The Hobbes-Bramhall Debate on Liberty and Necessity
An intriguing feature about Thomas Hobbes’ famous political treatise is how it is divided into two separate but connected sections. The first chapters of Leviathan discuss philosophy before…
Introduction to Political Science: Concepts, Methods, and Topics
For Instructors In an age where information is readily available, the textbook's role is not to provide that content to students but present it in such a…
Outlandish Freedom
In Dr. Faustus, Thomas Mann identifies the inadequacies of thinking of freedom in terms of free will. The narrator describes the paradox of freedom as being only…
Does the Concept of Metaphysical Freedom Make Sense?
“Michael” writes: “Freedom and determinism are empty categories; they cannot be employed to distinguish any sequence of events from any other.” Logically, this could be because all…
Freedom from Reality. The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty
Freedom from Reality. The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty. D.C. Schindler. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017. This book examines the philosophical roots…
Nikolai Berdyaev: the Primacy of Freedom
For the Russian philosopher Berdyaev, freedom is absolutely fundamental. And freedom is connected with subjectivity and Spirit, rather than the objective (measurable) external world. All attempts to…
The Landscape of the American Political Battlefield
An ongoing debate in American political science regards the dispositions of the factions within American society towards one another; some scholars argue that a culture war obtains,…