Philosophy Is Being Hijacked by Woke Twitter Mobs Van Leeuwen and Herschbach wrote a statement on Facebook reiterating that the review process had been carried out properly, and declaring, “Efforts to silence unwelcome opinion… are doing a disservice to the community.” Nathan Cofnas 21 Oct 2020 · 6 min read
COVID-19 Betrays America’s Curdled Cult of Optimism A philosophy of optimism was central to the flourishing of the American project. But it’s also useful to consider whether insisting that success and greatness lie around every corner can become a maladaptive response to problems that are complex and brutal. Daphne Merkin 27 Apr 2020 · 5 min read
My Former Life as a Radical They believe in the perfectibility of man in their own image: a combination of unscrupulous optimism and narcissism. Gerfried Ambrosch 11 Feb 2020 · 11 min read
The Futility of Guilt-Based Advocacy Your accountability is just your portion of the mob’s. Steven D. Hales 23 Nov 2019 · 10 min read
Religious Progressivism It is not only religious “zealots” who get obsessed about good and evil. All human beings do. Colin Turfus 20 Nov 2019 · 7 min read
Beyond the Hypatia Affair: Philosophers Blocking the Way of Inquiry If some faction of philosophers are able to declare an issue decided—over screams of dissent from other philosophers—then we can expect others to follow the same playbook. Spencer Case 6 Sep 2019 · 12 min read
Is Liberal Immigration Anti-Democratic?—A Reply to Gadi Taub Immigration restrictions, like tariffs and other restrictions on trade, affect the activities of citizens above all. Sam Kiss 5 Aug 2019 · 12 min read
The Role of Politics in Academic Philosophy Clearly it is possible to do politics in philosophy without doing political philosophy. Oliver Traldi 26 Jul 2019 · 6 min read
Against Scientism—A Rejoinder to Bo and Ben Winegard Science is not the only form of knowledge. There are valid non-scientific ways of approaching reality. Aaron Neil 8 May 2019 · 8 min read
Why We Should Read Heidegger The ascendancy of technical reason and instrumentalization, Heidegger thought, generated highly inauthentic individuals who were unable to live meaningful lives. Matt McManus 4 May 2019 · 11 min read
The Dearth of Conservatives in Academic Philosophy Without a healthy mix of a conservative and liberal center, the poles of left and right are much more likely to tilt toward the extremes. Tristan Rogers 23 Apr 2019 · 8 min read
Secular Humanism is Not a Religion Staddon makes an oddly tendentious argument for the religious character of secular humanism. Jerry A. Coyne 22 Apr 2019 · 9 min read
Why We Should Read Nietzsche My sense is that Nietzsche is best understood as a radical individualist; one who insists passionately that our duty in life is to become what we are. But what kind of person is that? Matt McManus 22 Apr 2019 · 11 min read
The Inevitable Clash of Politicians and Bureaucrats Western States have, over the past 150 years, created bureaucracies without which much of what we all tend to take for granted would not work—or at least during a transitional period of uncertain length, would not work as smoothly and efficiently as we are used to. Jakob Heidbrink 19 Apr 2019 · 8 min read
Has the Postmodern Revolution Come Full Circle? This new orthodoxy arrogates to itself divine authority to make truth claims on the basis of consistency with its asserted principles, and these are held to be immune to disproof or falsification by reason or evidence. Colin Turfus 15 Apr 2019 · 7 min read