.5K]</a> </ul> </td><td valign=top> <h2>Other Reviews -- Television, Movies, Art, & Popular Fiction</h2> <ul> <li><a href="sangoku.htm#shadows">The Problem with Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft, 2025 [699.0K]</a> <img src="images/new.gif"> <li><a href="quanta.htm#batch">The Bad Batch, 2016 [108.3K]</a> <li><a href="divebomb.htm#note-4">Yojimbo and the "Dollars Trilogy" [107.9K]</a> <li><a href="british.htm#napoleon">The Mysteries of Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte [199.1K]</a> <li><a href="islam.htm#note-2">Lawrence of Arabia, 1962 [470.6K]</a> <li><a href="taken.htm">Taken, 2008 [17.2K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="taken.htm#bourne">the Bourne Identities</a> </ul> <li><a href="crichton.htm#kirk">"Polar Extremes," NOVA, WGBH Educational Foundation, 2020 [82.2K]</a> <li><a href="newspain.htm#preston">Mount Dragon, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, 1996 [245.5K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="newspain.htm#mountain">Dead Mountain, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, 2023</a> </ul> <li><a href="heinlein.htm">Robert Heinlein (1907-1988), The Libertarian in the Lifeboat; or, Heinlein's Freehold [56.6K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="heinlein.htm#verhoeven">The Sabotage of Starship Troopers</a> <ul> <li><a href="heinlein.htm#shower">The Shower Scene</a> <li><a href="heinlein.htm#confused">Confused Reasoning</a> <li><a href="heinlein.htm#note">Predictions</a> </ul> </ul> <li><a href="./ross/drives.htm#child">Lee Child's Las Vegas, Bad Luck and Trouble, 2007, Dell, 2012 [108.0K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="./ross/drives.htm#touch">Claire North's Los Angeles, Touch, Redhook Books, 2015</a> <li><a href="./ross/drives.htm#clare">Cassandra Clare's Los Angeles, Queen of Air and Darkness, Simon & Schuster, 2018</a> <ul> <li><a href="./ross/drives.htm#idea">Cassandra Clare's Ideology</a> </ul> </ul> <li><a href="alien.htm">The "Alien" Movies [57.1K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="alien.htm#prometheus">Prometheus and Sequel</a> </ul> <li><a href="notes/oldking.htm#meyer">Nicholas Meyer's Great Pyramid, The Return of the Pharaoh, Minotaur Books, 2021 [264.0K]</a> <li><a href="erotic.htm#note-1">The Train Wreck of A Princess of Mars [80.9K]</a> <li><a href="flanders.htm#winter">The Lion in Winter, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Family, 1968 [271.9K]</a> <li><a href="ross/dee.htm">The Judge Dee Novels by Robert van Gulik -- Ti Jen-chieh, or Di Renjie: Judge Dee (630-700) [46.4K]</a> <li><a href="saga.htm">King Harald's Saga, the Movie [46.2K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="saga.htm#note">The Complete Guide to the Vikings, 2020</a> </ul> <li><a href="newotto.htm#note-2">The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan), by Ingmar Bergman, 1960 [143.9K]</a> <li><a href="tempest.htm">The Tempest, by William Shakespeare [61.8K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="tempest.htm#planet">Forbidden Planet, 1956, and The Birds, 1963</a> <li><a href="flanders.htm#oxford">Earls of Oxford [271.9K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="flanders.htm#shakespeare">The Question of Shakespeare</a> </ul> <li><a href="notes/hamlet.htm">The Soliloquy in Hamlet [4.8K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="lucy.htm">Lucy, EuropaCorp, 2014; Altered States, Warner Brothers, 1980; & 2001: A Space Odyssey, MGM, 1968 [22.4K]</a> <li><a href="nova01.htm">"Einstein's Quantum Riddle," NOVA, January 9, 2019, WGBH Educational Foundation, 2018 [28.8K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="nova01.htm#note-1">N. David Mermin's Review of Beyond Weird, by Philip Ball</a> </ul> <li><a href="keanu.htm">The Theology of the Movie Constantine [19.3K]</a> <li><a href="starwars.htm">Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace, a Response to Critics [118.5K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="starwars.htm#note-7">Star Wars: A Rolls Royce in Every Garage</a> <ul> <li><a href="starwars.htm#update">Update: Bauhaus to Our House</a> <li><a href="starwars.htm#farnsworth">The Farnsworth Glass House</a> </ul> <li><a href="starwars.htm#thx1138">THX 1138, The George Lucas Director's Cut</a> <li><a href="starwars.htm#attack">Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones</a> <li><a