Philosophical Space

Twentieth-century logician Kurt Gödel, a close friend of Albert Einstein, devised this proof of God's existence in the 1940s but never published it. It was discovered among his papers after his death. I discuss a revised and improved version developed by C. Anthony Anderson.

An overview of the history of philosophy from Plato to the twentieth century. Lecture 1 of a seminar on Analytic Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.

When if ever is it acceptable to misrepresent something: what you'll do, what you'll pay, material facts, or your own emotional states?

The psychological and other factors that complicate cost-benefit analysis

The ethics of bluffing in bargaining contexts, with reference to Albert Z. Carr and Thomas Schelling

Mikhail Valdman and Immaniel Kant on wrongful exploitation

The ethics of price discrimination—charging different people different prices for the same product

Kantian ethics as an ethics of organizations: practical applications and problems

Lisa Newton's approach to virtues, roles, uncertainty, and conflict resolution

Robert C. Solomon outlines six concepts central to an adequate business ethics

Matt Zwolinski's investigation of the ethics of price increases in the wake of emergencies

Solomon's Aristoptelian approach to business ethics, based on virtues and roles

Daryl Koehn and Barry Wilbratte's argument against price gouging from the perspective of Thomas Aquinas

Jeremy Snyder's Kantian Argument against Price Gouging

Norms governing market pricing relationships in Relationship Regulation Theory

Definitions of price gouging from Matt Zwolinski and others

Norms governing equality matching relationships in Relationship Regulation Theory

Christopher McMahon's analysis of the implicit morality of the market

Norms governing communal sharing relationships according to Relationship Regulation Theory

Conditions under which competitive equilibria are Pareto-optimal

Adam Smith on why you can't reliably do better than the free market

Why free enterprise encourages virtue and discourages vice

The tragedy of the commons, stag hunts, and low-trust societies

Why pursuing your own self-interest leads you to contribute as much as possible to the community

Definitions of free enterprise and capitalism