Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

For a precise definition of bureaucracy, as opposed to a rough-and-ready I-know-it-when-I-see-it approach, I’d have to take more time to ponder than I have right now. But I don’t regard the state as essential to bureaucracy by any means; w…

I still haven’t had the chance to listen all the way through your Kafka video, so you may address this somewhere, but how would you define “bureaucracy”? I ask the question because I’m wondering whether you think of bureaucracy …

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. Here’s one of my earlier posts, in a different context, on Nozick on preventive restraint. I even cite Tyler Cowen–that’s how magnanimous I can be. https://irfankhawajaphilosopher.com/2019/10/18/nozick-state…

In reply to Irfan Khawaja. A commenter on one of my earlier posts, Eli Horowitz, drew my attention to this piece by Jason Brennan, written very early in the pandemic. I hadn’t seen it before. https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/covid-19-crisis-what…

In reply to mlyoung57. I agree with part of what you’re saying, but disagree sharply with some. So let me take this piece by piece. I agree with just about all of this: Libertarians should certainly say something like this: if I’m sick, with cov…

In reply to John Holt. Libertarians should certainly say something like this: if I’m sick, with covid or anything else, at a certain point I impose enough risk of harm on you (or perhaps am doing something that constitutes a “boundary cross…

In reply to Nathan Byrd. I re-read Will’s piece last night, and I guess I don’t see the false dichotomies that you see. I think we’d have to discuss specific pairs of passages to get clear on the issue. I don’t think Will is act…