Viewing profile — periphrasis

From Federalist 10 "The inference to which we are brought is that the causes of faction cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effec…

> instability and violence from a too-powerful government (thus checks and balances) This is not the argument of the federalist papers. They argue for a government with powers comm…

The text of Federalist 10 shows that this is not a useful distinction in our contemporary context. Madison defines the "republican principle" as majority rule, and further defines …

> Or, if he wants to eventually become the President of the US, then that's an alternative explanation (of why he cared)? That would require a constitutional amendment in order for…

When the weather gets nice in nyc, the bike lanes fill up with people slowly meandering about the lane as they cycle one-handed, eyes glued to their cellphones. My unscientific, pu…

I don’t disagree about the artistic merit or lack thereof of most “content”. Will AI produced content be worse than 98% of what’s on Netflix? Probably not! But this will drasticall…

I was referring to the genre fiction versus literary fiction distinction, something which would be very evident if your understanding of the term wasn’t limited to the first hit of…

So literally generic content replacing art? Just tell the machine what you expect and like and then your expectations can be satisfied on-demand! Sounds like cultural oblivion and …

And because the passage of time implies progress, this will be inherently better than what came before. /s

> Happy isn't a long term state of being. It's a short term emotion like anger or sadness. Counter point: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia

This decision is correct, given all the incorrect strategic decisions he made leading up to it. The markets have clearly lost a lot of confidence in his leadership, and I would hav…

Imagine thinking securities fraud is the profession of the superior man: instead, he is merely a slave to his desires, namely greed, debasing himself in order to vainly feed the in…

You certainly can recreate something very similar in post, although that’s a bit like saying chiaroscuro lighting is achievable in charcoal, oil paint, and photography: the effect …

As an example, I recently saw Full Metal Jacket on 35mm. The last Boot Camp scene, the one in the bathroom, while unsettling in any context becomes positively haunting in 35mm. The…

I’m not sure avoiding sub vocalisation is an advantage unless your only priority is speed. If you’re reading poetry or rhetorical writing, i.e. a speech, and if you’re neither sub …

> Achilles' flaw is that he is driven entirely by Thumos, far beyond what is appropriate. I disagree completely. If it was beyond what was appropriate, much of the meaning of the p…

The point is that Aristotle's views about Oedipus both misread Sophocles' text and fail to generalize across the literary corpus Aristotle was analyzing. Achilles is the quintessen…

He classifies it as epic poetry, although I don't recall off hand the details of discussion of Achilles, if there even was any. But the Iliad is most certainly a tragedy in its dra…

The "tragic flaw" is a more useful frame for analysis of subsequent Western tragedy, which was obviously heavily influenced by Aristotle's Poetics. However, Aristotle's analysis of…

Correct, in that as the play opens he has already unknowingly done the things that once revealed will destroy him, which were all the workings of the prophecy. However, in the acti…

It makes it less surprising that the social impact of the internet has so curdled in the last decade, doesn’t it?

Great article, although I would quibble with the reference to the “tragic flaw”. What is Oedipus’ tragic flaw? That he’s smart and inquisitive? That he won’t rest until he learns t…

> to catapult their careers ahead. What is the value of one’s career? To make more money? Why is it smart to devote so much effort to moving up when you’ll be dead and your work co…

Rural areas account for 14% of the US population. Why should they have veto power over the urban planning and transportation policy in metro areas? And I’m sorry you feel that the …

? Madison et al. are quite explicit that non-proportional representation in the Senate was a deeply regrettable compromise that could potentially create extraordinary difficulties …