In a recent review of Alain de Botton‘s Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion, John Gray writes: Rarely mentioned in the debates of recent years is that atheism has been linked with all kinds of positions in ethics, politics and philosophy. More particularly, there is no necessary connection – either [...]
All posts tagged Irving Babbitt
Atheism is no excuse for skipping church
Posted by acilius on February 22, 2012
http://losthunderlads.com/2012/02/22/atheism-is-no-excuse-for-skipping-church/
“Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing”
The title of this post is a quote from Thomas Henry Huxley. I came across it a few months ago, when I was reading an old paperback I found in a used book store. The book was Voices from the Sky, by Arthur C. Clarke (Mayflower Press, 1969.) The cheap, high-acid paper hadn’t aged well [...]
Posted by acilius on October 26, 2011
http://losthunderlads.com/2011/10/26/sit-down-before-fact-as-a-little-child-be-prepared-to-give-up-every-preconceived-notion-follow-humbly-wherever-and-to-whatever-abysses-nature-leads-or-you-shall-learn-nothing/
Ambrose Bierce and The Man Without Illusions
Several weeks ago, The Nation ran a review-essay about Ambrose Bierce. A few days before happening on this piece, I’d my old Dover Thrift Edition collection of Bierce’s Civil War stories, a paperback I’d bought for a dollar in 1996 and had been meaning to read ever since. I was interested in the reviewer’s remarks about one of those [...]
Posted by acilius on July 23, 2010
http://losthunderlads.com/2010/07/23/ambrose-bierce-and-the-man-without-illusions/
The American Conservative, 18 May 2009
Michael Desch’s cover story, “Apocalypse Not,” argues that while Iran is nowhere near having nuclear weapons, things wouldn’t be so bad even if it did have them. Desch quotes some of the overheated rhetoric of anti-Iranian hawks. One line that stuck out for me was a quote from Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu: “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic [...]
Posted by acilius on June 26, 2009
http://losthunderlads.com/2009/06/26/the-american-conservative-18-may-2009/
Seven recent issues of The Nation
Ever since I started writing here, I’ve been referring to “Mrs Acilius.” Until last month, that was a bit of an exaggeration, as I had not actually married the lady in question. We tied the knot 12 May. So lately, I’ve had things on my mind other than this blog. That’s why I haven’t been posting “Periodicals [...]
Posted by acilius on June 18, 2009
http://losthunderlads.com/2009/06/18/seven-recent-issues-of-the-nation/
The American Conservative, 23 February 2009
Daniel McCarthy chronicles the American Right’s shift from the skepticism about the office of US President that fueled the principled critique of excessive presidential power that thinkers like James Burnham and Willmoore Kendall sustained in the middle decades of the twentieth century to the abject presidentialism of the Bush/ Cheney Republicans. McCarthy does not suggest an agenda for curbing the power [...]
Posted by acilius on February 28, 2009
http://losthunderlads.com/2009/02/28/the-american-conservative-23-february-2009/
The Nation, 10 November 2008
As you would expect from its cover date, this issue was devoted primarily to the 2008 presidential election. As that event recedes into the past, I find it hard to imagine myself going back to re-read any articles about it. Perhaps I may wake up some morning and find it impossible to believe that it ever really [...]
Posted by acilius on November 6, 2008
http://losthunderlads.com/2008/11/06/the-nation-10-november-2008/
The American Conservative, 6 October 2008
For me, the highlight of this issue was a piece by Claes G. Ryn, editor of Irving Babbitt in Our Time, The Representative Writings of Irving Babbitt, and the author of Will, Imagination and Reason: Irving Babbitt and the Problem of Reality. Unfortunately Professor Ryn does not mention Babbitt’s name in this article, but he does give [...]
Posted by acilius on October 24, 2008
http://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/24/the-american-conservative-6-october-2008/
The Nation, 20 Oct 2008
This issue features three items I think I might someday want to look up. China scholar Orville Schell writes that the Confucian and Legalist traditions of classical Chinese thought may offer guidance to coming generations of Chinese leaders. About 16 years ago I read a translation of selected works by Han Fei, the leading light of the Legalist tradition; all [...]
Posted by acilius on October 13, 2008
http://losthunderlads.com/2008/10/13/the-nation-20-oct-2008/
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