The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria
Zakaria’s full-throated defense of Madisonian democracy is still, 20 years later, surprisingly prescient and powerfully persuasive. He argues with great strength and cleverness that, though democracy is a good thing (and though we may worship it in the West), too much democracy makes governments dysfunctional, economies inefficient, and politics frustrating. He claims that in America we have democratized to such an extreme degree, that we’ve created a situation where our congressional leaders pander to public opinion rather than making difficult choices, where our outdated and voluminous tax code and byzantine subsidy system can never be reformed because of the power of lobbyists and special interest groups to sway legislation, where we have become convinced that the average citizen (though he doesn’t trust himself to fill out his own tax forms or write his own will) is qualified to go to Washington as a senator and write our laws. Along the way Zakaria predicts, in so many words, the rise of Trumpian billionaire-worshipping celebrity populism, the degradation of our corporate media, and the ever-worsening political gridlock in the congress. His solution is a return to elitist democracy (rather than the populist democracy gaining popularity on the right and left today), a democracy where the citizens delegate law-making and regulatory authority to undemocratic but highly qualified bodies that can steer our country in the right direction without having to contend with the whims of a fickle public. He wants the experts to rule, and for limits to be placed on the power of the majority (just as James Madison argued for), but simultaneously the civil liberties of the citizenry must be set in stone. In other words, the limits should be on democracy, not on individual liberty. He points to the Supreme Court and the Federal Reserve as examples of elitist bodies that get it right more times than not, and calls for us to turn away from the sloppy sort of direct democracy that not only caused the downfall of Ancient Athens but is also responsible for the complete dysfunction of California’s own legislature. So in a sense, he wishes for the return of the smoke-filled room where important decisions get made. Zakaria is very wise, for though he lays this argument out in great detail, he does take time to acknowledge that the reason so many people have turned away from elitist democracy in recent years is because the elitists and experts, back during a time when people had more faith in leaders and institutions, caused so much irreparable harm through their poor decisions (see: Vietnam War). I was very pleased with this lovely book, so full of mind-expanding perspectives and deep research, and the ability to question his own arguments (something I consider crucial in any philosophical text). I am not entirely convinced yet that elitism is better or worse than democratization, nor do I agree with his main thesis that what ails America is TOO MUCH democracy (it often seems as if we are actually an oligarchy, or a democracy in name only). What Zakaria calls democratization, I call corporate takeover of our politics and culture… But this book still gave me much to think about.
November 2021
Debating Democracy by Bruce Miroff, Raymond Seidelman, and Todd Swanstrom
I loved reading this book. Every chapter addresses a particular question about democracy: is elite democracy better than popular democracy, should the federal government or the states control public policy, is the modern media beneficial or harmful to democracy, etc. Then for each issue, the editors place two competing essays side by side, each addressing the issue at hand and offering up an answer, both equally compelling and well-argued. I found my self impressed over and over with the arguments contained in the book. I really gained some new perspectives, and have been forced to reexamine some of my preconceived notions about democracy. This book makes me want to write about democracy.
Great Courses: The Big Questions of Philosophy by David Kyle Johnson
This is a fun and challenging course. While the main content is the “big questions” from philosophy (Is God real? How do we know we exist? Is true knowledge possible? Is there such a thing as objective moral laws? What is the most ethical type of government? etc), I think this course is actually about something else: how to make compelling logical arguments that can withstand scrutiny, and how to find flaws in philosophical/political arguments that rob the arguments of their power. For every lecture, the professor lays out major arguments that have been made throughout the history of philosophy by many of the greatest minds, then he systematically pokes holes in them all. Of course this is the nature of philosophy: there are no right answers to these unanswerable questions. So instead of seeking an absolute truth, the real purpose of studying these issues is two-fold: 1) get as close to the truth as we possibly can while making sure we aren’t being misled by faulty logic, and 2) learn how to craft one’s own arguments in such a way that they can withstand scrutiny. In other words, this course taught me how to look more carefully at philosophy and debate, to sniff out the logical fallacies, and thereby refine my own belief systems so I never fall into the same traps as past thinkers. And if I do hit those traps, I need to recognize it and adapt my thinking to make it as logical and correct as possible. This course is about how to reason carefully, which is a skill with endless applicability in the real world, whether or not one cares whether God’s existence can be proved or which type of government is the most ethical.
