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...
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...
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...
Racism As Self-Love
In his Discourse on the Origins of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau posits an important distinction between self-preservation (amour de soi) and self-love (amour-propre). As he...
Kant for Kids
Kant for kids? “The mind reels,” Michael Dirda says. You might as well imagine Einstein for babies. At first blush, such a project sounds...