Striking a Balance: Reconciling Democratic Citizenship and Epistemic Agency
Pick any recent op-ed lamenting the demise of contemporary democracy and you will most likely read claims about how a toxic combination of widespread...
A Call to Public Scholars During Turbulent Times
In Race Matters, Cornel West anticipates a dilemma that continues to shape American intellectual life. He observes that the massive growth of the Academy...
Black Boxes, Clear Duties: Owning AI Risk When the Guardrails Are Gone
As AI adoption accelerates, the consequences—intended and not—are becoming harder to ignore. From biased algorithms to opaque decision-making and chatbot misinformation, companies are increasingly...
The Shock of the Old: The Epistemic Challenge of Personal Transformation
“You’ll get over it.” “You’ll find someone else.” “Plenty more fish in the sea.”
This is advice frequently given to someone going through a crushing...
Palestinian Territorial Rights (and the One-State Solution)
The events of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza are the subject of strong media attention, which is surely important. Yet...
Ordinary Monsters in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
In 2005, when Star Wars and Philosophy was published, one of the highlights was a chapter by Richard Dees, “Moral Ambiguity in a Black-and-White...
Leonine Chameleons: Relativism and Fascism
You have probably lost track of the number of articles about people who have jettisoned family members over contradictory and reprehensible political views. How...
Neither One, nor Two. Philosophy of Pregnancy
When I became pregnant for the first time, I wasn't expecting such an intense bodily experience. My body had never been so heavy, tired,...
Historical Models and Representative Democracy
Can classical forms of republicanism provide instructive models for modern democratic thought and practice? Many philosophers have been skeptical. In Federalist 10 (1787), James...
Cyber-Intimacies: Emotional Harms, Sexual Liberation, and Education in the Digital Age
Thanks to Madelyn Brunnengraeber and Aidan Graves at UC Santa Cruz for their help with this hybrid research project.
Emerging technology has permeated our...