Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart

Traditionalist conservatives and classical liberals need Charles Darwin. They need him because a Darwinian science of human nature supports Burkean conservatives and Lockean liberals in their realist view of human imperfectibility, and in their commitment to ordered liberty as rooted in natural desires, cultural traditions, and prudential judgments. Arnhart's email address is larnhart1@niu.edu.

Friday, February 29, 2008

William F. Buckley and Darwinian Evolution

William F. Buckley, Jr. died two days ago. In many respects, he was the most influential leader of the American conservative intellectual m...

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Guns Save Lives

In some of my recent postings on the NIU shooting, I have raised the question of what unarmed citizens should do when they are attacked by g...

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Liberal Learning Through Peer-Response Journal Writing

Having vented my scorn for the intellectual emptiness of higher education today--particularly, as manifested in auditorium classes and power...

Friday, February 22, 2008

Auditorium Classes as Educational Fraud

It is not surprising that the campus shooting at Northern Illinois University last week occurred in Cole Hall 101. This room is actually a ...

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Anastaplo on the NIU Shooting

In my previous posts on the NIU shooting, I have suggested that it is not healthy for us to assume that when a gunman bursts into a classroo...

Monday, February 18, 2008

Prozac, Nietzsche, and the NIU Gunman

The mystery of Steven Kazmierczak--the NIU gunman--deepens. In an interview conducted by CNN, Jessica Baty--Kazmierczak's girlfriend--h...

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Campus Gunmen and the Need for Courage

If an armed man breaks into a classroom intent on killing as many people as he can, what response should we expect from the teacher and the ...

Friday, February 15, 2008

More on the NIU Shooter

As more information about the NIU shooter comes out, the case looks ever more confusing and disturbing. His name was Steven Kazmierczak. A...

Without Conscience: The Shootings at Northern Illinois University

I teach at Northern Illinois University. Yesterday, I left campus shortly before a gunman entered a large auditorium lecture hall with a sh...

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin

On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky. On the same day, Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England....

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

More on Is/Ought

There continues to be discussion of whether a Darwinian ethical naturalism fails to overcome the is/ought gap. Rob Schebel assumes that G. ...

Friday, February 01, 2008

A Response to Rob Schebel on Is/Ought

Rob Schebel has written a long comment on my post "Moving from 'Is' to 'Ought'." Before responding to him in this ...

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Aristotelian Prudence of Bonobos

In the Department of Political Science at Northern Illinois University, we have "Politics and the Life Sciences" as a field of stu...

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Moving from "Is" to "Ought"

In arguing for Darwinian conservatism, one of my fundamental claims is that there is a universal human nature shaped by natural selection th...

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Political Animals--Rediscovering Aristotle's Political Biology

The New York Times has published an article by Natalie Angier entitled "Political Animals (Yes, Animals)." She surveys some of ...

Monday, January 21, 2008

Nature's God and the Theology of Evolution

The Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine (January 19) has a good article by Jeremy Manier on attempts to reconcile biblical theology and evolut...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Pinker on The Moral Instinct

Steven Pinker has an article on "The Moral Instinct" in The New York Times Magazine (January 13). This is an excellent survey of...

Friday, January 11, 2008

Huck Finn Meets Abraham Lincoln

In response to my previous post, "Memetic Warrior" has observed that Huck Finn is torn between two moral commitments--one to the s...

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Huck Finn's Darwinian Morality

Many times on this blog, I have argued that Darwin's account of the moral sense as shaped by moral emotions and practical deliberation e...

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Beckwith on Abortion

Francis Beckwith's new book-- Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press)--is perhaps t...

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