Relocated to Substack
Dear Readers, Whitherthewest has relocated to substack as it a much more robust environment for sharing, commenting, and learning. Please join me there to continue the adventure.
Whither the West?
Science, history, economics, progress, and how they all fit together
Latest posts
The War That Wasn’t: Christianity, Science, and the Making of the Western World
The relationship between Christianity is far richer than the simple story many of us have been told. This article takes a deep look at how religion, science, institutions and humans have interacted to shape the modern world.
The Parable of the Day-old Bread
This post is based on a true story from my wife’s family. She is from southern France, and several of her family members, including a great aunt and uncle, were refugees from Spain in the broad context of the Spanish Civil War and early Francoist regime. Because of this background, they carried with them certain […]
Pillars of Sand
The fundamental shift in Western legitimacy A simple theory could explain the fundamental shift in Western politics in recent years. I propose that we are witnessing a shift in the way governments acquire and maintain legitimacy in the eyes of their populace. In determining whether governments and regulatory bodies are “legitimate”, judgements fall primarily into […]
On Aesthetic Progress
And where it is leading I have recently been contemplating the question of whether there can be said to be aesthetic (or artistic) “progress”, or whether changes from era to era are a kind of “random walk” in response to changing tastes and attitudes from generation to generation [in this post I refer primarily to […]
The Life and Death of Honor
Obituary of one of the oldest human values – I was recently reading the book version of Disney’s Mulan to my four-year-old son when he asked me what “honor” was. Although I usually pride myself on concocting kid-friendly analogies and simplifications, I truly struggled with his question and muttered something like “people thinking you’re a […]
The Murder of Brian Thompson: an applied lesson in deontology versus consequentialism
The murder of Brian Thompson is a morally and emotionally challenging event. Many people feel that some sort of justice was administered, even though the matter concerns premeditated murder. What is justice in this situation? Why has this event provoked such strange and passionate reactions? We return to a topic I wrote about recently, the […]
Countering Chinese Nationalist Talking Points
Update: please see the update note after the guide image for some additional arguments and refutations. I compiled a handy guide to some of the most common strategies and talking points by Chinese nationalists online (on forums like twitter and reddit). [Sharable image first, copy-able text follows.] This list is far from exhaustive, but should […]
Arguments for Natalism on the Left
Natalism, the belief in the need for higher birthrates, is increasingly a topic of concern for various thinkers and prognosticators (Robin Hanson, Tyler Cowen, Zvi Moskowitz, and Elon Musk among many others). However, the calls for natalist policies are almost unanimously from the political right. I would like to argue that it would behoove the […]
How Important is the “Scientific Method”?
Tyler Cowen recently posted on Marginal Revolution the question “How Important is the ‘scientific method’?” This called to mind the following paper I wrote several years ago in which I analyzed how many of the most important scientific discoveries of all time had come about from scientists who eschew “good science” and follow their hearts, […]