Tag: John Locke
When I tell people I got my M.D. and then left medicine to become a fiction writer, they often say, “That was brave.” This is, I think, another way of saying, “You are obviously insane.” It’s perhaps particularly hard to walk away from medicine as a Jew. In Jewish families going back to Maimonides and … Read More
In Lincoln-Douglas-style debates in high school, Locke and Rousseau used to be paired off against each other; Locke would be called in against some proposition meant to protect the public good, but deemed by the ‘negative’ side incompatible with vital individual liberties; and Rousseau would be called upon by the ‘affirmative’ side in support of … Read More
Hobbes reminds me, in a good way, of the ape who learned to act like a human being in Kafka’s hilarious short story, “A Report to an Academy.” The Kafka story begins:
Honored members of the Academy! You have done me the honor of inviting me to give your Academy an account of the life I … Read More