Richard Rorty, Cancel Culture, Political Fallibilism, and Achieving Our Country
Richard Rorty’s 1998 book Achieving Our Country enjoyed a burst of attention after the 2016 elections. As law professor Lisa Kerr first observed, Rorty...
Kierkegaard’s Silence on Slavery
Kierkegaard never mentions slavery. Or almost never. The subject gets two pages in a corpus that spans thousands. This silence is surprising given how...
What Is Policing For?
In the weeks since police officers killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, mass uprisings—and a violent, uncompromising response from police departments across the country—have...
Doctors Need to Step Back from the Movement to Defund the Police
On June 6, 2020, protesters in Dallas, Texas, rally against police violence. (by Matthew T Rader, MatthewTRader.com, License CC-BY-SA)
Since the end of May, scholars, doctors, and...
Don’t Stand With Me
The global fury unleashed against police brutality and anti-Black racism in the United States continues unabated. As poet Gil Scott-Heron once said, “America is...
After The Pandemic
As author of this piece and incoming editor-in-chief of the APA Blog, I regret the significant pain this piece caused, and especially the former...
The Lives that Matter in the Prevailing Social Order
George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department has ignited nationwide protests against police violence. Within these protests, the movement for...
Crisis, COVID-19, and Democracy
Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis are both provoked by natural phenomena, the dangers they present are political. The size, scope, and...
The Problem of Protesting at People’s Homes
Protesters have targeted the private homes of public officials. This is dangerous and misguided. It risks violence and misunderstands political power and political protest.
In...
Coronavirus and Re-enchanting Nature
Ancient Thebes, Greece: An epidemic disease is ravaging the city. Its king, Oedipus, has sent his brother Creon to the oracle of Delphi in...