Essays and talks

These essays and short articles have all been written by Tim Harding. Some of them have also been presented as talks.

Philosophy

• What is logic? 
• What is rationality? 
• What is a fact?
• What is emergence?
• Why People Confuse Philosophy with Speculation
• In Defence of Western Civilisation
• The Philosopher: Classical Greece and Today
• Proportionality in war
• Sociology and individual behaviour
• Free trade vs tariffs
• The Primacy of Personal Responsibility Over Societal Influences in Crime
• Against psychologism
• Leadership vs Followership
• Theoretical physics and metaphysics
• In support of objective truth
• Against postmodernism
• Socialism in the 21st century
• The Harm of Racial Slurs
• Power without work (in preparation)
• A joint response to Gary Bakker on scientism and philosophy
• How to startup and run a local skeptics group
• On Jennifer Lackey’s ‘Testimonial Knowledge and Transmission’
• On Gettier Problems
• Consequentialism versus Justice
• Rationality and truth
• Determinism, free will and compatibilism
• Searle’s construction of social reality
• The Gricean Maxims
• Searle’s case for realism
• The Rejection of Expertise 
• Epicurean free will
• The Stoic theory of universals, as compared to Platonic and Aristolian theories
• The professional model of representative democracy
• The Uselessness of Cynicism
• Skepticism, Science and Scientism
• Economic efficiency and social justice
• Skepticism – philosophical or scientific?
• Descartes’ cogito and certainty 
• Contingency in the natural sciences
• The Fallacy of Faulty Risk Assessment
• Deliberation Day
• A case for mineral royalties
• Cultural relativism vs human rights
• The Rationality of Accepting Settled Science
• Are numbers real?
• Stoicism in the Modern World
• The correspondence theory of truth
• Consciousness vs Self-consciousness

Ethics

• • Stoicism and Aristotelian ethics
  • Against Paying Ransoms
  • The is/ought question
  • Against excusing serious mistakes
  • Is decency obsolete?
  • The Case of the Falling Fat Man
  • Did Descartes think that animals have feelings?
  • Moral clarity
  • Morality Comes from Civilisation, Not Evolution

History

• The Cognitive Dissonance of Christian Anti-Semitism
• Against the Celebration of Ned Kelly
• Hitler’s British appeasers admitting fault
• The Costs and Benefits of British Colonialism
• The Eureka Rebellion Myth
• Was William I of England really a Conqueror?
• Colonisation is not abnormal
• Why did slavery decline earlier in the North than in the South of the United States?
• The Sceptical Chymist
• 12 basic things Australians should have learned at school
• DNA and GM foods
• Some Origins of Western Quackery
• Radical democracy in ancient Athens
• Ancient Athens and the Delian League
• Egyptian Kingship in the Middle Kingdom
• Theories of Generation
• Divides between sacred, secular, art and popular music
• Ancient astronomy and astrology
• The Astronomical Renaissance
• The Dolphin Delusion
• Charles Darwin – where he was right and wrong 
• Traditional Chinese Medicine vs Endangered Species
• The Dark Ages
• The Birth of Experimental Science
• The Medieval Agrarian Economy
• Reflections on medieval history
• How did Augustus become the first Roman Emperor?
• Collectivism in Asia vs Individualism in Europe

Science

• Chemistry and physics
• Theoretical physics vs philosophy
• Ten Animal Welfare Myths
• Awareness of surroundings

Politics

• Western Leftists and the Iranian Dictatorship
• Anti-Semitic slogans banned
• Western Leftists and Islamic States
• The racism of low expectations
• What is Islamist terrorism?
• Why communism is bad in both theory and practice
• Against Trotskyism
• Against Ideocracy
• Is centrism unusual these days?

Law

• A Royal Commission Is Not a Court
• A Case for Personal Responsibility in Criminal Behaviour
• Sovereignty and Land Ownership: Distinct Legal Domains
• Sovereign citizen defences dismissed as frivolous

Economics

• AI and Productivity
• Socialist paternalism vs free market choices
• The Purpose of Progressive Taxation
• Philanthropy vs taxation for charity funding
• Free trade vs tariffs
• Equal opportunity vs equal outcomes

The Arts

• Sabotage of the Adelaide Writers Festival
• Graffiti vs Art
• The early influence of Louis Armstrong on Coleman Hawkins, as mediated by Fletcher Henderson
• Knowing When It Works: Artists vs Producers
• Against musical purism
• The Role of Moral Ambiguity in Cinema

Management

• Policy vs Management
• Allocating Work versus Delegating Responsibility
• Contractors vs Employees
• Structures are no substitute for strategy
• Against managerialism
• Co-operation at work
• Boards and Ministers steer: management rows
• Sick leave is for when you are sick
• Praise in public, criticise in private
• Leadership vs Followership
• A summary is not an introduction

Other

• Electric kettles in the US vs AU

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