Awakening from reason’s sleep
Here is the text (plus or minus a few ad libs) of a lecture delivered at the Roman Forum conference in Gardone, Italy, on July 3, 2008.
Lectures
Material presented as lecture but not put in print.
Reason gone mad
I gave a talk about reason, scientism and liberalism at a recent conference put on by the Roman Forum. Here’s a *.pdf of the talk’s written form.
American liberalism and the prospects for American reconstruction
Here’s a talk I gave on June 2, 2007 as a member of a panel at the annual meeting of the Academy of Philosophy and Letters (a new organization for conservative scholars):
… More ...We’ve all been talking today about where we are and what to do about it. I’ve been asked to sketch those issues with
The laws of the city
(An outline of a talk given at Montfort Academy, Katonah, New York, on April 2, 2005)
WHAT ARE THE FEATURES THAT MAKE A CITY?
Closeness and permanence.
Complexity.
Common background and future.
Public life.
Complete society.
Aristotle: man is a zoon politikon.
WHAT IS LAW?
How are things set up from the standpoint of … More ...
Breaking the shackles of feminism
Boldly venturing into the belly of the beast, I went to Canada last week and gave a talk on “sexism” at a conference on Breaking the Shackles: The Global Burden of Oppression at Upper Canada College in Toronto (“college” means “high school” in this case). In the event the visit turned out perfectly pleasant. The … More ...
Liberalism — What and Why?
Delivered April 7, 2001 at the St. Justin Martyr House of Studies in Shohola, Pennsylvania
I. Introduction
Today we will be discussing liberalism, which is a subject we all know something about. It is so much around us that it is difficult to get perspective on it and see what it is. That can make … More ...
Liberalism: What, Whence and Whither?
A Lecture by James Kalb
Presented at a Telos Conference, May 20, 2001
Today I will present a very general perspective on liberalism: what it is, where it comes from, where it might go.
I’m a lawyer, and after preparing my remarks I realized that they took a lawyer’s point of view. What I had … More ...