October 2021
After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre
This author argues that in our modern world the state of morality is in disarray. This is because one can never use reason to determine the right answer to moral questions, yet people often speak as if there are right and wrong answers to moral questions. Example: if a person opposes abortion because she believes all lives are sacred (and the fetus, being alive, is therefore sacred), while another person supports abortion rights because she believes strongly in the principle of liberty (so therefore the pregnant woman must possess the right to do as she pleases with her own body), there is no logical argument anyone can make that proves one of these women is correct and the other is wrong. One cannot use reason to prove that liberty supersedes the sanctity of an unborn life or vice versa; in the end it just comes down to personal preference. Yet in an abortion debate, all the different sides will speak as if their particular and unique sense of morality is the only absolute correct way of thinking. And in an age where there are so many different philosophies, religions, political perspectives, cultures, ideologies, and world views to choose from, and many of them offer compelling answers to the moral quandaries of our time, we find ourselves living in a world there everyone thinks he/she has found the correct answer, but in truth there isn’t one. If, when trying to solve a moral problem, multiple contradictory points of view are all equally valid, it makes the problem at hand even more intractable. Even historians, sociologists, philosophers, and economists ultimately fall back on their own personal preferences and biases when forming their conclusions and predictions, masking their personal opinions under a veneer of expert credibility. It seems this all leads to a bad case of moral relativism. The author has a solution in mind to this sticky problem: a deep reexamination of Aristotelian virtue ethics, and a prescription that we all join small communities or clubs where we can work with other humans to accomplish agreed-upon goals. While Aristotle’s ethics can definitively teach individuals how to live full and happy lives, I remain unconvinced that this solution even begins to solve the macro problem of moral relativism that pervades modern societies. Our world faces existential problems, so telling people simply to go find happiness in their individual lives smacks of nihilism… though I fall into this same moral relativism/nihilism trap as well (it’s not like I have a solution to climate change), and when I do I can at least find comfort in strategies that allow me to flourish in my own life. Maybe that’s the best most of us can do in the face of existential crises: join our little communities, focus on individual virtues, and work hard to construct happy lives, even in the face of the enormous intractable problems facing mankind. Or maybe I’ve just been super cucked by our individualist culture into thinking that humans are incapable of solving big problems, and all I’m left with is the selfish desire to live my own best life while I can. More to explore there. Anyways this book was my first deep dive into moral philosophy, and I’m glad I went in, though at times the writing meandered like a lazy river. This author’s knowledge of ethical philosophy is unimpeachable, and he makes me want to plunge even deeper into this rich intellectual tradition.
The Bhagavad Gita (translated by Eknath Easwaran)
The philosophy contained in this ancient little book is profound, elegant, and so very useful. It speaks right to the real challenges we all face in real life, and arms the reader with tools not only to weather whatever storms life may bring, but also to walk away with one’s soul and spirit intact. In other words, it’s basically a handbook on how to live a happy and fulfilled life, even when faced with tragedies or ethical quandaries or challenging situations where no matter which choice you make you (or someone you care about) will suffer a loss. One can use this book as a tool to find his or her own unique purpose in life, to find meaning in each day and through the decades. It was also Gandhi’s favorite book! I’ve written more about what I learned from the Bhagavad Gita here: https://www.senigaglia.com/timeless-lessons/
September 2021
Philosophy 101 by Paul Kleinman
I really enjoyed this charming little survey of philosophy! The book is not in chronological order, so the authors are free to jump from Bertrand Russell to Aristotle to moral relativism to ethics to Jean-Jacques Rousseau to the Prisoner’s Dilemma. The way the author leads the reader from topic to topic is really creative way to present this material. The author especially excelled whenever he discussed language. Great book to pick up and put down over the course of many months.
