tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.comments2023-11-02T07:31:47.448-04:00Austrian Economics and LiteratureTroy Camplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comBlogger336125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-42202887887718950182016-07-09T00:10:07.562-04:002016-07-09T00:10:07.562-04:00That's a more recent phenomenon.That's a more recent phenomenon.Troy Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-72509560555992938042016-07-04T23:24:04.322-04:002016-07-04T23:24:04.322-04:00You failed to mention you were included in TPZ'...You failed to mention you were included in TPZ's poetry collection titled Selfhood anthology, coming out July 15th.Todd Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11735574643827102148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-32846981996920777512016-06-22T09:01:38.366-04:002016-06-22T09:01:38.366-04:00The greatest work in the Georgian language is the ...The greatest work in the Georgian language is the poem The Knight in the Panther Skin written by Shota Rustaveli, dated around 1189-1207, during the golden age of reign ofQueen Tamar. The poem is a rescue-the-captured-maiden story that combines an unusual meter with a collection of philosophical nuggets from various traditions. <a href="http://whistory.org" rel="nofollow">I liked your blog, Take the time to visit the me and say that the change in design and meniu?</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10405664942732517369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-57837057756255304562016-03-14T01:38:35.908-04:002016-03-14T01:38:35.908-04:00Studying the comparison Hofstede's cultural va...Studying the comparison Hofstede's cultural values and the ranking of Economic Freedom will prove interesting results. Individualism certainly the biggest indicator of a wealthy country.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-86626063848421352132015-04-02T20:05:51.641-04:002015-04-02T20:05:51.641-04:00This list entirely ignores specifically libertaria...This list entirely ignores specifically libertarian fiction. See the list of Prometheus Award and Prometheus Hall of Fame winners at http://www.lfs.org/awards.shtmlJ. Neil Schulmanhttp://jneilschulman.rationalreview.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-28880989754133485512015-03-05T17:01:12.893-05:002015-03-05T17:01:12.893-05:00The author addresses Don Quijote. Historically, Do...The author addresses Don Quijote. Historically, Don Quijote was a satire of the then-popular romances. Milan Kundera points out that Don Quijote was only included into the history of the novel later, by those who were influenced by it. The author addresses the "Catholic" novel and points out that they have always tended toward being loose and baggy, much like Don Quijote and Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel. <br /><br />The author also points out that there have been "novels" prior to the modern European novel, but they are not really the same as what arose in the Modern Era. <br /><br />One can note that The Odyssey influenced James Joyce's Ullyses, but that doesn't make The Odyssey a novel. <br /><br />I will also note, though, that Murray Rothbard pointed out that Adam Smith was hardly the first to theorize about free markets, but that Catholic priests at Salamanca had written on them long before. Does that mean that Adam Smith is any less important as an originator of modern economics as a science? Does that mean capitalism didn't really take off in the Protestant countries first? Hardly. The same is true of the origins of the novel, I think. Spain has this weird outlier origins status on these two areas, but it was in the Protestant countries that both capitalism and the novel took off and took the forms we see today. Troy Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-76102625051373884612015-03-05T16:34:17.998-05:002015-03-05T16:34:17.998-05:00The first modern novel was Cervantes' Don Quij...The first modern novel was Cervantes' Don Quijote. It arose in the Catholic Spain of the Counterreformation. And his author was a devotee of the Virgin Mary who fought at Lepanto in defense of the Christian faith vs the Muslim Turks, a battle during which all Christian warriors prayed the Rosary before going into battle. And in his later years, the author of Don Quijote became a lay brother of the Franciscan order. He requested to be buried in the convent of the Trinitarian Friars, an order that had paid the ransom to rescue him from slavery to the Muslims of Algiers. Moreover, the pioneers in the development of Capitalism were the Catholic republics of Northern Italy during the late Middle Ages. And the pioneer theoreticians were the priests of the School of Salamanca, in sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain. And the picaresque novel, which led to Mark Twain, The Tin Drum, etc., began even earlier in Spain with Lazarillo de Tormes. For all this see Literature and the Economics of Liberty, ed. Paul Cantor land Stephen Fox. Sorry Max Weber. (BTW what does the above entry on Nepal have to do with Troy's post?) dario fernandez-morerahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13971387687186740043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-13149311024522956242013-11-09T23:12:39.845-05:002013-11-09T23:12:39.845-05:00If you speak both English and Esperanto, you would...If you speak both English and Esperanto, you would know that it is much easier to find eager friends who speak Esperanto (compared to English) in most countries of the world. This has motivated me to use Esperanto for 41 