There is a well-known model of behavior modification, a taxonomy of sorts of regulatory mechanisms, due to Lawrence Lessig, which lists four modalities of regulation: the law, the market, social norms and architecture. The law provides punitive sanctions, actively restrains by making visible its power, and points in the desired direction; the market provides economicContinue reading “Regulation, Social Norming and Tocqueville’s ‘Majority’”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
Why Would An ‘Imperfect’ God Be of Interest?
I find Yoram Hazony’s post at the Stone today genuinely perplexing (and a little pointless). Hazony suggests the notion of a ‘perfect God’ is problematic, that indeed, it is the insistence on such a conception of God, apparently nowhere to be found in the Bible, that is the source of much philosophical head-scratching, disputation betweenContinue reading “Why Would An ‘Imperfect’ God Be of Interest?”
The Oft-Missed Pleasures of Running
Late into the night of my 28th birthday, I was doing a passable impression of a dancing fool. It was almost four in the morning, I had consumed enough alcohol to administer local anesthetic to a small platoon of foot soldiers, and I was blithely unaware of impending danger. But there it was, in the shape ofContinue reading “The Oft-Missed Pleasures of Running”
My First Thanksgiving
My first Thanksgiving introduced me to the trials and travails of the paid-by-the-hour worker. In 1987, while in graduate school, I worked in the university cafeteria. I made $4.25 an hour for: on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, taking soiled dishes off one conveyor belt, and stacking them on another (the dishwasher); and on Saturdays andContinue reading “My First Thanksgiving”
Arendt, the Problem of ‘The Absolute’ and Revolutionary Fascination by Antiquity
There are many, many remarkable passages in Hannah Arendt‘s On Revolution, which forms part of my reading list for this fall semester’s Political Philosophy seminar. In particular, there is a profusion of them in Chapter 5, ‘Novus Ordo Saeclorum’. Here Arendt offers an analysis of the problem of legitimacy of post-revolutionary government i.e., the problemContinue reading “Arendt, the Problem of ‘The Absolute’ and Revolutionary Fascination by Antiquity”
Corporal Punishment and the Arrested Development of the ‘Adult’
In the past couple of weeks, I have quoted at length from Erik Erikson‘s Young Man Luther. First, to draw an analogy between the development stages of humans and nations via the notion of an identity crisis, and then, to point to perhaps a similarly analogical relationship between indoctrination and addiction recovery. Today, I wantContinue reading “Corporal Punishment and the Arrested Development of the ‘Adult’”
The Sunday Evening Blues
It is almost a commonplace that Monday mornings are terrible things, hallways of the melancholy and gruesome, abiding disasters of returns to reality. The weekend over, the oppressed resident of the week must return to his normal haunts, the workplace, the company of others, the strains and oppressions of routine. This is the accepted wisdom, enshrined inContinue reading “The Sunday Evening Blues”
The ‘American’ Overseas
A few days ago, from my vantage point at the University of Luxembourg, during a week of visiting a research group on Individual and Collective Reasoning, I posted the following status update on Facebook: As an American in Europe, I am getting shit for (on this trip): Budweiser (as always), the lack of a really goodContinue reading “The ‘American’ Overseas”
Indoctrination and Recovery from Addiction
Today at lunch, a conversation about the difficulties of quitting smoking cigarettes and of persuading smokers to quit, about possible strategies for inducing smokers to leave their habit behind, and so on led quite naturally to a discussion about the nature of addiction and so-called ‘addictive personalities’ (and subsequently, a discussion of why some strategiesContinue reading “Indoctrination and Recovery from Addiction”
Happy Birthday Blog!
My blog turns one today. My first post went up on 13 November 2011 and some three hundred and twenty posts have gone up since then. I started to blog because quite simply, all too often, I’d catch myself saying, ‘Really? I don’t think so!’ or ‘Really? How interesting!’ in response to something I’d readContinue reading “Happy Birthday Blog!”
Samir Chopra 