Detail, Santi di Tito, Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, ca. 1550.

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I had been aware for some time of the phrase “the engineer’s fallacy,” but unaware of its provenance and exact definition. I struck lucky on the ‘net, because this gentleman claims to have invented the phrase, and this short piece repays inspection. 

Mr. Kelly’s definition of the Engineer’s Fallacy is pleasingly simple: (more…)

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Part 2 of 4

Conventional vs. Postconventional Morals

Europeans will never become tribal and collectivist in the manner and degree of non-Europeans. Having an individual identity, an awareness of one’s inner being, that one’s actions can be causally dependent on one’s free will rather than on preceding events, (more…)

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Part 3 of 3

“You’ll hang higher than Haman!”

Today’s Mad Men, though set in the same era as Advise and Consent, portrays a very different world — in fact, an inversion. (more…)

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Part 2 of 3

“Here Punch does a mean trick, very unworthy of his Satanic character. (more…)