href="starwars.htm#revenge">Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith</a> </ul> <li><a href="islam.htm#thousand">The Thousand Nights and a Night [470.6K]</a> <li><a href="sangoku.htm#redcliff">Red Cliff, 赤壁, 2008, Red Cliff II, 2009 [699.0K]</a> <li><a href="ents.htm">The Vindication of the Ents -- reflections on The Lord of the Rings [25.5K]</a> <li><a href="foundatn.htm#update">Updated Versions of the Sherlock Holmes Stories [147.6K]</a> <li><a href="clark.htm">Kenneth Clark's Big Room [13.1K]</a> <li><a href="outremer.htm#scott">Kingdom of Heaven, Ridley Scott, 20th Century Fox, 2005 [234.6K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="outremer.htm#note">Robert Hughes on the Crusades, in Rome, A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History, Vintage, 2012</a> <li><a href="outremer.htm#note-2">Norman Davies and the Fantasy of Jagiellon Liberalism</a> </ul> <li><a href="ruling.htm#hunger">The Hunger Games; books by Suzanne Collins, 2008, 2009, 2010; movies, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 [80.9K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="ruling.htm#update">Update: 2017</a> </ul> <li><a href="valley/dilemmas.htm#15">The Moral Dilemmas of Silence,</a> <a href="valley/dilemmas.htm#16">Passengers,</a> <a href="valley/dilemmas.htm#20">and Kingsman [150.5K]</a> <li><a href="newotto.htm#note-00">Note on Religion in M*A*S*H [143.9K]</a> <li><a href="relative.htm#arrival">The Whorfian Hypothesis in Stranger in a Strange Land and in Arrival [55.2K]</a> <li><a href="trek.htm">The Fascist Ideology of Star Trek: Militarism, Collectivism, & Atheism [62.5K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="trek.htm#replicate">Replicator Economics</a> <li><a href="trek.htm#firefly">Firefly, the Anti-Trek</a> </ul> <li><a href="picasso.htm">"Woman With Leaves," by Pablo Picasso, 1934 [10.2K]</a> <li><a href="why.htm#note-2a">Knowing, 2009 -- Nicolas Cage and Determinism [79.6K]</a> <li><a href="atheism.htm#note-0">God's Not Dead, Pure Flix Entertainment, Red Entertainment Group, 2014 [107.8K]</a> <li><a href="perigoku.htm#cotterill">The Dr. Siri Paiboun books of Colin Cotterill [181.7K]</a> <li><a href="dejeuner.htm">Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, 1862-1863, Édouard Manet [31.0K]</a> <li><a href="war.htm#dark">The Curious Case of Zero Dark Thirty, 2012 [83.6K]<a> <li><a href="skin.htm">The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito), 2011 [54.6K]</a> <li><a href="public.htm#docus">The Lottery, The Cartel, and Waiting for Superman, 2010 [39.6K]</a> <li><a href="surrogat.htm">Surrogates, 2009 [17.1K]</a> <li><a href="british.htm#invasions">The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares), 2003 [199.1K]</a> <li><a href="elements.htm#note-7">The Last Airbender, 2010 [117.4K]</a> <li><a href="brooks.htm">Mr. Brooks, 2007 [15.3K]</a> <li><a href="passion.htm">The Passion of the Christ: A Response to Critics, 2004 [26.8K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="passion.htm#gibson">The Gibson <img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0> Scale</a> </ul> <li><a href="trek.htm#firefly">Firefly, the Anti-Trek [62.5K]</a> <li><a href="qatsi.htm">Koyaanisqatsi and the "Qatsi" Trilogy [28.1K]</a> <li><a href="sunshine.htm">Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004 [30.1K]</a> <li><a href="irobot.htm">I, Robot -- Movie & Asimov, 2004 [14.2K]</a> <li><a href="potter.htm">Harry Potter and the Empire of Evil -- the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling [19.6K]</a> <li><a href="jessica.htm">Bisexual Romance:  Kissing Jessica Stein, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2001 [47.6K]</a> <li><a href="matrix.htm">There Is No Spoon:  The Matrix, Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow Pictures, 1999 [35.7K]</a> <li><a href="apache.htm">Fort Apache, directed by John Ford, Black and White, RKO Pictures, 1948, Turner Classic Movies, 1996 [15.9K]</a> <li><a href="rifkin.htm">Reply to a Review by Jedediah S. Purdy of The End of Work, by Jeremy Rifkin [G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995], in the April 1995 Perspective, Harvard-Radcliffe's Liberal Monthly. [3.0K]</a> </ul> <h2>Editorial Book & Article Reviews, Continued</h2> <ul> <li><a href="why.htm#note-3">Bertrand Russell's "Why I Am Not a Christian," Why I Am