Public Philosophy

A Good Place for Philosophy?

At the beginning of the 21st century, the philosophical discourse concerning good and evil seems to be subsumed into three major areas; meta-ethics which...

A Modest Proposal for the New Year

Sober philosophical guidance about New Year’s Eve seems unsuited to a holiday marked by a champagne buzz and celebratory gunfire. But many of us...

Life Is a Lease Contract

  Growing up, I was adamantly afraid of death. I had a habit of leaving the TV on as I slept at night, so my...

Agonistic Democracy and Its Remedies

In this winter of discontent we discover that democracy contains a dark side. We should lower our expectations without giving up hope.  The president suggests...

Why Aren’t Ethicists More Ethical?

Eric Schwitzgebel, a philosopher at University of California, Riverside, and a prolific blogger, has stirred up some controversy by studying whether ethics professors are...

The Importance of Gratitude

Gratitude lubricates social relations. To say thanks is to express gladness. But gratitude is also a spiritual capacity that lightens and energizes. Some call...
New York Cityscape

A Philosophy Magazine for the City

This past summer, the Gotham Philosophical Society (GPS) posted four short essays under the masthead Phi on New York: Philosophy for the City. These...
Woman statue despair

The Humanitarian Crisis of Deaths of Despair

Last April, Princeton University economists and married partners Anne Case and  Sir Angus Deaton delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Stanford University. The title of their...

Philosophy in the Contemporary World: Hannah Arendt on Hong Kong’s Violence

Over the past summer, Hong Kong underwent one of its most pronounced political conflicts in its history. Opposition that was originally directed towards a...

The Existential Quandary of the Millennial at Disney World

This summer, a mother posted on Facebook bemoaning the childless visitors of Disney World. “DW is for CHILDREN!!!!” she wrote. “People without children need...