by Annalee Newitz. We've known for a long time that people will do terrible things under orders—like hurt strangers. But why are we so easily persuaded to do things we wouldn't otherwise choose, even when nobody is holding guns to our heads? A new scientific experiment sheds light on this ancient ethical question. University College London neuroscientist ... MORE
She understood the root of money is you. Perhaps my favorite character in all of literature is Ayn Rand’s Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastián d’Anconia from her novel Atlas Shrugged. The descendant of long line of industrialists and sole heir to his family’s fortune, Francisco flouts the idea that money destroys by working to be worthy of his ... MORE
by Trevor Timm. When it comes to classified information, some leaks are more equal than others. If you are a whistleblower like Edward Snowden, who tells the press about illegal, immoral or embarrassing government actions, you will face jail time. But it’s often another story for US government officials leaking information for their own ... MORE
A saga of corrupted profits. In the most fundamental sense we are all, with each of our actions, always and invariably profit-seeking entrepreneurs. Whenever we act, we employ some physical means (things valued as goods) — at a minimum our body and its standing room, but in most cases also various other, “external” things — so as to divert ... MORE
Using government power to limit political speech. "Special interests are planning and running millions of dollars" in ads, warns President Barack Obama. But despite their "benign-sounding names," adds Democratic operative David Axelrod, some of them are "front groups for foreign-controlled companies." Together, they are trying to ... MORE
by Boyd Richard Boyd. Bad political ideas come from bad ethical ideas, which are originally spread by the words of bad philosophers. Progressives and their Utopian counterparts throughout history have pushed a corrupt and inverted morality on the world, causing man to act as his own destroyer. It is from an ... MORE
Principles in the age of the pragmatist. Something not often noted in the discussion of rape across the globe is that in an age that prizes pragmatism
as opposed to firm principles of conduct, even rape can be excused
based on the expected benefit to the rapist versus injury to the victim. If one doesn't care about the basic principle of consent, ... MORE