Ciceronianus

I think there is wisdom in this statement by Wittgenstein: "Make sure that your religion is between you and God only." For one thing, we wouldn't need...

Oh yes. Emergency Powers were granted to the President by Congress some time ago, and Presidents delight it making use of them. I didn't mean to sugge...

The power of the Executive has been steadily increased, and a president may, upon declaring a national emergency (which the president may do unilatera...

Yes. But we're dealing with a person who won't honor a pledge in any case, and won't be expected to by those who support him.

Given the times and the stakes, it strikes me this is a legitimate concern. Perhaps these individuals, and maybe other state AGs and Secretaries of St...

The word "parish" also suggests Louisiana is the location. I wonder if 3:16 refers to the Gospel of John. Jake's confession may not be the Act of Cont...

They're especially blessed.

I take it you don't mean what one should want. If that's the case, though, I'm not sure how helpful "moral discourse" would be.

I'm not sure what the procedure would be. As far as I know, there's been no proceeding under it. This mountebank and the myrmidons that assist him hav...

That sort of thing has been going on for quite some time. I always think of that portion of Monty Python's Life of Brian, where those at the edge of t...

I saw something similar at Reason magazine, online. I'm not overfond of The Federalist Society, with which Clarence ("The Moocher") Thomas and Samuel ...

Thank you, but I'll do what I think appropriate, regardless. Why, indeed, shouldn't I? De gustibus non est disputandum.

I see. I'm uncertain what his view was of scientific investigation and its results, but think he felt philosophers were misguided in pursuing theories...

You mean....the socks I put on my feet are real? But the feet aren't, right?

In what sense does it differ from Wittgenstein's stance? Does it dispute the "plain ordinary reality" of socks and hands and cups and kettles, as Bann...

I think it's similar in intent. The Latin portion of the title is taken from my daemon, Marcus Tullius Cicero, by the way: Philosophia est ars vitae (...

There's a book, Ars Vitae: The Fate of Inwardness and the Return of the Ancient Arts of Living, by Elizabeth Lasch-Quinn, which you may find interesti...

That's nice of you. I like yours, also.

I like the analogy. I think it reflects Dewey's view that philosophy has too often thought of the relation between ourselves and the world as one of k...

Christianity is a remarkable hodgepodge of preexisting religious, philosophical, social and cultural beliefs popular in the ancient Mediterranean worl...

No. No. It can be. Oh yes. It can be. Yes. Taxed too. It can be. Don't know. Don't know. Don't know. As legitimate as any other reason, I suppose.

He's an interesting man and significant figure in U.S. History (he brought the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius along with him on his trip along the Ama...

I agree, but consider the "muscular christianity" movement in Victorian England and beyond. Thomas Hughes, the author of Tom Brown's School Days, is c...

There's a book of hers I have but haven't yet begun reading: Putting Philosophy to Work: Inquiry and its Place in Culture. It looks good. It may inclu...

For me, the word "arena" refers to the arena where the Roman ludi took place. Combat by gladiators or the killing of wild beasts for the entertainment...

I'm not sure what it means, exactly. I'm not sure what a feminist-pragmatist or a pragmatist-feminist might be. I know of a pragmatist I admire who is...

I'm unable to make the distinction you seem to make along with the majority, which you describe as follows: So, being black can cause you to have cert...

I thought this decision would spawn litigation, but this is pretty fast work on the part of plaintiffs' lawyers. Of course, the decision will also hav...

Legacy preferences should certainly be prohibited. So, I believe, should so-called "development cases" where preference is given to the children of we...

I suspect they may be written for a number of reasons. Perhaps they'll turn out to be useful, sometime. In the here and now, in which a lawyer practic...

Well, try to understand I've never before been asked to render a legal opinion on what a court didn't say in deciding a case, or about a holding it di...

From a lawyer's perspective, concurring opinions are insignificant. It's the decision of the majority that's important. A concurring opinion joins in ...

Yes, I see they're at it again. I haven't read the latest opinions from On High, yet. I suspect they'll be additional examples of what I would call "L...

It's such a chore reading these decisions. Particularly when one isn't paid to do so. The Equal Protection Clause came into being after the Civil War ...

Caesar was quite randy, it seems. He was called "every woman's man and every man's woman." \ It's interesting that women in ancient Rome could do much...

That dude in the quote isn't interested in questions, or answers. That dude in the quote is content to be discontented.

Well, don't ask Rudyard Kipling. It seems he thought a man to be a kind of demi-god, judging from his poem If, and told his (fictional) son in that po...

I confess that I don't celebrate Juneteenth. Nor do I celebrate MLK's birthday, or Washington's birthday, or Labor Day, or Memorial Day, or any other ...

This thread should be transferred to the "Philosophy of Holidays" section.

It's not quite as simple as you seem to think. The Armstrong cases dealt with the application of several federal records laws, and specifically the di...

Yes. In addition to Biden and his family, Hillary Clinton is brought up. But selective prosecution is hard to establish, and in this case given the ci...

Well, I hope you're right. But I think we face a situation where a significant portion of the populace doesn't favor the law, and believes it shouldn'...

I think representing Trump would be a nightmare for a lawyer. He has no discipline, is scatter-brained, tends not to take advice, and has a reputation...

You are our resident censor, our Cato (the Elder), our Anthony Comstock. Te saluto!

Again?

Again?

Note that James refers to "what a truth means..." That isn't a statement regarding how we determine what is or is not true. It sounds to me like a Jam...

While it's strikingly easy to believe that the personal gods many worship are out to get one or the other of us, it isn't nearly as easy to believe th...

OK. And "the masses" probably didn't read until the 19th-20th centuries. I see your point.

Well, I'd prefer to believe he never said such things. But we know what the Gospel says he said. Either he said it, or he didn't. In the latter case, ...