SPOTLIGHT

  • The African Union and its Reactions to Three Types of Coups in Guinea, Mali, and Chad

    Three different types of coups have occurred in Guinea, Mali, and Chad, and they are worth identifying. These are opportunistic, oligarchic, and sultanistic coups. Opportunistic in the case of Guinea, oligarchic in the case of Mali, and sultanistic in the case of Chad. All of the coups were staged as military takeovers of civilian government, but in different contexts.  

  • Bard vs. Bullet

    Good news for a change—but bad news, as usual. According to the Associated Press (July 31), there’s a shortage of ammunition all over the United States, as major manufacturers are unable to keep up with high demand. Only the military is unaffected, since the Army supplies its own ammo, for all branches of the armed forces.

  • The Critical Importance of Wildlife Conservation

    Many scientists believe that we are in the midst of a 6th mass extinction, one that is almost entirely caused by human involvement. While this is a grim reality, it also means that we have the power to do something to stop the future loss of species. From purchasing a shark bracelet that helps fund marine conservation to eco-friendly shoes, there are endless ways to make conscious purchases that make a big difference. 

  • The Abortion Wars

    The Texas law is an abomination, not just because it violates women's rights, but because the egregious manner in which it does so also betrays any who might be troubled by abortion on truly moral grounds. It is a law rooted in culture war politics, not moral concerns, and its effect will be the promotion of a more sinister and corrupt society, not a more morally sensitive one. And yet it is just such moral sensitivity that we require if we are going to caringly address abortion and other morally relevant issues.

  • African American Existentialism: DuBois, Locke, Thurman, and King

    Race today is often presented as a social construct. But social constructions, as Black people know all too well, can create real existential crises. Philosophers of the Black Experience writing during the Modern Era of the African American Freedom Struggle (1896-1975) engaged questions of freedom, existence, and the struggles associated with the experiences of being Black in America.

  • Surviving the City of Arts

    How do we teach humanities to STEM students in a time of increasing suspicion about the goodness of technology?

THEORY

Progress and its Implications

By |July 20th, 2016|9 Comments

How do we determine whether our society is getting better or worse? Have we experienced progress or regress in the last 100 years? 1000 years? Ever? Any claim that something has progressed requires a value judgment. Since progress denotes something good we must have some notion of what is good (or ‘the good’), however vague, in order to defend our claim.

Locke and the Right to (Acquire) Property: On the Philosophical Basis of Progressive Liberalism

By |July 14th, 2016|10 Comments

Do the rich pay their fair share in taxes? What is a “fair share”? Do governments have the right to tax some in order to provide services for others, or is this just theft? To answer these current political questions we must examine the philosophical underpinnings of liberalism, both in its classical form, as articulated by John Locke, and in its contemporary “progressive" form.

PRACTICE

Life is More Binary than Fiction: A Writer Reflects on Political Polarization

By |January 17th, 2017|0 Comments

We are living in the Fruit Loops vs. Cheerios Political System. Each Fruit Loop represents a position on an issue, and each Cheerio its “opposite.” If you are on Team Fruit Loop, you MUST accept and agree and support all Fruit Loops, likewise with Team Cheerio. This is a binary system. This is bullshit. We would never allow such simple sorting for fictional characters, so why is it being pushed in reality?

JUSTICE

ARTS & LETTERS