years. neil.nachumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08590577830508561113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-14555566205385517782013-05-19T19:43:11.413-04:002013-05-19T19:43:11.413-04:00Very revealing how anti-capitalist the vast majori...Very revealing how anti-capitalist the vast majority of "top" literature is. But it was nice to see that Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead were top among Business and Economics Profs. FreedomWorkshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05675113268360765781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-58754134016152497032013-04-29T11:03:07.059-04:002013-04-29T11:03:07.059-04:00One cannot say for certain without enough examples...One cannot say for certain without enough examples to make a judgment, but I must say that with Frederick Turner's <a href="http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/tirzah#axzz2Rrfwg4QF" rel="nofollow">Tirzah</a> they are off to a good start, as that is certainly poetry.Troy Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-44532692548808889022013-04-28T18:09:17.657-04:002013-04-28T18:09:17.657-04:00One wonders, ineluctably, if The Freeman is now pu...One wonders, ineluctably, if The Freeman is now publishing poetry or verse, or if its editors even recognize any such distinction.<br /><br />JRJeff Riggenbachnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-85737732007895860092013-03-09T21:48:11.094-05:002013-03-09T21:48:11.094-05:00Please find a completely different Understanding o...Please find a completely different Understanding of Art and its relation to human culture altogether.<br />www.aboutadidam.org/readings/art_is_love/index.html<br />www.adidaupclose.org/Art_and_Photography/rebirth_of_sacred_art.html <br /><br />Remember too that TV is now the most powerful culturally formative force in the world. Indeed our common "culture" is entirely a creation (and reflection) of the TV mind. That "culture" is or course completely indifferent too, and even hostile towards, the well-being of both human beings and Earthkind altogether.<br />Remember too that most people only watch commercial TV, the purpose of which is to create "faithful" consumers. As explained in the book This Little Kiddy Went To Market by Sharon Beder. And years ago by Vance Packard and Stuart Ewen in his book Captains of Consciousness.<br />And as Neil Postman told us we ARE quite literally amusing our selves to death.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-25686145092496750492013-03-09T21:26:41.890-05:002013-03-09T21:26:41.890-05:00And www.adidaupclose.org/Literature_Theater/skalsk...And www.adidaupclose.org/Literature_Theater/skalsky.html Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-2498652031584859342013-03-09T21:21:18.468-05:002013-03-09T21:21:18.468-05:00that should have been www.ispeace723.orgthat should have been www.ispeace723.orgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-13990706566996221832013-03-09T21:15:56.403-05:002013-03-09T21:15:56.403-05:00Hi, I am from Australia. I contacted you some year...Hi, I am from Australia. I contacted you some years ago.<br />Please find a completely different Understanding of literature and the now obsolete nature of all the old-time now archaic narratives via this reference.<br />http://www.adidaupclose.org/Literature_Theater/sklalsky.html <br />Also<br />http://www.adidam.org/teaching/17_companions/great_tradition <br />On how the old-time power and control seeking (dis)order has inevitably created a world-wide disaster<br />http://sacredcamelgardens.com/wordpress/reality-humanity<br />http://www.dabase.org/not2p1.htm<br />http://www.ispeace723.htm <br />http://www.beezone.com/news.html<br />http://www.dabase.org/Reality_Itself_Is_Not_In_The_Middle.htm<br />http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/ontranscendingtheinsubordinatemind.html <br />On radical self-knowledge<br />http://www.consciousnessitself.org<br />http://www.beezone.com/whiteandorangeproject/index.html <br />On the obsolescence of the old-time "Great" religions (and much more)<br />http://www.dabase.org/up-1-2.htm <br />http://global.adidam.org/truth-book/true-spiritual-practice-3.html <br /><br />Plus I highly recommend all of the essays available at this website (as a means of transcending ones religious and cultural provincialism)<br />http://www.wildriverreview.com/user/63#article_listAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-71321076082124611372012-12-02T19:14:02.721-05:002012-12-02T19:14:02.721-05:00Fantastic post!Fantastic post!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10845051786114528609noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-81292147288890823362012-09-23T13:39:15.789-04:002012-09-23T13:39:15.789-04:00I don't mind such discussions. They help me re...I don't mind such discussions. They help me refine my own arguments.<br /><br />A person with a tragic view of life understands that humans have constraints and that even good acts will eventually have negative consequences, given enough time. We cannot control every consequence of every action. This means that gooda cts will have negative consequences and bad acts will have positive consequences. This hardly means one shouldn't try to do good or that one should be indifferent to the bad -- since in each case, intention does matter, as does the overall trajectory of one's acts. <br /><br />Only those with a tragic view of life can write tragedies, because only such a person could understand that Oedipus, for example, is attempting to exceed his natural bounds -- in this case, of knowledge. If you think people do not have bounds, tragedies do not make sense. You end up with arguments that miss the point of tragedy.