Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'morality'

October 03, 2007

Positive Freedom and Paternal Government

A quote from T. H. Green, refuting the view that the law’s “only business is to prevent interference with the liberty of the individual,” construed as doing what you like as long as it does not infringe on others’ rights to do what they want. Continue Reading...
October 01, 2007

Two Perspectives on Climate Change

These two brief essays provide a good juxtaposition of two perspectives that view immediate and mandated action to reduce carbon emissions as either morally obligatory or imprudent. For the former, see Vaclav Havel’s, “Our Moral Footprint,” which states rhetorically, “It is also obvious from published research that human activity is a cause of change; we just don’t know how big its contribution is. Continue Reading...
September 17, 2007

Lewis on moral tyranny

Here’s a justly famous quote from C. S. Lewis on why the danger posed by a nanny government can be much more oppressive than that posed by the consolidation of economic power: Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Continue Reading...
August 10, 2007

Book Review Roundup

Here are some book reviews of note from recent weeks that you may find to be of interest: Charles H. Parker. The Reformation of Community: Social Welfare and Calvinist Charity in Holland, 1572-1620. Continue Reading...
July 25, 2007

The Moral Calculus of Climate Change

I was thinking this morning about the moral calculus that goes into discussions about climate change policy. It’s the case that for any even or action, there are an infinite number of causes (conditions that are necessary but not sufficient for the event to occur). Continue Reading...
April 19, 2007

Virginia Tech, Islam, and ‘Ismail Ax’

A number of theories are buzzing around the Internet, related to the Virginia Tech killer’s choice of identification on the package he sent to NBC, “Ismail Ax.” According to published reports, “One popular theory comes from a story in the Quran, the holy book of Islam, about Ibrahim and his son, Ismail. Continue Reading...
April 05, 2007

Moral duties and positive rights

During a conference I attended last year, I got into some conversation with young libertarians about the nature of moral duties. In at least two instances, I asserted that positive moral duties exist. Continue Reading...
April 04, 2007

School for scandal: hip hop goes to college

Why would a hip hop group called “Crime Mob” be invited to the campus of a Historically Black College? And why would the group’s “Rock Yo Hips” music video — featuring college cheerleaders as strippers — get so much play on television? Continue Reading...
March 23, 2007

An inconvenient debate

I have tried to read everything that I can find the time to digest on the subject of global warming. I saw Al Gore’s award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and even had some nice things to say about it. Continue Reading...