Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes — The First Man Honest Enough to Say What Power Really Is
Most philosophers dress up power. They give it noble clothes — natural law, divine right,…
The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville — The Con Is the Country
Every April Fools’ Day, a stranger boards a Mississippi steamboat. He changes his face, his…
The Religions of the Oppressed by Vittorio Lanternari — When the Powerless Invent Their Own God
Desperation is the mother of theology. That’s what I kept thinking as I worked through…
The Old Régime and the French Revolution by Alexis de Tocqueville — The Revolution That Already Happened
Revolutions don’t begin with the first shot. They begin long before anyone picks up a…
Descartes’ Error by Antonio Damasio — The Body Was Never Separate from the Mind
A review of Antonio Damasio’s Descartes’ Error — the neuroscience book that dismantled 350 years of mind-body dualism and proved emotion is the engine of reason.
God and Golem, Inc. by Norbert Wiener — When the Father of Cybernetics Warned Us About Playing God
Norbert Wiener’s 1964 God and Golem, Inc. warned us about machines that learn, reproduce, and create. Sixty years later, the warning reads like a prophecy we ignored.
