Symposium on Jack Russell Weinstein’s Adam Smith’s Pluralism: Rationality, Education, and the Moral Sentiments

adam smith

Coming very soon. Here is the top-notch lineup of Smith scholars for this special issue:

Introduction
Nathaniel Wolloch

Context-dependent Normativity and Universal Rules of Justice
María Alejandra Carrasco

“… but one of the multitude”. Justice, Pluralism and Rationality in Smith and Weinstein
Lisa Herzog

The dynamics of Sympathy and the challenge of creating new commonalities
Dionysis G. Drosos

The “Spectator” and the Impartial Spectator within Adam Smith’s Pluralism
Spiros Tegos

Was Adam Smith an Optimist?
Maria Pia Paganelli

Jack Russell Weinstein
The Political Hypotheses of Adam Smith’s Pluralism: A response to my commentators

Percy and Springsteen

bruce springsteen, walker percy

As the date denotes, this has been known for several years and has been widely covered: here is a follow up to this story. It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that Robert Coles, author of the solid Walker Percy: An American Search (1979)  is also the man behind Bruce Springsteen’s America: The People Listening, A Poet Singing (2004), though I can’t vouch for the latter work.

Louis Armstrong’s New York

Louis Armstrong

New York Post: article informed by my chum Ricky Riccardi. The house in Corona is a standard stop for me whenever I’m in NYC.

Minds, Models and Milieux: Commemorating the Centennial of the Birth of Herbert Simon

Herbert Simon

Coming soon — contributors include Katherine Simon Frank, Robert Rupert, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ron Sun, Morris Altman, Massimo Egidi, Mie Augier and several others.

This book is a collection of specially commissioned chapters from philosophers, economists, political and behavioral economists, cognitive and organizational psychologists, computer scientists, sociologists and permutations thereof as befits the polymathic subject of this book – Herbert Simon. The tripartite of the title “Minds, Models and Milieux” connotes the three inextricably linked areas that Herbert Simon made the most distinguished of contributions. “Minds” connotes Simon’s abiding interest in theorizing human behavior, rationality, and decision-making; “Models” connotes his extensive computer simulation work in the service of his interest in “Minds” but also in the service of minds that are necessarily socially situated, in complex “Milieux.”

This collection while intended to commemorate the centenary of Simon’s birth simultaneously offers a timely reassessment of some of his central insights and illustrates the exponentially growing interest in Simon’s work from beyond the usual disciplines.

WALKER PERCY WEDNESDAY – 38

walker percy

Man is certainly stark mad. He can’t make a worm, but he makes gods by the dozens.

. . .

“We can’t go back there,” she said. Her pale face loomed unsteadily in the darkness. He was thinking about the reciprocal ratio of love: was it ever so with the love of women that they held out until the defeat of one’s first fine fervor, not merely until one feigned defeat but rather until one was in truth defeated, had shrugged and turned away and thought of other matters—and now here they came, all melts and sighs, breathing like a furnace. Her lips were parted slightly and her eyes sparkled. His nose was turning to concrete.

. . .

He was displeased with her. Was it then the case with love that lovers must alternate, forever out of phase with one another? It did not suit her to be fanciful. Was she drunk? She gave him a kiss tasting of burnt corn. He wished she would chew Juicy Fruit like a proper Alabama girl.