Where do you normally go to get criticized?
Here's a pretty old post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 16 years ago, in 2008, on the World Wide Web.
Some of y’all may have already heard through Roderick; but for those of you who haven’t, I will be in Philadelphia from today through (the afternoon of) the 30th of December. I hope to spend some time checking out some local attractions, but my immediate purpose in being here is to take part in the Molinari Society’s joint Author Meets Critics session for Crispin Sartwell’s Against the State and the Anarchism/Minarchism anthology from Ashgate. In virtue of my essay in the anthology I’ll be among the Authors. The Critics I’ll be Meeting are Jennifer McKitrick, Christopher Morris, and Nicole Hassoun. The session will be at the Philadelphia Marriot downtown (1201 Market St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) on Monday, 29 December, from 1:30 – 4:30pm. Here’s the current lineup, courtesy of Roderick:
GIX-3. Monday, 29 December 2008, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Molinari Society symposium: Authors Meet Critics:
Crispin Sartwell’s Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory and
Roderick T. Long and Tibor R. Machan, eds., Anarchism/Minarchism: Is a Government Part of a Free Country?
Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market Street, Room TBAChair: Carrie-Ann Biondi (Marymount Manhattan College)
Critics:
- Jennifer McKitrick (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
- Christopher Morris (University of Maryland)
- Nicole Hassoun (Carnegie Mellon University)
Authors:
- John Hasnas (Georgetown University)
- Charles Johnson (Molinari Institute)
- Roderick T. Long (Auburn University)
- Jan Narveson (University of Waterloo-Canada)
- Crispin Sartwell (Dickinson College)
- William Thomas (Atlas Society)
The session will consist of three essays from the Critics offering critical responses to the books, followed by short replies from the Authors, and a discussion and Q&A to follow. Nicole Hassoun has diligently sent in her critical essay and Jan Narveson has sent in such replies as he’s been able to prepare, given what’s been sent to him (with some bonus remarks about Crispin Sartwell’s book); what the rest of us will be saying is, I guess, a mystery only to be revealed in the fullness of time. But I’m looking forward to hearing the critical engagement with the work we’ve done, and to joining in on the discussion.
The APA Eastern Division has refused to give out any information about room assignments in the materials you can get without forking over a registration fee — for evil’s sake, of course — so I won’t know where inside the Marriot we’ll be until tomorrowish. But as soon as I do know, I’ll let you know.
Anyway, come on down if you can; it’d be great to see you there. Or, even if you can’t, if you happen to be in the area, drop me a line; I’ll be around.
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Give ’em hell, Charles!
Charles,
I might take a train the day of. It’s apparently only two hours or so away on Amtrak. I am wondering whether they take their membership policy seriously.
There seems to be a split between theory and practice in Nicole’s essay. She doesn’t entirely dismiss a near anarchist or anarchistic notion of absolute negative freedom, but she argues that practical realism may demand a violation of rights. She correctly notes that things like life and happiness matters too, but an “individualist” theory of absolute rights that denounces or fails to achieve such obvious requirements of healthy human existence is no worthwhile one.
The meeting room is hard to find even if you know the name of it. Instructions here.
Discussed at radgeek.com /#
Rad Geek People’s Daily 2008-12-28 – Shameless Self-promotion Sunday #32:
Thanks! Roderick. I’ll see you there — barring an act of “God” or something.
It was nice seeing you at the meeting. I am going to write Nicole Hassoun a substantive email about her work. I sense that she is one of the “Progressives” or “left-liberals” or whatever I can have a good dialogue with. I’ll send you my writing to her.