•  480
    This essay is my review of Philip Booth’s ...and the Pursuit of Happiness: Wellbeing and the Role of Government. The book is an anthology of original articles by eminent researchers in modern happiness economics, such as: Booth himself; Paul Omerod; David Sacks, Betsey Stephenson, and Justin Wolfers; Christopher Snowden; J. R. Shackleton; Christian Bjornskov; Peter Boettke and Christopher Coyne; and Pedro Schwartz. I conclude by offering several criticisms of the work.
  •  126
    Movie review of: Good
    Liberty 11. 2010.
    In this essay, I review the movie Good. Good tells the story of the moral corruption of its protagonist, a writer, who is seduced by blandishments and material rewards given to him by the Nazi regime. It is a nice illustration of corruption—the degradation of character wrought by the desire for wealth and fame—what Aristotle would call “pleonexia.”
  •  2
    Philosophy lecturer and essayist Gary Jason tackles timely issues from education reform to the Arab Spring in his new anthology Disturbing Thoughts: Unorthodox Writings on Timely Issues. Disturbing Thoughts collects more than 160 political and social commentary essays published between 2010 and 2012. Among the many topics addressed are environmentalism, public employee pensions, education, and political reform. Today's headlines are filled with discussion on the growing dysfunction of unfunded p…Read more
  •  186
    The Case for Free Trade
    Liberty 33-41. 2010.
  •  1935
    In this essay, I look at more or less sympathetic portrayals of egoists in film. I start by explaining some basic concepts: psychological egoism; ethical egoism; default egoism; rational egoism; egotism; cynicism; narcissism; and psychopathy. I then review in-depth two excellent WWII films, Stalag 17 and The Bridge on the River Kwai. I note that the key protagonist in both pictures is the same type of character—both played by the same fine actor, William Holden. The main protagonist in both is a…Read more
  •  206
    Is there a case for ad hominem arguments?
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 62 (2). 1984.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  254
  •  433
    This is a review of the biopic of the great mathematician Ramanujan, 'The Man Who Knew Infinity'(2016).
  •  256
    Deontologism and dialectic
    Journal of Value Inquiry 17 (2): 119-131. 1983.
  •  225
    Conflicts of Loyalty in War Movies
    Liberty (September): 1-8. 2011.
    In this essay, I use four war movies to explore conflicts of loyalty and how they are resolved, all to illustrate W.D. Ross’ multiple rule deontologism. The films are all fine WWII movies: The Enemy Below; Decision Before Dawn; John Rabe; and The Bridge on the River Kwai. In my analysis of each, I show how the protagonists face conflicts of their loyalty to themselves, their countrymen, their friends, and humanity in general, and resolve them in the face of changing factual backgrounds.
  •  198
    In this essay, I look at some extraordinary actors who never got their due—actors who had distinguished careers, but never won an Academy Award for acting. I review the work of: Joseph Cotten; Orson Welles; Edward G. Robinson; Cary Grant; James Mason; Richard Burton; Claude Rains; Alan Ladd: Robert Mitchum; and Fred MacMurray. In each case, I explore the actor’s best work, what made his acting outstanding, and offer possible explanations why he was not so honored.
  •  191
    Book review of: R. Turner, Logics for AI (review)
    Philosophia 19 (1): 73-83. 1989.
  •  93
    Book review of: Can Modern War be Just? (review)
    Chronicles of Culture (June). 1985.
  •  1619
    This essay is my critical review of Al Gini and Alexei Marcoux’s fine text, The Ethics of Business. Unlike most business ethics texts, Gini/Marcoux recognize that most businesses are small, and that business is not inherently immoral and always in need of reform. And they put their focus on using ethical theory to find action-guiding principles to help guide business behavior. Moreover, they adopt the Schumpeterian view that business is an entrepreneurial activity—one that not merely executes tr…Read more
  •  193
    Book review of: R. Marlin, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion (review)
    Dialogue 55 (3): 545-547. 2016.
    This essay is my review of Randal Marlin’s fine book, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion (2nd Ed.). Marlin’s book examines the concept of propaganda, rightly noting that the term has a neutral meaning of just promulgating a point of view and a pejorative meaning of using deceit to push a point of view. Marlin gives a concise history of propaganda techniques, and propaganda theory—from ancient Greece through WWII—and has a good discussion of the ethical issues involved in propaganda.
  •  252
    Book review of: M. Skousen, The Big Three in Economics (review)
    Liberty (July): 43-44. 2009.
    This essay is my review of economist Mark Skousen’s book, The Big Three in Economics. In it, he discusses the economic work of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. He gives even-handed treatments of the major contributions of each, for example, Smith’s reputation refutation of mercantilist policies and Smith’s crucial insight into the role that division of labor plays in economic growth. My only complaint is that Skousen doesn’t adequately explain his choice of Marx as a great economi…Read more
  •  132
    Movie review of Cool It
    Liberty 11. 2010.
    This essay is my review of Bjorn Lomborg’s delightful documentary film Cool It. Lomborg believes that there is indeed anthropogenic global warming, but that it doesn’t constitute the grave and imminent threat to humanity that people such as Al Gore think it does. The focus of the documentary is the refutation of Al Gore’s award-winning film (An Inconvenient Truth). But Lomborg also puts the focus on how best to use scarce resources to help humanity.
  •  164
    Fallacies are Common
    Informal Logic 11 (2). 1989.
  •  140
  •  194
    A Concept of Discovery
    Journal of Critical Analysis 7 (4): 109-118. 1979.
  •  167
  •  109
    Book review of: J. Greene, Education Myths (review)
    Liberty (June): 41-45. 2007.
  •  116
    The Ethics of Closed Shops
    Liberty (January): 51-54. 2009.