Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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On Usury
Charging interest is essential to guiding the investment process, which cannot be sustained by charity even it were forthcoming due to the economic calculation problem. (In other words, interest rates are required to direct investments to their most productive use.) Interest-driven investment is essential to economic growth, and therefore to the very existence of industrial…
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On Environmental Pollution
Pollution is a byproduct of production, which is a byproduct of civilization. Life without civilization would to the death of the vast majority people on earth, and life without production means certain death for all men. The proper balance between death from lack of production and death from excess pollution should be determined by an…
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Socialists, Capitalists and Moderates on the Facts
(Reposted from my Facebook.) Fact: There are poor people. Socialist: Give me all your money, I will take care of them. Or else. Capitalist: I can make lots of money from them because they’ll work for less. Moderate: Give me half your money, so I can pay them not to work, then hire anyone who…
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The case for evidence-based medicine
Few people would openly admit that they prefer irrational treatments and doctors. But most people do in fact advocate irrational health practices – using pseudonyms for “irrational” as “holistic,” “alternative,” “homeopathic” and the deadly “natural.” Medicine requires reason The human body operates according to certain causal principles. If we wish to make a change in…
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Thoughts upon the death of Steve Jobs
To put my view of Steve Jobs in Objectivist terms, I see him as a real-life Howard Roark. Even if he had never been successful, his strength of vision, his uncompromising principles, and his confidence in the power of his ideas make him a hero in my book. But of course it is precisely because…
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Why is there no mass transit in socialist states?
Today Sarah asked me why China is only now building subway systems in all its major cities. I pointed out that non-local mass transit is a capitalist phenomena: totally aside from the fact that you need the wealth generated by capitalism to pay for such systems, there is no need to travel in a socialist…
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HeroicLife's photostream
HeroicLife’s photostream on Flickr. I’ve posted the photos from my trip to Qíyūn Shān on Flickr!
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Re-evaluating the value of religion
This essay was written on August 13th, 2003 and edited slightly for this post: Is religion a value to mankind? Some alleged benefits which have been attributed to religion include: scientific and philosophical principles, technologies such as the printing press, the colonization of the new world, great works of art such as Michelangelo’s David and…
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Are philosophical claims scientifically provable?
This question makes the logical fallacy of the stolen concept. The question of what is “scientifically provable” is derived from our metaphysics and epistemology. We use our basic philosophy to derive the epistemological standard by which to investigate the specific aspects of reality (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics, and economics). To demand that philosophical statements be…
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What if we took religion seriously?
Virtually no one in the West takes religion seriously. This is fortunate, because if people did, there could be no such thing as “Western civilization.” With 82% of Americans professing a belief in God, does this sound like a silly statement? Let me explain. The Origin of Religion The definition of “religion” varies between cultures…
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