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Madeleine Cosman, RIP:
March 17, 2006:
A TRA contributor and Renaissance woman, Dr. Madeleine Cosman, Esq., recently died at the age of 68 from the dread disease, scleroderma. Dr. Edward Hudgins commemorates her life and accomplishments in this brief article. We at TRA deeply regret Dr. Cosman's death-- another illustration of the horrendous harms human mortality wreaks. Death must be fought and defeated, lest we keep losing such excellent people!

Argumentation

Against the State:
March 14, 2006:
In this brief essay, Dr. Robert P. Murphy argues that the State is not only an evil, but an unnecessary one at that. He proposes free-market provision of legal and defense services.

An Outline and Defense of a Properly Limited Government:
March 14, 2006:
G. Stolyarov II responds to Dr. Murphy's critique of the State by defending a tax-free, non-coercive, limited government immune to Dr. Murphy's arguments. Mr. Stolyarov elaborates on his "Fundamentals of Laissez-Faire Meritocracy" and advocates a new way to approach voting-- investmentocracy-- as well as the existence of a Protectorate branch of government designed to overrule and veto rights-violating legislation.

Economics

Is There a Libertarian Case Against Free Trade?:
March 14, 2006:
Dr. Robert P. Murphy responds to a recent case made by Paul Craig Roberts against globalization and free trade. He dispels the fallacies Roberts propagates and assures fellow libertarians that free trade has numerous rational economic arguments in its favor.

Utility Functions or Value Scales?: Bryan Caplan's Debate with Austrian Economists:
March 14, 2006:
G. Stolyarov II describes Bryan Caplan's objection to Austrian economists' rejection of the use of utility functions in economic analysis. Then, Mr. Stolyarov summarizes the Austrian response to Caplan's critique of their method.

The Consistency of Mises's Formulation of the Socialist Calculation Problem:
March 14, 2006:
G. Stolyarov II defends Ludwig von Mises's famous insight that economic calculation is impossible under socialism from allegations by Bryan Caplan that this idea is incompatible with Mises's understanding of the purely qualitative nature of economic law. 

Literary Analysis

Penance on the Edge of a Blade: The Debunking of the False Dichotomy between Integrity and Survival in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:
March 14, 2006:
G. Stolyarov II analyzes the great Medieval English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This work has lessons to teach friends of reason, liberty, and individualism in our time-- as it shows that there is no necessary conflict between honor and life, integrity and survival. By being honest and honoring one's contracts, one always acts in the interests of one's own life.

What Candide Learns and Pococurante Does Not: Voltaire's Insistence on the Importance of Rational Expectations to Human Flourishing:
March 14, 2006:
Voltaire's masterwork, Candide, inspires fresh thoughts still. G. Stolyarov II writes of one of the lessons Voltaire seeks to teach his readers: to reject perfectionism as a route toward happiness and instead to use reason to  match one's standards for oneself and reality with one's capacity to actualize them.

Politics

Does Mental Illness Exist?:
March 14, 2006:
Lawrence Stevens, J.D., presents overwhelming evidence that there are no known biological causes for the fenomenon described as "mental illness." In fact, "mental illness" is a categorization describing attitudes and behaviors that the dominant paradigm in a given society disapproves of. It is not a constructive categorization, but rather inhibits genuine understanding of social problems.

Abortion, Authority, and Responsibility:
March 17, 2006:
Selwyn Duke discusses a recent lawsuit filed by the National Center for Men which demands that the feminist pro-abortion establishment confront the full consistency of its own ideas about who should hold authority and responsibility in the abortion decision. If a man who has partaken in the conception of the child has zero authority about whether or not to abort it, why should he have 50% of the responsibility for paying child support if the child is born? Mr. Duke uses this flaw in the pro-abortionist position as well as the immorality of killing a child against its own will to argue against the practice of abortion.

"I frame no hypotheses."

~ Sir Isaac Newton