<br /><br />In fact, only by understanding the world in this way can one understand the emergence of the Invisible Hand/spontaneous order. Self-interested actions result in the emergence of a social order that allows for large-scale social cooperation. We understand there are unintended consequences/externalities/spillover effects only if we have a tragic view of life. As also understand that there are both positive and negative versions of these. This does not mean we should not act -- as not acting is an action in a real sense -- but that we must do so with a full awareness of the fact that there will be these kinds of consequences. Thus we must be careful and knowledgeable of our boundaries. Only with such awareness and knowledge can we make good decisions.Troy Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-61589788115229962692012-09-23T13:12:07.341-04:002012-09-23T13:12:07.341-04:00I just happened by this polite scholarly discussio...I just happened by this polite scholarly discussion. One very good book on the tragic sense of life is Miguel de Unamuno's Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida (On The Tragic Sense of Life) (1912). Best, Dario Fernandez-Moreradario fernandez-morerahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00391121279827034696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-68635186501696065542012-09-21T21:17:00.552-04:002012-09-21T21:17:00.552-04:00You should stop feeding the troll. He's only t...You should stop feeding the troll. He's only trolling you and you kept taking the bait. I wish I'd read Othello to be able to argue better, but knowing Aristotle's Poetics a little and Oedipus the King, I understand that your view of tragedy is neither narrow, nor incorrect. <br />I don't too understand your post though. Do you know about the 'Tragic View of Life' in and of itself? I'm trying to find information on it for my Elements of Drama class.Marie Riverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05701688138573142480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-45420018377972578842012-08-29T05:14:54.816-04:002012-08-29T05:14:54.816-04:00Kafka is a main stay in literary criticism, probab...Kafka is a main stay in literary criticism, probably because the Frankford school inherited a distrust of bureaucracy from Maw Weber, and of cause the Frankford school shares the Webern legacy with the Austrian school, like to astringed brothers. Do you think they'll ever meet again?dustygravelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01877215902611486889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-49636558157276204122012-08-08T12:06:56.750-04:002012-08-08T12:06:56.750-04:00Good piece over at mises.org this week on this top...Good piece over at mises.org this week on this topic: http://mises.org/daily/6142/The-Apocalyptic-Vision-of-The-RoadAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-47020733036258509172012-08-04T12:11:21.505-04:002012-08-04T12:11:21.505-04:00I would argue Atlas Shrugged is a satire, though c...I would argue Atlas Shrugged is a satire, though clearly satires have a didactic element to them. And it is a critique of new ideas using the older ideas of classical liberalism and Aristotle. To the extent she was influenced by Nietzsche, we must remember that Nietzsche too was critiquing his contemporary culture from a more ancient (Greek) perspective. Both wanted to put a brake on what they thought was the direction the moral order was going in, because they thought it was going in the wrong direction. <br /><br />In fact, Atlas Shrugged is an interesting case study, because the satirical/didactic elements are intended to try to bring the moral order back to a place where it last "worked," with the novelistic elements, in which we learn to empathize with her heroes, being what would move us forward to a new moral order. It is no mistake that her heroes are much more developed and complex than are her villains; one is satirized, the other is novelized. The satirized villians constitute the didactic element of the novel (this is true too of the Speech, since the Speech is all about the actions of the villains); the novelististic heroes are who we empathize with, which contributes to evolution in the moral order.Troy Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-37706990519629092942012-08-04T09:41:19.555-04:002012-08-04T09:41:19.555-04:00"I would argue that if anything, didactic lit..."I would argue that if anything, didactic literature is a brake on moral evolution in the moral order. Didactic literature doesn't challenge morals such that they can change; didactic literature reinforces the moral order as it is."<br /><br />Isn't Atlas Shrugged a work of didactic literature? Doesn't it challenge the existing moral order?<br /><br />"Scarry is arguing that what matters less than the explicit content of a work of literature or a set of works of literature is the structural components of literature she laid out. This is something about which Russell Berman agrees in Fiction Sets You Free, in which he makes the argument that the kind of literacy Scarry is talking about set the groundwork for the development of free markets -- and that it was the structural elements, not the content, that mattered."<br /><br />Linda Hunt makes a (broadly) similar case in her recent book, Inventing Human Rights. So did Ian Watt in his The Rise of the Novel.