Lysander Spooner was an American individualist anarchist, entrepreneur, political philosopher, abolitionist, supporter of the labour movement, and legal theorist of the nineteenth century. Here he gives his views on the role of Governments in the private lives of their citizens [chương_files]
“(T)he past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.” Published originally as “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” this is not so much a work of sober political analysis; rather it can be summed up as a rhapsodic manifesto on behalf of the Individual. Socialism having deployed technology to liberate the whole of humanity from soul-destroying labour, the State obligingly withers away to allow the free development of a joyful, anarchic hedonism… “Is this Utopian? A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.” Far from abandoning the epigram in favour of the slogan, Wilde wittily assails several of his favourite targets: the misguided purveyors of philanthropy; life-denying ascetics of various kinds; the army of the half-educated who constitute themselves the enemies of Art – and those venal popular journalists who cater to them… “Behind the barricade there may be much that is noble and heroic. But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, cant, and twaddle?” (Introduction by Martin Geeson) [chương_files]
“The most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings.” An uncannily prophetic quote from an 1890 book, Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall presents an idea that has been accepted by major corporations and governments all over the world today. People’s understanding of market behavior and how industries operate has its roots in the work done by European economists more than a century ago. Little has changed in terms of principles, though the effects of globalization and technology resulted an unmistakable impact on how business is done today. Alfred Marshall was a thought leader. He presented path breaking concepts like the principle of diminishing returns: the assumption that companies or products who taste early success in markets soon fall prey to their own limitations, thus leading to a quantifiable and predictable equilibrium of market share and pricing. He was a prize winning mathematician at Cambridge and a brilliant physics student. However a nervous breakdown while at college compelled him to shift to the study of philosophy where he was deeply attracted by the concepts of Utilitarianism as propounded by Henry Sidgwick, a famous teacher and founder of Newnham College. Marshall went on to describe Sidgwick as his “spiritual mother and father.” One of Sidgwick’s guiding principles was that no person should act so as to destroy his own happiness, a form of “ethical hedonism.” Marshall began writing Principles of Economics in 1881, part of a two volume treatise. However, it took him nearly ten years to complete […]
Sneyd-Kinnersley was an Inspector of Schools in a period when regulations were rapidly changing and access to free public education was expanding widely. He fell into the job accidentally and shares anecdotes of his years traveling around the country. – Summary by LynneT [chương_files]
This little book shows, in a short, clear, and systematic manner, how the principle of Non-Resistance, about which Tolstoy has written so much, is related to economic and political life. [chương_files]
Macht oder ökonomisches Gesetz? by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851 – 1914). Böhm-Bawerk, Mitbegründer der Österreichischen Schule der Nationalökonomie, erörtert, ob ökonomische Gesetze auch für den Staat gelten. (Zusammenfassung von redaer) Böhm-Bawerk, Macht oder ökonomisches Gesetz? Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung, Bd. XXIII (S.205–271) [chương_files]
The Communist Manifesto was conceived as an outline of the basic beliefs of the Communist movement. The authors believed that the European Powers were universally afraid of the nascent movement, and were condemning as “communist,” people or activities that did not actually conform to what the Communists believed. This Manifesto, then, became a manual for their beliefs. In it we find Marx and Engel’s rehearsal of the idea that Capital has stolen away the work of the artisan and peasant by building up factories to produce goods cheaply. The efficiency of Capital depends, then, on the wage laborers who staff the factories and how little they will accept in order to have work. This concentrates power and money in a Bourgeois class that profits from the disunity of workers (Proletarians), who only receive a subsistence wage. If workers unite in a class struggle against the bourgeois, using riot and strikes as weapons, they will eventually overthrow the bourgeois and replace them as a ruling class. Communists further believe in and lay out a system of reforms to transform into a classless, stateless society, thus distinguishing themselves from various flavors of Socialism, which would be content to have workers remain the ruling class after the revolution. The Manifesto caused a huge amount of discussion for its support for a forcible overthrow of the existing politics and society. [chương_files]
A complete survey of the Independent Boise School District, Boise, Idaho was conducted over two weeks, with the purpose to study and observe the schools in operation, including the systems of financing and filing educational records. Facts are presented alongside conclusions and recommendations to be understood the general public as to the importance of educational enterprise. – Summary by Leon Harvey [chương_files]
A book for students interested in finding out how many things about the English language have changed, and how many have weathered the test of time. – Summary by jasonb [chương_files]
These are lectures on the education system of Nietzsche’s day. He states that “This book is intended for calm readers, for those who have not yet been drawn into the mad headlong rush of our hurry-scurrying age, and who do not experience any idolatrous delight in throwing themselves beneath its chariot-wheels. It is for those, therefore, who … ‘still have time.’ Without any qualms of conscience they may improve the most fruitful and vigorous hours of their day in meditating on the future of our education.” Nietzsche passionately calls for “Ye contemplative ones who cannot, with hasty glances, turn your eyes swiftly from one surface to another! Ye lofty thinkers, of whom Aristotle said that ye wander through life vacillating and inactive so long as no great honour or glorious Cause calleth you to deeds! It is you I summon! Refrain this once from seeking refuge in your lairs of solitude and dark misgivings. Bethink you that this book was framed to be your herald. When ye shall go forth to battle in your full panoply, who among you will not rejoice in looking back upon the herald who rallied you?” – Summary by jvanstan [chương_files]
Copyright © 2024 | FreeAudible
