Category: Politics
-
Why freedom?
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: With the publication of Essays: The Philosophy Crush Podcast, my intention in releasing this book was to bring this podcast project to a conclusion. The book contains all the podcast episodes with several additional ones toward the end for your reading pleasure. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working on this podcast over the last few years,…
-
Where are we going?
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: Imagine being on board a train that is racing through the countryside at breakneck speed toward a destination that no one on board or anywhere else knows. This is not a bad metaphor for where our society presently finds itself. It’s common knowledge that much in our culture has changed over the last…
-
REBELLION
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: Whenever any kind of rebellion or protest occurs, it’s always pertinent to ask what the individuals in question are rebelling against, what do they want, and why do they want it. Rebellion without a cause is an exercise in futility. The great teacher of this was the French existentialist Albert Camus, whose life…
-
What kills a democracy?
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: We make a very large mistake when we imagine that western-style democracy is destined to remain ascendant forever. Authoritarianism is the proverbial wolf at the door in every democratic society, and its constant tendency is to change forms from time to time and from place to place. It has been correctly said by…
-
Judging historical figures
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: In the city where I live, a statue of John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, has been removed from its pedestal in a public park and placed in an undisclosed location for an undetermined period of time, its future unknown. The latest target of cancel culture, he has also had his name…
-
Cancel culture and academic freedom
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: I can only hope that cancel culture is a trend that, like many similar phenomena, is here today and will be gone tomorrow, although I’m not about to offer a prediction about this. When a pendulum swings hard in one direction, you can almost predict it’s going to swing back again with terrific force—almost but not…
-
What makes innovation possible?
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: We all value innovation, or at least we say we do. A question I seldom see answered or even asked, however, is what makes innovation possible? The question, what makes something possible, is often a philosophical one and it’s an important question to ask. In the case of most any innovation in knowledge…
-
Paul fairfield interviewed on the canadian story podcast
The Canadian Story is a podcast about what it means to be Canadian. Interviews cover a wide variety topics with the overarching goal of reminding Canadians why we are all so proud of our country. In this interview Paul discusses his thoughts on The Philosophy of Pluralism.
-
On Fanaticism
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: Were I to set out to create a fanaticized society, I would begin by dividing its population into several inward-looking groups, to each of which I would relate a narrative about who they are and how they came to be. This story could be political or religious, true or false, as one likes,…
-
The Russians are Coming!
PODCAST: TRANSCRIPT: No, this isn’t 1970. It’s a full half-century later, but judging from what we’ve been hearing for several years now, those pesky Russians are at it again. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ve been hearing a lot about this since at least 2016. In the United States, the…
Philosophy Crush 