Intellectuals

November 13, 2019

The human person, economy, and state

In this week’s Acton Commentary I explore Presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris’s proposal to federalize day care to align school and work schedules as, “an economic growth and child development strategy”: Economists, politicians, and even everyday people often talk of “the economy” as if it were a separate and distinct thing from the values, choices, and actions of everyday people. Continue Reading...

November 08, 2019

Conscience for life in fiction, Newman, and Acton

I’m just about halfway through my third reading of Umberto Eco’s marvelous first novel The Name of the Rose. Every time I return to it I find something new. It is a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery but it is also so much more. Continue Reading...

November 01, 2019

Lord Acton on true liberalism

Early last month there was a great debate over the question “What is Liberalism?” on the Free Thoughts Podcast. The debate was between Helena Rosenblatt, professor of history at City University of New York and Daniel Klein, professor of economics at George Mason University. Continue Reading...

October 25, 2019

On being wrapped up in books

Last night I gave an address at The Grand Castle in Grandville, Michigan on the occasioning of its library opening. I spoke on the importance of books and libraries. As the Librarian and a Research Associate at the Acton Institute it is a topic of professional interest but is also an abiding private passion. Continue Reading...

October 14, 2019

Lord Acton and the two types of nationalism

Kai Weiss, Research Fellow at the Austrian Economics Center, has a new essay on Law and Liberty exploring Lord Acton’s thoughts on nationalism: A little-known 1862 work called Nationality by Lord Acton can perhaps shed new light, too, on the topic. Continue Reading...

September 30, 2019

Giuseppe Franco to Deliver the 2019 Calihan Lecture: ‘Religion, Society, and the Market’

Mark your calendar! As announced earlier this year, Professor Giuseppe Franco is the recipient of the 2019 Novak Award. In the upcoming 19th annual Calihan Lecture, Franco will examine the social philosophy and economic ethics of Wilhelm Röpke, 19th century economist said to be one of the spiritual fathers of the social market economy. Continue Reading...

September 17, 2019

The problem with intellectuals

I am in the curious position of being a blogger who distrusts opinions. The late yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar put it best when he wrote, “An opinion is yesterday’s right or wrong knowledge warmed up and re-served for today’s situation.” Continue Reading...

September 11, 2019

Can a big bad state deliver us from evil?

Thirty five years ago the American novelist Thomas Pynchon asked the question, “Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?” The occasion was the then 25th anniversary of C.P. Snow’s Rede Lecture, “The Two Cultures of the Scientific Revolution,” which argued, way back in 1959, that our culture was increasingly polarized into “literary” and “scientific” factions unable to understand each other. Continue Reading...

August 28, 2019

Michael Novak and the ‘crisis of capitalism’

Jordan Ballor recently brought to my attention this remarkable passage from Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, “Our moral and cultural traditions have not kept pace with our economic possibilities. Continue Reading...

August 19, 2019

Scholars discover Locke manuscript arguing for the toleration of Catholics

Kimberly Uslin reports on the discovery of a of previously unknown manuscript by the philosopher John Locke at the Greenfield Library at St. John’s College: According to Walmsley and Waldmann, this was the first major discovery of new work by Locke in a generation. Continue Reading...

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