Not a Christian and other essays on religion and related subjects, edited by Paul Edwards, A Touchstone Book, George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1957 [79.6K]</a> <li><a href="rockmore.htm">On Heidegger's Nazism and Philosophy, by Tom Rockmore, University of California Press, 1992 [54.4K]</a> <li><a href="goedel.htm">Palle Yourgrau, A World Without Time, The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein, Basic Books, 2005 [24.5K]</a> <li><a href="crichton.htm">S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery, Unstoppable Global Warming, Every 1,500 Years, Rowman & Littlefield, 2007 [82.2K]</a> <li><a href="crichton.htm#crichton">Michael Crichton, State of Fear, HarperCollins, 2004 [82.2K]</a> <li><a href="thinkabl.htm">Michael Steinberg, The Fiction of a Thinkable World, Body, Meaning, and the Culture of Capitalism, Monthly Review Press, 2005 [16.4K]</a> <li><a href="pagels.htm">Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, Vintage Books, 1979, 1989, and Beyond Belief, the Secret Gospel of Thomas, Random House, 2003 [46.6K]</a> <li><a href="katz2.htm">Sense, Reference, and Philosophy, Jerrold J. Katz, Oxford, 2004 [25.5K]</a> <li><a href="gardner.htm">Criticism of Karl Popper in Martin Gardner's Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?, W.W. Norton & Company, 2003 [22.6K]</a> <li><a href="wisdom.htm#laugh">The Morality of Laughter, by F.H. Buckley, University of Michigan Press, 2003 [116.0K]</a> <li><a href="liddy.htm">When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country, G. Gordon Liddy, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2002 [20.1K]</a> <li><a href="naming.htm">Meaning and Naming in Michael Devitt and Kim Sterelny's Language and Reality, MIT Press, 1999 [23.2K]</a> <li><a href="sommers.htm">The War Against Boys, How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men, Christina Hoff Sommers, Simon & Schuster, 2000 [20.8K]</a> <li><a href="postrel.htm">The Future and Its Enemies, The Growing Conflict over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, Virginia Postrel, Free Press, 1998 [65.5K]</a> <li><a href="katz.htm">The Metaphysics of Meaning, Jerrold J. Katz, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1990 [13.9K]</a> <li><a href="nullif.htm#dread">Judge Dread -- Note on Robert Bork, correspondence concerning "Thomas More for Our Season," First Things, A Journal of Religion and Public Life (November 1999) [28.3K]</a> <li><a href="pinker.htm">Words and Rules, The Ingredients of Language, Steven Pinker, Basic Books, 1999 [13.0K]</a> <li><a href="feynman.htm">Richard Feynman, A Life in Science, John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin, Dutton, Penguin Books, 1997 [17.1K]</a> <li><a href="searle.htm">The Rediscovery of the Mind, John R. Searle, the MIT Press, Cambridge, 1992 [40.5K]</a> <li><a href="rommen.htm">The Natural Law, a Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy, Heinrich A. Rommen, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, 1998 [20.4K]</a> <li><a href="penrose.htm">The Emperor's New Mind, Roger Penrose, Oxford University Press, 1990 [14.6K]</a> <li><a href="ohear.htm">Criticism of Karl Popper in Anthony O'Hear's An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, Oxford University Press, 1989 [7.9K]</a> <li><a href="moore.htm">Moralism in Panayot Butchvarov's Skepticism in Ethics, Indiana University Press, 1989 [10.9K]</a> <li><a href="rudwick.htm">The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentlemanly Specialists, Martin J. S. Rudwick, University of Chicago Press, 1985 [13.4K]</a> <li><a href="bernsten.htm">Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis, Richard J. Bernstein, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983 [25.7K]</a> <li><a href="edwards.htm">Rudolf Otto in Rem B. Edwards' Reason and Religion, University Press of America, 1979 [7.9K]</a> <li><a href="vocab.htm">Terms used in Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, Harvest/HBJ, 1959 [6.2K]</a> <li><a href="ellis.htm">American Sphinx, The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph J. Ellis, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997 [18.8K]</a> <li><a href="universl.htm#note-1">Note on "Form and Cognition: How to Go Out of Your Mind," Jonathan Jacobs & John Zeis, The Monist, vol. 80, no. 4, October, 1997, pp. 539-557 [9.8K]</a> <li><a href="austrian.htm">Austrian Philosophy, the Legacy of Franz Brentano, Barry Smith, Open Court, 1994 [9.8K]</a> <li><a href="civil.htm">Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men, A History of the American Civil War, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Open Court, 1996 [27.2K]</a> <ul> <li><a href="./ross/ross-7.htm#union">I am a Union man [52.3K]</a> </ul> <li><a href="haack.htm">Evidence and Inquiry, Towards Reconstruction in Epistemology, Susan Haack, Blackwell, 1993 [14.5K]</a> </ul> <h2>Letters</h2> <ul> <li><a href="blackwel.htm">A Letter to Blackwell Publishers on Philosophy of Language, the Big Questions, edited by Andrea Nye, Blackwell Publishers, 1998 [2.1K]</a> <li><a href="tandy.htm">An Open Letter to David W. Tandy on Warriors into Traders, The Power of the Market in Early Greece, University of California Press, 1997 [5.6K]</a> </ul> <h2>Contributed Book Review</h2> <ul> <li><a href="munteanu.htm">Plato not Prozac! Applying Philosophy to Everyday Problems, by Lou Marinoff, Ph.D., HarperCollins Publishers, 1999; Reviewed by Tudor B. Munteanu [15.2K]</a> </ul> </td></tr></table></center> <center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> <a href="rating.htm">The Ranking System for Reviews [6.8K]</a> <ul> <a href="passion.htm#gibson">The Gibson <img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0> Scale</a> <a href="satan.htm#democ12">The Pinocchio <img src="images/pinochio.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0> Scale</a> <a href="valley/dilemmas.htm#clinton">The Clinton <img src="images/clinton0.gif" align=middle width=30 border=0> Scale [150.5K]</a> </ul> <a href="./#contents">Home Page</a> <H5>Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 <a href="./ross/">Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D.</a> All <a href="./#ross">Rights</a> Reserved</H5> <a name="note-2"><center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> <H3 ALIGN="center">Review Note to Home Page; The Biases of Stanley Rosen, Cass Sunstein, and Others</H3> <center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> I find a bias in <a href="./#text-2">this</a> respect in a book written for a popular presentation of the history of philosophy, The Examined Life, A Tour of Western Philosophy, edited by Stanley Rosen [Quality Paperback Book Club, New York, 2000]. The book consists of selections from the history of philosophy with brief introductions by selected scholars. Rosen writes a general introduction. The selections tell the story. Under "Social and Political Philosophy," the only modern political thinkers are <a href="machiav.htm">Machiavelli</a>, Hobbes, and Rousseau. Locke comes in for some mention in the sectional introduction by Paul A. Rahe [<a href="passion.htm#gibson"><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0></a>], along with brief nods to Hume, Adam Smith, and James Madison, but after this Rahe quickly moves on to those, like Rousseau, "who came to regard commercial society as repulsive" [pp.21-22]. This sour and typical inspiration leads to a miserable "Philosophy's End" with <a href="rockmore.htm">Martin Heidegger</a>, "the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century," and <a href="wittgen.htm">Wittgenstein</a>, "Heidegger's only serious rival," of whom "neither developed a philosophical teaching concerning politics and morality, for neither believed this possible" [p.25] -- Rahe apparently does not believe it possible either. Unfortunately, Heidegger did develop a political philosophy. Rahe wrongly and apologetically dismisses Heidegger's membership in the Nazi Party as unrelated to his overall philosophy. A very different view is that of James Ceaser: <blockquote>Heidegger's political views are commonly deplored today on account of his early and open support of Nazism. Because of this connection, many like to suppose that his influence on subsequent political thought (as distinct from general intellectual thought) in Europe has been meager. Yet nothing could be farther from the truth. Heidegger's major ideas were sufficiently protean that with a bit of tinkering they could easily be adopted by the left, which they were [indeed, being anti-liberal, all anti-liberals, like leftists, could adapt them easily -- ed.]