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Taleb the Philosopher

Since I’m deeply in Boëthius mode for my forthcoming edited book of essays on A Confederacy of Dunces, this invocation of Boëthius and Taleb grabbed me. Here is Joshua Hochschild’s review of Taleb’s collected works. Boethius the patron saint of bullshit detectors. Taleb displays familiarity with many expected theorists of epistemological humility: Montaigne and Hume, Hayek…

Understanding Cryptocurrencies with Stigmergy

This from Alexander Blum writing in the HuffPost. We already have markets, the republic of science (Polanyi), urban design (Jacobs) and much more besides, spontaneous orders that embody these worthy stygmergic [sic] virtues (quote below). Writing a decade or so ago, the downside then expressed was that there runs the risk of ‘‘a kind of…

Friedrich Hayek and Michael Polanyi in Correspondence

Friedrich Hayek and Michael Polanyi corresponded with each other for the best part of thirty years. They had shared interests that included science, social science, economics, epistemology, history of ideas and political philosophy. Studying their correspondence and related writings, this article shows that Hayek and Polanyi were committed Liberals but with different understandings of liberty,…

Dorothy Emmet

I was reminded by a most prolific chum of mine about Dorothy Emmet who so kindly agreed to my coming up to Cambridge to ostensibly chat to her about Bosanquet. This was in 1990 when she was 86. Taking this opportunity to speak to someone of her calibre and longevity we spoke over a long lunch…