The Great Courses: Moral Decision Making: How to Approach Everyday Ethics by Clancy Martin
Each episode of this series deals with a moral question we all face in daily life, such as “am I morally obligated to give to charity?” and “Is it ever ok to lie?”. The professor, Clancy Martin, is a real hoot! I really appreciate the insight, honesty, and personal touch he brings to each lecture. He not only dives into what history’s great thinkers wrote about ethics, but he also shares about his own personal tragedies, his alcoholism, his divorces, hard lessons he’s learned in life, and choices he’s made that he’s not proud of. Just a quick example of this honesty: here’s an article he wrote about all the times he’s been arrested for being drunk in public. The professor’s style and honesty really made this course for me. The only limitation was that sometimes the author’s own personal philosophies steered the conversation, and that limited the breadth of the teaching. For example, in the episode that discussed whether private property as a concept is ethical, he did not really explore the thinkers who have argued that it is not (such as Karl Marx). The professor seemed to operate from an assumption that it is ethical, and it’s only a matter of figuring out whether it is only somewhat or very ethical. But really, I still recommend this one. I felt a genuine connection with this guy.
State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin
The State and Revolution is perhaps Vladimir Lenin’s most influential piece of writing. The book is many things: a scathing polemic directed against Lenin’s political adversaries, a stirring collection of prophesies and predictions about the socialist revolution to come, a call to arms for workers to unite and rise up, and a philosophical treatise that argues for the violent overthrow of the capitalist state. There is much I disagree with in this text, and I hope to write a proper critique sometime soon.
August 2021
On Violence by Hannah Arendt
This short book was supposed to be a philosophical deep dive into the concept of violence: how and why humans use it, its justifications, how to define it, what proper role – if any – it should play in human affairs, its morality, the psychological effect it has on those involved in violent acts, etc. However the book was simply too brief to accomplish all that, and the author got too caught up in seemingly minor tangents that carried outsize importance during the time the book was written (e.g. the student uprisings of the late 1960s), but today seem laughably unimportant in comparison to other more momentous historical events that could have been analyzed instead. I wish she had taken the task at hand more seriously, because I genuinely want to read such a study on violence, and I’d love to read normative analysis of the role violence should or should not play in future revolutions. Instead, I think this essay devolves into simple commentary on the events of her day, which of course prevents this from being any kind of timeless philosophical tract.
The Great Courses: Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience by Robert H. Kane
This course is really about how our modern, technologically advanced, capitalist, liberal, individualist, democratic society has created a pandemic of moral relativism. In other words, people no longer know what to believe, in terms of belief systems, morals, and even basic facts. It may have been easier for people to make up their minds in ancient and medieval times, when societies weren’t so pluralistic, and entities like the church or monarchy were able to effectively control public opinion and morals. But today there are oh so many opinions available in our free society – religious, political, ethical, economic, scientific, cultural – that it can be difficult for thinking people to take a firm stance, or to know which outlook is the most valid. Should I be a Marxist, a Christian, a liberal, a fascist, a Hindu, a rugged individualist, a communitarian, a nihilist, an incrementalist, or one of the other infinite options? How to choose?? This professor does a fine job laying out the arguments for and against moral relativism, as well as what philosophers have thought about freedom, ethics, democracy, and public morality, and he does so with a charming Boston accent and a lot of cute jokes thrown in. At times sadly I think this course is a bit dated, caught up in a that “late nineties, pre-9/11, pre-climate disaster, post-fall of the Soviet Union” fad of believing there was a growing worldwide “overlapping consensus” that liberal capitalism was the best possible solution to the world’s ills. I think, if that consensus did at one time exist, it is badly fracturing. The professor also confidently states that Marxism is dead, but he doesn’t explain whether he is speaking about Marx’s prescient critique of capitalism, or Marx’s more utopian predictions about the future. I got the impression the professor dismissed Marx when it was trendy to do so, without really wrestling with Marx’s class-focused lens, nor with the impending disasters wrought by capitalism. Really, the professor’s own opinions (classical liberal, opposed to moral relativism, believer in capitalism) shined through just a hair too frequently, and made this piece a class for its time (the 90s), rather than a timeless classic.
July 2021
The Great Courses: Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World’s Great Intellectual Traditions by Jay L. Garfield
I entered this course with a mild interest in philosophy, and left it with a profound hunger to consume philosophical texts, and to think consciously about how to live a fulfilled life. I’ve never been so inspired to read and think about this subject, though I suppose I have been pondering it casually since I was a kid. I took a philosophy course in college, but only now am I beginning to understand how philosophy can be used as a tool to understand the world, the universe, the self, the point (or lack of a point) of it all. My hat is off to this gifted and eloquent teacher. I will listen to this again I am certain. I also have much reading to do. Ok I’ll just say it: this course may have changed my life.