... In the writings of numerous thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre, "Heideggerianism" was married to communism, and this odd coupling became the core of the intellectual left for the next generation. ["The Philosophical Origins of Anti-Americanism in Europe," in Understanding Anti-Americanism, Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad, ed. Paul Hollander, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2004, p.58]</blockquote> In Rahe we hear nothing of modern political philosophers like <a href="chicago.htm">Leo Strauss</a> or Francis Fukuyama, let alone <a href="popper.htm">Karl Popper</a> or <a href="hayek.htm">F.A. Hayek</a>. One might expect some representation of <a href="marx.htm">Marxists</a>, considering their influence, but the option is apparently for nihilism and philosophical obscurantism rather than for historically important political philosophy. The selective bias is also evident elsewhere. The philosophy of religion selections progress no further than <a href="hegel.htm">Hegel</a> and <a href="existent.htm">Kierkegaard</a>. Since Hegel has no insight into actual religions (and doesn't mention any in the selection), he is probably there just because he has something called "philosophy of religion." That <a href="otto.htm">Rudolf Otto</a> isn't represented is the conspicuous oversight, though nowhere near as appalling as leaving Popper himself out of the philosophy of science section. The height of philosophy of science appears to be the mathematician <a href="poincare.htm">Henri Poincaré</a>, and the section ends with a fairly specialized discussion of "logic and mathematics" by Stephen Simpson, who is listed as a "contributor," along with the authors of the introductory sections, rather than as a historical philosopher. Passing over the most important modern philosopher of science, Popper, the philosopher of science who figures in the most popular discussions of the subject, <a href="hermenut.htm">Thomas Kuhn</a>, is included, but out of sequence. Why Poincaré is given after Kuhn is unclear. Since the editors of the section (Rota and Crants) disagree and argue back and forth in their introduction, the disorder may reflect the disagreements. Apparently, the debate over cognitivism and realism in science is important, while nothing said after the middle of the 19th century about religion is noteworthy. That figures like Locke, Popper, and Otto are left out of The Examined Life, A Tour of Western Philosophy is an excellent clue that its vision of philosophy, like that indeed of Heidegger and Wittgenstein, offers little hope for the future of philosophy. Similar political bias can be see in a series of lectures on political philosophy, Power Over People:  Classical and Modern Political Theory, delivered by Dennis G. Dalton [<a href="passion.htm#gibson"><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0></a>], Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, and put out on tape by <a href="http://www.teach12.com/sn/">The Teaching Company</a>. Dalton's sixteen lectures begin with Hinduism and end with <a href="gandhi.htm">Gandhi</a>. In between we get Thucydides, Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Rousseau, Marx, Freud, Thoreau, Dostoyevsky, Emma Goldman's Anarchism, and Hitler. In comparison to The Examined Life, we have lost Hobbes and gained Marx but are still innocent of any of the political philosophy underlying the American Revolution, the United States Constitution, Classical Liberalism, or Capitalism. Dalton must think that Indian political philosophy, culminating in Gandhi (with a nod to Thoreau), is the alpha and omega of the subject. This probably is better than Hobbesian statism, but it is also sure to be entirely unrealistic, if not a naive idealization of India, and of Gandhi. While such a book and such lectures may mainly display their bias by editorial selection and by the occasional open statement, other recent books display their Hobbesian approach more boldly. The Costs of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes, by Stephen Holmes and Cass R. Sunstein [W.W. Norton & Company, 1999], and The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice, by Thomas Nagel and Liam Murphy [Oxford, 2002], both depend on the thesis that, since we need the state to protect <a href="rights.htm">rights</a>, such rights therefore do not exist without the state. Nagel and Murphy go so far as to say that individuals