Upon graduating from high school–confused and directionless–I considered taking on an undergraduate education in the US. I pursued the application process for as long as I could, before the financial impossibility of it all made me cease and desist. Among the majors I thought of making my own was aeronautical and aerospace engineering, and theContinue reading “RIP Neil Armstrong”
Category Archives: History
RIP Sally Ride
Like many other schoolboys in the 1980s, transfixed by the awesome sight of the space shuttle lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center, by the legend of the moon landings, and by the culturally enforced vision of the astronaut as our era’s most intrepid pioneer, I had a thing for those that went into space.Continue reading “RIP Sally Ride”
Staying Together, Fighting Together, Dying Together
In his one-volume history of the American Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom (Ballantine Books, New York, 1988), James McPherson notes how the protagonists mobilized for war: In the North as in the South, volunteer regiments retained close ties to their states. Enlisted men elected many of their officers and governors appointed the rest. CompaniesContinue reading “Staying Together, Fighting Together, Dying Together”
David Coady on the Need for an ‘Applied Epistemology’
David Coady‘s new book What To Believe Now: Applying Epistemology To Contemporary Issues (Blackwell, 2012)–by making vividly clear the importance and the significance of epistemology to politics and political life–may well be the most important and interesting book on epistemology in recent years; anyone interested in the control of the flows of information, their influence onContinue reading “David Coady on the Need for an ‘Applied Epistemology’”
Studying Political Philosophy via Revolutions (Well, Three of Them)
Today, I’m going to think out loud about the syllabus I’m designing for the coming fall semester’s seminar on Political Philosophy. (I’m conducting this rumination in a public forum in the hope of helping me finalize this pesky business; please do chime in with suggestions, critiques, bouquets, brickbats etc.) My class will meet twice aContinue reading “Studying Political Philosophy via Revolutions (Well, Three of Them)”
A Tale of Two Independence Days
Today is July 4th, Independence Day in the USA. That is some forty-one days distant from another Independence Day, August 15th, which will be celebrated in India. I have not ‘celebrated’ August 15th for many years. It meant there was a political speech being telecast live; prime ministers spoke of national achievement and sacrifice; IContinue reading “A Tale of Two Independence Days”
Wellington, Shwellington: Waterloo and Napoleon, Perfect Together
In September 2008, I visited Waterloo. I was visiting Brussels for work, and on arriving there in the morning, quickly realized that the best way to spend my first, jet-lagged day would be to travel to the site of Napoleon’s Last Stand. Armed with directions, train time-tables, a restless stomach, a camera, a thin sweatshirt,Continue reading “Wellington, Shwellington: Waterloo and Napoleon, Perfect Together”
Michelle Maltais’ Cyber-Weapon Fantasy About ‘War Without Bloodshed’
What is it about technology that makes so many, warriors and armchair-enthusiasts alike, imagine that it will make war, somehow, less bloody, less brutal, less inhumane? That never-ending and most curious of seductions is again visibly on display in Michelle Maltais’ article ‘Cyber Missiles Mean War Without Bloodshed’ (Los Angeles Times , June 2nd 2012).Continue reading “Michelle Maltais’ Cyber-Weapon Fantasy About ‘War Without Bloodshed’”
Geertz, Trilling and Fussell on the Transformation of the Moral Imagination
In ‘Found in Translation: Social History of Moral Imagination’, (from Local Knowledge: Essays in Interpretive Anthropology, Basic Books, New York, 1983, pp 44-45), Clifford Geertz writes, Whatever use the imagination productions of other peoples–predecessors, ancestors, or distant cousins–can have for our moral lives, then, it cannot be to simplify them. The image of the past (orContinue reading “Geertz, Trilling and Fussell on the Transformation of the Moral Imagination”
About Time, Mr. President
The following was intended as today’s post. It has been pre-empted by Obama’s endorsement, today, of same-sex marriage. Barack Obama will soon sit down for an interview in which he will, in all probability, attempt to explain his ‘evolving’ views on gay marriage. Perhaps he will come out strongly in favor of gay marriage. OrContinue reading “About Time, Mr. President”
Samir Chopra 