"A Rational Life"

A Discussion of the Peculiar Consequences of Individuals Living in Groups

"Life is of no value but as it brings us gratifications. Among the most valuable of these is rational society. It informs the mind, sweetens the temper, cheers our spirits, and promotes health. "

- Thomas Jefferson, 1784, in a letter to Madison

I recently retired from a career in engineering, teaching, and dabbling with computers. For the first time in my life I now have the time to ponder some of the social and philosophical issues that have always been of great interest to me but, until now, could not be addressed. I am interested in correspondence with others who have similar interests.

I have posted a few of my essays here and, in some cases, I have provided links to various sites on the Internet where others are located. If you have any difficulty in retrieving these essays not at this site, let me know by email and I will send you a copy by email or ftp.

To see recent changes, additions, etc., go to: So, What's New?

What this Site is About:

• Do we live in a Diabolical Universe? The Social Dilemmas

  (Collective Action, Free-riding, Game Theory, Games & Puzzles, Prisoner's Dilemma, Public Choice, Public Goods, Rational Choice, Social Choice, Rent-Seeking, Social Dilemma Theory, Tragedy of the Commons, Volunteer's Paradox, Voter's Paradox)

• Other Dilemmas and Paradoxes

  (Voting Paradox, Prisoner's Dilemma, Newcomb's Paradox, The Unexpected Execution Paradox, Vagueness and Ambiguity Dilemmas)

• Politics or The Art of Manipulating the Masses for Fun and Profit

  (Simple Theory of Politics STOP, Helplessness of the Individual, Control by Memes, Government Abuse, The Drug War, Forfeiture Reform, The Necessity of Government, The Tax and Spend Fiasco, Political Realities, Public Choice, Political Philosophy), The Welfare State

• Whatever Happened to Common Sense?

  (A meme driven society, Equality, Social Behavior, Common Sense, Using Logic, Morality, Love and Sex, The Mind)

• Quotations, Humor, Satire, Etc.

  (Quotations, Humor and Wit by Bob Black, P. J. O'Rourke, H. L. Mencken and others)

Search Function! Search WWW Search IMHO . . . I have added this much needed search function. Please try it!

Leon's Political Almanac Check out my Calendar and "Today in Political History" page, created for your enjoyment and enlightenment. For each day of the year, the almanac lists the major political events that occurred on that day!

Archive of my Essays

Index of Keywords:

Altruism, Ambiguity, (Social) Behavior, Collective Action, Common Good, Cognitive Process, Common Sense, Equality, Ethics, Freeriders, Game Theory, Games and Puzzles, Groups and Individuals, (My) Hobbies, Logic, Memes, Morals, Mind, Music, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Poverty and Welfare, "Prisoners' Dilemma", Public Choice, Public Goods, Quotations, Rationality, Rent-seeking, Satire, Selfishness, Social Choice, Social Dilemmas, Thinking, Trust, Vagueness, "Voter's Paradox"

Links to Other Useful and/or Interesting Web Sites:

• Here is an amazing site: MeaningS of Life! Who does not want to know the answer to that implied question? This site covers the issue fairly, presenting both the religious and scientific views. Neither of which has a real satisfying answer, of course. And if that does not satisfy you, then try this one; "Why anything? Why this?" (purchase required), by Derek Parfit, my favorite philosopher.
• An outstanding news and information source on Politics and other aspects of life is the Freedom's Phoenix site operated by Ernest Hancock. What is particularly impressive is that he allows me to post some of my ramblings there :-)
• A site for liberty run by ordinary folks, "LibertyGuys". I quote; "We're not conservatives, we're not college professors, we're not lawyers and we're not hippies. We're just regular ol' US citizens who recognize the need to expand the scope of libertarian thought . . ." My kind of people!
• The Lady Liberty's Constitution Clearinghouse is an outstanding site for political information with a libertarian slant (which is to say, truthful). Historical documents as well as current news are presented along with lots of high quality links.
• Rational Review, "The premier libertarian web journal of politics and culture", is, IMHO, the best source for current political articles with a rational (AKA, "libertarian") slant. It is also the best source for current political news, which can be delivered to your email front door step every day if you so chose.
• "From 1900 to 1987, 170,000,000 people were murdered by government. This incredible catastrophic democide (over four times the number of combat deaths in all the international and domestic wars fought over the same period) was carried out by officials or agents acting under government authority.", quoted from R. J. Rummel. The record of "democide" is documented at his site, Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War.
• The most comprehensive and substantive site yet for Philosophy resources: Peter King's "This & That".
• Richard Jensen's " Guide to Political Research On-Line" is a tremendous list of resources in the fields of Economics, Politics, Law, History, Philosophy, Freedom. It will take you awhile to go through all these high quality links!
• Pat Gunning's Democracy Home Page This site includes a generous and outstanding contribution to the field of Public Choice Theory. Dr. Gunning has placed -- on line -- a complete book on the subject!
• FRANZ KIEKEBEN has provided us with a site, "Philosophy and Paradoxes", that is the most extensive listing on those subjects that I know of -- both of which are of great interest to me! I especially like is list of Philosophy Links: "Sites with Online Papers".[grin]
• A comprehensive list of links related to Ethics at the Ethical Spectacle
• You must read some of Mr. Lizards stuff. Some would call him a curmudgeon, I would call him an honest man (reptile?).
• A list of philosophical resources, with some "downhome" contributions of their own, is to be found at Duane & Eva's Old Kentucky Home Page. Of particular interest is Duane's Philosophy Discussion area where you can find an active discussion with considerable input from me and others.
• An excellent collection of personal philosophical essays by Peter Landry is online at the BluPete site. The quality of his work serves as an inspiration for me to try harder!
• William Markiewicz's informative and creative site, The Vagabond.
• Comprehensive sources of libertarian and rational politics, The Cato Institute and Reason Magazine.
• Here is a link to SOSIG (Now closed but archived), an outstanding site that covers the social sciences and provides a handy search feature.

HONORS and AWARDS

Now listed on The Big Eye, , a great compilation of interesting links!

Selected for the Freedom Home Page of the Week award for the week of Feb. 1-7, 1998!

Suggestions, comments, "go to hells", etc. may be forwarded to me by email directed to leonf@perspicuity.net.

©1997-2006