actually have no rights over their property or earnings, except what the state doesn't need to use in order to effect "social justice," i.e. entitlements to income, health care, education, etc. Holmes and Sunstein are slightly more modest, that there are no "negative rights," i.e. immunities from state action, because all rights are due to the positive action of the state, which means that all rights are positive grants from the state. None of these people, of course, would give even the time of day to the statement of the Declaration of Independence, "That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men." The premise of all their thought is a <a href="nature.htm">Hobbesian</a> statism, rejecting natural rights, together with more recent collectivist and socialist elements -- which makes it especially shocking that Sunstein has an appointment in the <a href="presiden.htm#44">Obama</a> Administration -- a sure sign of the statism and authoritarianism of the modern <a href="satan.htm">Democrat</a>. Nagel and Murphy seem to have the more open socialism, with collective entitlements rendering private liberties, especially economic ones, superfluous. Altogether, we simply have more evidence that the <a href="rand.htm#modern">Left</a> lives, still working tirelessly against freedom and in behalf of an authoritarian, if not a totalitarian, regime. The political philosophy of the likes of Cass Sunstein [<a href="passion.htm#gibson"><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0></a>] has been voiced in September 2011 by Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate <a href="satan.htm#note-0">Elizabeth Warren</a> [<a href="passion.htm#gibson"><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0></a>], in the campaign for the 2012 election. Warren was promoting the claim of the Obama Administration that "rich" people and corportations are not paying their "fair share" of taxation. Her argument, apparently addressed more to businesses than to the "rich" as such, was: <blockquote>You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory -- and hire someone to protect against this -- because of the work the rest of us did.</blockquote> The most obvious distortion in this is "the rest of us paid for" refrain. Businesses pay taxes too, with business revenues taxed twice, first with corporate taxes and then with income taxes. And the roads in particular draw revenues from commercial trucks that are weighed and pay fees. Also, basic police protection is provided by local government, not by the federal government that Warren wants to get more tax money. As for the "<a href="public.htm">education</a>" that "the rest of us" have paid for, many in business will assert that the workers they get are so badly educated that they can only be brought up to speed with on-the-job training. They would be better off without the kind of education "the rest of us pay for." Most importantly, there is an implication here that "the rest of us" have been doing business a favor by providing these services. But if the businesses did not provide their goods and services, it would be no favor to us. The businesses are doing us a favor by providing goods and services even though they must then put up with the kind of vitriol and recrimination dished out by the likes of Elizabeth Warren. Considering that the "rich" in the United States pay a higher proportion of the taxes than in most other countries, even European social democracies, and that United States corporate and capital gains taxation rates are quite high, even in comparison to European social democracies, it is significant that Warren (or Barack Obama) does not specify what a "fair share" rate of taxation would be. The impression they leave is that, knowing the Republican House of Representatives will pass no tax increases, they are using their "soak the rich" and class warfare appeal simply as a rhetorical and campaign tactic -- after all, as late as 2009, Obama said that we could not raise taxes in a recession. With unemployment still over 9% (as this was written), the economic situation has not changed much by late 2011 (now, 2015, unemployment is down but labor force participation is also down a historic extent). What Warren's screed really means, however, is that the political philosophy of books like <a href="freestat.htm"><img src="images/unicorn.gif" align=right border=0></a>The