<br /><br />JRJeff Riggenbachnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-58550197674373319162012-08-03T18:44:08.956-04:002012-08-03T18:44:08.956-04:00I think you're missing the point of the argume...I think you're missing the point of the arguments being made. <br /><br />It's not about moral leaders. Nobody is arguing that artists/writers are moral leaders. It is not about this or that particular writer or book; it is about what reading in general does, what storytelling does for us. There is no more a leader of the literary order or of the moral order than there is of the market order. Thus, it is not about imposing this or that moral system on the people, but allowing the moral order to evolve. We are talking here about understanding what affects the moral order. I'm looking at the interaction as a scientist (does the literary order affect the moral order? if so, how?) and not as a moralist (should the literary order affect the moral order?).<br /><br />The artist can only speak about what is good for him or her as an artist -- this, and the production of art are how artists participate in the artistic orders. Their products, however, affect culture in a variety of ways. One way is that the work's influence is redirected into the artistic orders. Another way is that it affects the reader/viewer's perceptions, etc., which in turn affect the way they view the world, including the social world, which includes the moral order. <br /><br />Yes, moral evolution can lead us into Marxism, but it can also lead us out of Medieval Catholic morality and into classical liberal morality. There is no stopping moral evolution, even if we can affect it in a variety of ways. Literature is one way. And literature's effects are mostly structural, less content. This effect is not the intention of the writer, but is nevertheless a consequence. <br /><br />I think you are also making the mistake of thinking that I am arguing that literature is the only influence on the evolution of the moral order. I would argue that all the spontaneous orders affect the moral order -- just as all the spontaneous orders affect each of the other spontaneous orders. But I do not think they affect each other in the ways people think they do. I think the Marxists, for example, are wrong about how the market affects the moral order. The effects are much more interesting and complex. <br /><br />It is true that the market has the advantage of profit-loss as a way of judging whether or not something works in the market order. And you are right that the moral order does not have that element in it. But that does not mean we should do everything in our power to stop moral evolution. That would destroy the moral order as much as stopping all change in the market order would destroy it. The moral order is a spontaneous order and, as such, it is both conservative/traditional and evolving at the edges. The evolution, to be healthy, must occur slowly and in the context of the given traditions. It is when a new moral order is imposed upon an old one that problems occur. You have to let people get there gradually. And people have to be given the leeway to try our different ways of living, to find out what morals work and what morals do not. I suspect that whatever morals truly take root, they will be expressions of our moral instincts, which do not in fact change, even if the way they are expressed do.Troy Camplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16515578686042143845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1071098089153600904.post-4432413361385259952012-08-03T18:26:01.993-04:002012-08-03T18:26:01.993-04:00I am wary of the notion of “evolving morals” being...I am wary of the notion of “evolving morals” being led by artists and writers because it opens up a Pandora’s box. The twentieth century has been particularly rich in very daring experiments in “evolving morals,” and they have not been very reassuring. I don’t have to go into the details of the new man and new morality of the Marxist-Leninists or the new man and new morality of the National Socialists, in both cases one of the premises being that a new kind of morality is necessary and that man can basically create it as he sees fit, and in both cases pretty smart and creative people, including artists, were associated with both movements. Perhaps the problem with the notion is the inevitable unintended consequences element. Perhaps it is something else. A business can fail if it innovates wrongly depending on the market for its innovation, and that is it. But if a new morality fails, countless casualties and enduring moral destruction ensue. Not quite the same. One should not experiment with a people or its morals. Too much is at stake. I also find it a bit presumptuous of artists or writers (but then to be an artist or a writer one has to be a bit presumptuous and even narcissistic) to think that they are at the vanguard (to use the Marxist Leninist word) of humanity and its morals. This notion came into being with the artistes of the nineteenth century, is basically a Romantic notion, and is still, curiously, very muchwith us today. This remaining power of Romanticism was studied by Octavio Paz in Los hijos del limo. Their power maneuver here (it is a power maneuver since it places artists and writers on a privileged position in society; or rather, the artists and writers, not too subtly, place themselves graciously at the vanguard of society; surely no one else placed them) is to generalize from what is good for the artist or writer or at least from what the artist or writer thinks is good for him or her, to assume that such good is good for the people at large. To paraphrase WB, I would rather be led by the first 100 people in the Chicago phone book than by the top (whatever that is) 100 artists or writers in Chicago.dario fernandez-morerahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13971387687186740043noreply@blogger.com