“The profession of pimp is no ordinary office, but one requiring wisdom and most necessary in any well-governed state. None but wellborn persons should practice it. In fact, it should have its overseers and inspectors, as there are of other offices, limited to a certain appointed number, like exchange brokers.” – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, […]
Entries from January 2014
For the greater good of all
January 31st, 2014 · No Comments
Tags: Economics · Lit & Crit
Mercy
January 30th, 2014 · No Comments
“A sickly man is no less a creature of God than a healthy one.” – René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy in Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated (trans. Cress)
Tags: Descartes's Dreams · Lit & Crit
Lineage
January 29th, 2014 · No Comments
“Nothing is more ancient than the truth.” – René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy in Which the Existence of God and the Distinction of the Soul from the Body Are Demonstrated (trans. Cress)
Tags: Descartes's Dreams · Lit & Crit
Sad Clown with the Golden Voice
January 28th, 2014 · 2 Comments
Tags: Verandah
You get to have a say in it
January 28th, 2014 · No Comments
“That practical matter whose proper establishment is of greatest importance for the common sufficiency of the citizens in this life, and whose poor establishment threatens harm for the community, must be established only by the whole body of the citizens. But such a matter is the law. Therefore, the establishment of the law pertains only […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
The family of man
January 27th, 2014 · No Comments
“Every citizen must be free, and not undergo another’s despotism, that is, slavish dominion. But this would not be the case if one or a few of the citizens by their own authority made the law over the whole body of citizens. For those who thus made the law would be despots over the others, […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Effective internalization of the superego
January 26th, 2014 · No Comments
“That law is better observed by every citizen which each one seems to have imposed upon himself. But such is the law which is made through the hearing and command of the entire multitude of the citizens.” – Marsilius dei Mainardi, The Defender of Peace (trans. Gewirth)
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
For instance, a law against protesting
January 25th, 2014 · No Comments
“That at which the entire body of the citizens aims intellectually and emotionally is more certainly judged as to its truth and more diligently noted as to its common utility. For a defect in some proposed law can be better noted by the greater number than by any part thereof, since every whole, or at […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Power from the people
January 24th, 2014 · No Comments
“The legislator, or the primary and proper efficient cause of the law, is the people or the whole body of citizens, or the weightier part thereof, through its election or will expressed by words in the general assembly of the citizens, commanding or determining that something be done or omitted with regard to human civil […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy · Politics & Law
Publication Notice
January 23rd, 2014 · 2 Comments
Trailer Park Quarterly Issue Four has been published. It contains one of my poems (“Supermarket”) and can be found at: http://www.sundresspublications.com/tpq/TPQ4.pdf
Tags: Oniontown · Poems · Words
Pre-coffee Kantian precursor
January 23rd, 2014 · No Comments
“No act is perfectly virtuous unless the will through that act wishes what is dictated by right reason just because it is dictated by right reason. For if the will should wish what is dictated by right reason, not because it is dictated, but because it is delightful, or because of something else, it would […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Close-edged reasoning teetering over the abyss
January 22nd, 2014 · 2 Comments
“If you say that that which does not exist is not the cause of everything, I say, that is false; but one must add that it does not exist, nor is it loved, nor desired. And then indeed it does follow that it is not a cause. But an end can be loved or desired […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Show ’em the whip
January 21st, 2014 · No Comments
“Man has a natural aptitude for virtue; but the perfection of virtue must be acquired by man by means of some kind of training. Thus we observe that a man is helped by diligence in his necessities, for instance, in food and clothing. Certain beginnings of these he has from nature, viz., his reason and […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
That’s a good boy, now
January 20th, 2014 · 2 Comments
“Sometimes the medicine is too bitter, and all the sugar in the bowl is not going to sweeten it. You’ve got to hold your nose and drink it up.” – Averil Dean, Alice Close Your Eyes
Tags: Economics · Lit & Crit · Politics & Law
Hush up, little darlin’
January 19th, 2014 · No Comments
“The more people know about you, the more powerful they become. You’ve got to hand that shit out in small doses.” – Averil Dean, Alice Close Your Eyes
Tags: Lit & Crit
So high, you can’t get over it
January 18th, 2014 · No Comments
“Perhaps not everyone who hears this name God understands it to signify something than which nothing greater can be thought, seeing that some have believed God to be a body. Yet, granted that everyone understands that by this name God is signified something than which nothing greater can be thought, nevertheless, it does not therefore […]
Tags: Lit & Crit · Medieval Philosophy
Zero-sum, but not a game
January 17th, 2014 · No Comments
“It would clearly be desirable if the only actions performed were those in which what was gained was worth more than what was lost. But in choosing between social arrangements within the context of which individual decisions are made, we have to bear in mind that a change in the existing system which will lead […]
Tags: Economics · Politics & Law
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
For Roseanna Marie (April 6, 1958 – January 16, 2004) In loving memory
Tags: Verandah
Incremental steps along the road to perdition
January 16th, 2014 · No Comments
“Very little analysis is required to show that an ideal world is better than a state of laissez faire, unless the definitions of a state of laissez faire and an ideal world happen to be the same. But the whole discussion is largely irrelevant for discussions of economic policy since whatever we may have in […]
Tags: Economics · Politics & Law