Monthly Archives: June 2008

My Uninvited Speech at KOCE-TV’s 35 Anniversary BashTibor R. MachanA colleague asked me to come and sit with him and his pals at the table tocelebrate KOCE-TV’s 35th anniversary celebration. I went, though with sometrepidation, given that KOCE-TV is a … Continue reading →

Politicizing ScienceTibor R. MachanAs many who read my columns would know, I am an avid reader of ScienceNews, the magazine of the Society for Science and the Public located inWashington, D. C. It’s now been a few decades that I … Continue reading →

Doubting One’s MindTibor R. MachanA central topic of philosophy throughout the ages has been whether humanbeings can trust their minds, including their sensory awareness andthinking. Skepticism about this has been a major challenge and many fromSocrates to such recent and … Continue reading →

Liberty and Hard Cases Tibor R. Machan One book I edited has the same title as this column and focuses mainly onhow a free society would cope with disasters such as earthquakes, floods,tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. When the nature of a … Continue reading →

Property Rights and the Welfare State Tibor R. Machan Is it reasonable to always demand respect for property rights? This is thequestion raised by some critics of the (Lockean) idea that human beingshave the unalienable right to their lives, liberty … Continue reading →

Is traveling a human right? Tibor R. Machan Liberty first had to do with the freedom to travel. In time it came toamount to a condition in which no one forces one to submit to another’swill, a condition of not … Continue reading →

Fourth of July and the Public Interest Tibor R. Machan Throughout history political thinkers have been doing a lot of frettingabout the public good (or public interest, common good, general welfare,etc.). Usually they came up with massive plans or enchanting … Continue reading →

The Liberty We Must Have Tibor R. Machan It is becoming more and more fashionable among political thinkers and evenpoliticians to disparage the kind of individual liberty championed in theAmerican political tradition. Several scholars—e. g., Cass Sunstein ofthe University of … Continue reading →

Blue Laws: Unjust and Unequal Tibor R. Machan Sometimes I will go out of my way to visit one of those outlet malls. Notonly do they have some pretty good deals but often I can find clothingthat actually fits me—a … Continue reading →

Is it Progress? Tibor R. Machan One of the very first novels, read in Hungarian translation back inBudapest when I was about 10 years old, was Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.Tom Sawyer followed and then quite a few of Zane Grey’s, … Continue reading →