May-June 2021
An Introduction to Political Philosophy by Jonathan Wolff
This author is a masterful explainer, and he possesses a powerful philosophical mind. He doesn’t just summarize the major ideas of great political philosophers, but he challenges them, and puts them through a gauntlet of philosophical analysis. In the end, we see the perks and flaws of the theories of Locke, Rousseau, Mill, and we also understand that all “normative” philosophies are up for debate. His description of the leftist critique of liberalism was the clearest I’ve ever encountered. However I do wish there was a bit more of a Marxist lense at certain points, and at times the book speaks lovingly about modern liberal capitalism in a way that feels a bit dated, especially since the only allusion to climate change (a direct result of modern capitalism) is a brief mention of “externalities”. When the book is on philosophical ground the writing is superb, but when he dips into pure economics he seems somewhat out of his depth (or behind the times anyhow). Regardless, I recommend! I learned a lot, and it got me thinking. I would retitle this book Intro to Western Liberal Political Philosophy.
April 2021
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Einstein’s story is lovingly told in a quite informal manner, which fits the subject quite well. Einstein remade physics in the 20th century, but was never fully comfortable with the ramifications of his own theories (quantum spookiness), nor did he ever really seem to fit in anywhere he went. This story dives into how an unknown patent clerk revolutionized our understanding of the universe and became a world-wide mega celebrity for it, yet somehow maintained his disarming, sloppy, absent-minded manner to the end. Einstein is funny and kind and lovable, a sweet and (in some ways) innocent genius wandering amusedly through a wacky life. Even when he had to flee Nazi Germany, when the Germans confiscated his home and labelled him an enemy, he kept his sense of humor. Above all, I learned that Einstein was very human. Unlike Gandhi, Einstein was no saint on earth. He was a skilled physicist, but struggled at times with being a loving husband or an attentive father (he preferred to focus on work). He never quite learned to hold his tongue, and often got into public arguments with those who disagreed with him (or his theories). And even in physics, he wasn’t always correct (he never accepted quantum uncertainty, even when it was experimentally verified). Despite his genius, I found him entirely relatable.
March 2021
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
This book is still, after almost 200 years, powerfully moving and often hilarious. The author was a Harvard grad (and talented writer) who decided to try his hand as a sailor on board a merchant ship, and this book is the harrowing story of his two year trip from Boston, around Cape Horn, to California and back. The narrative is filled with wry first-hand observations of the sailors life, and many funny stories of the ridiculous characters the author encounters along the way. His telling of the perilous voyage around the horn, as their ship battled arctic storms and advancing scurvy, is terrifying and incredible. And there’s some flogging action in there for good measure.
February 2021
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer
This is a great book to start with if you’ve never played chess, or if you know the basics of the game but have never put much thought into how to play well. This book dives into the most basic checkmates, and also starts to train the reader on the kinds of pattern recognition that underpins Bobby Fischer’s chess genius.
The Great Courses:Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science by Steven Gimbel
These lectures are unique, varied, and deeply interesting! Every lecture is a different topic: physics, sociology, genetics, culture, economics, and more. The professor is a brilliant summarizer of big new ideas, as well as the current unanswered questions that taunt philosophers and scientists today. Pick any lecture, and there will be something in there that opens your eyes and maybe even challenges the way you see the world.
January 2021
Great Ideas in Classical Physics by Steven Pollock
Dr. Pollock is a truly gifted teacher. His explanations of the major discoveries in classical physics are so clear and understandable, that he allows you to focus on just how mind-blowing the laws of physics really are. This course really opened my eyes, and taught me many new ways to see the universe. I want to know more!
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher De Hamel
This author lovingly leads the reader on an in-depth tour of some of the world’s oldest and most treasured books, as well as the libraries where they are kept. The stories behind the books are fascinating, as are the author’s breathless descriptions of the books themselves, and the meaning behind the magnificent artwork inside them (not to mention the scribbles in the margins made by some anonymous monk 1,200 years ago). Full of glossy pictures of the old books. Great book to pick up and put down whenever you want.
