Very handy collection of sources covering some of the lesser-known cynics.
"From 1945 onwards, J Edgar Hoover’s FBI spied on Camus and Sartre. The investigation soon turned into a philosophical inquiry…"
A nice collection of Chesterton quotations.
Mikhail Bakunin on social contract theory.
My first experience being arrested and some comments on the liberal/radical divide within the Occupy Wall Street movement.
A brief history of homebrew transhumanism, from computer hacking to grinding.
“Run, philosophers, run (everyone else, too!) with whatever part of the anti-plutocracy message you find most urgent or salient; find whatever allies you can; make noise or pursue quiet changes as suits you and the means at hand.”
“We have said that marriage is instituted for the sanctification of love: it is a pact of chastity, charity and justice, by which the spouses declare themselves publicly to be freed, both of them by one another, from the tribulations of the flesh and the cares of gallantry. Consequently, it is sacred to all and inviolable. That is why, apart from some stipulations of interest also require publicity, the family and the city appear in the ceremony: the engagement of the couple, made in view of Justice, carries farther than their persons; their conjugal conscience becomes part of the social conscience, and, as the marriage insures their dignity, it is for the society that proclaims it a glory and a progress.”
“Franciscan poverty does not mean that the monk must make every effort to avoid owning any particular thing, but rather that the monk completely abdicates any right to claim ownership. They don’t just lack all possessions, they lack the very ability to "possess."”
“The historical impact of The Ego and Its Own is not easy to assess. However, Stirner’s book can plausibly be claimed to have had an immediate and destructive impact on contemporary left-Hegelianism, to have played a significant role in the intellectual development of Karl Marx (1818–1883), and to have influenced the tradition of individualist anarchism.”
These guys think they’re so funny. “Here’s an exchange of letters between Russell and his namesake, Lord Russell of Liverpool, which took place in February 1959.”
“The basic tenet of Simulationism — its 'Central Dogma' — is that the entire universe is nothing more than a simulation that’s been constructed by a highly intelligent being who resides in a place called Noumenal Reality”
This is an interesting instance of a curated Wikipedia spin-off project. It consists of Wikipedia articles re-written with a value-biased policy (to promote “happiness, prosperity, and world peace”) by a much more closed group of editors. I read the article on Tolstoy, which is adapted from a 2005 Wikipedia article, and thought it was well edited (and conveniently shorter than the current WP version).