Costs of Rights and The Myth of Ownership embodies the principal that all wealth and property belong to the state, which deigns to allow some citizens the use of it, for a while, but that the government can call in as much wealth as it wants, whenever it wants it, for whatever reason. The vagueness of the "fair share" rhetoric is characteristic of the indeterminate and unlimited power of the government to appropriate wealth and property. Coupled with <a href="trade.htm#note-1">cargo cult</a> economics, Warren may even believe this is the road to prosperity. However, since it is hard for anyone to ignore the poverty of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea, there is a more sinister probability:  The modern "progressive" believes in poverty for the masses. This is friendlier to the Earth, to the animals, and to the <a href="ruling.htm">Ruling Class</a>, of which they are or aspire to be a part. <a href="./#text-2">Return to Home Page</a> <a name="note"><center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> <H3 ALIGN="center">Review Note to Home Page</H3> <center><img src="images/key-0.gif"></center> An October 1998 flyer from the <a href="http://www.sunypress.edu/">State University of New York (SUNY) Press</a> contains an interesting notice about one of their books, Founders of Constructive Postmodern Philosophy -- Peirce, James, Bergson, Whitehead, and Hartshorne, by David Ray Griffin, John B. Cobb Jr., Marcus P. Ford, Pete A.Y. Gunter, and Peter Ochs: <blockquote>In presenting Peirce, James, Bergson, Whitehead, and Hartshorne as members of a common and distinctively postmodern trajectory, this book casts the thought of each of them in a new light. It also suggests a new direction for the philosophical community as a whole, now that the various forms of modern philosophy, and even the deconstructive form of postmodern philosophy, are widely perceived to be dead-ends. This new option offers the possibility that philosophy may recover its role as critic and guide within the more general culture, a recovery that is desperately needed in these perilous times.</blockquote> This is of interest for parallels to the approach and project of the Friesian School. Thus, the current state of philosophy is found to be unsatisfactory, a "dead-end," and an alternative tradition is proposed, drawing together a number of philosophers, a group with some affinities but whose members are not always seen as belonging together (like <a href="otto.htm">Otto</a> and <a href="popper.htm">Popper</a> as Friesians). The differences, however, are significant. The <a href="friesian.htm">principles</a> of the Friesian School are by no stretch of the imagination "post-modern." Instead, the <a href="school.htm">Kantian tradition</a> through Nelson is a side of modern philosophy that most academic philosophers are probably unaware of -- it is not going to be "widely perceived" as anything. The authors Griffin et al. may be at pains to accept the basic validity of the "post-modern" (i.e. deconstructive) move, while claiming that they can productively go "beyond" it. Interestingly, however, their group of philosophers contains none from the real post-modernist tradition. Peirce and James are the originals of the American Pragmatist school, whose affinities to deconstruction have been trumpeted by Richard Rorty [<a href="passion.htm#gibson"><img src="images/gibson.gif" align=middle width=37 border=0></a>], but dismissed by <a href="haack.htm">Susan Haack</a>. Whitehead and Hartshorne, on the other hand, are revivalists of full blown speculative metaphysics. Bergson may be taken as an antecedent of Whitehead's "process" philosophy. In <a href="./ross/">my own</a> academic experience at the University of Texas, where Hartshorne was Professor Emeritus, in the 1970's (he was alive until 2000), I encountered many people with particular regard for both Peirce and Whitehead, so this juxtaposition seems to have been brewing up for a while. From a Friesian perspective, however, Pragmatism is not an epistemologically or ethically sound doctrine, while Whitehead is innocent of the fundamentals of Kantian Critique. So, while it is nice to see attempts to move beyond "post-modernism," this will not ultimately help if the false premises of "post-modernism" itself continue to be accepted. <a href="./#critical">Return to Home Page</a> </BODY> </HTML>