Becoming Real: Barbie and the Crisis of Existential Identity
At the beginning of the 2023 blockbuster hit, Barbie, the narrator makes two claims: “All of these women are Barbie and Barbie is all...
Kant’s Empowering Conception of Humanity
Kant’s account of evil makes three key claims with major consequences for moral agency and responsibility. First, the distinction between good and evil lies...
Affective Time Travel: Remembering Feelings of Past Life Phases
Memory is more than a simple recollection of particular past events; it is often a gateway to the feelings and moods that were prevalent...
The Falepili Union, Climate Change, and Self-Determination
In November 2023, Australia and Tuvalu signed the Falepili Union treaty, a historic agreement that has been described as the first “climate migration” visa...
Bordering on the Truth: A Northern Irish Case Study
If you read about a place called Newry, it will tell you that it is a city just on the edge of Northern Ireland’s...
Are Elections Enough? Democracy and Collective Power
The association of democracy with elections is relatively recent. In ancient Athens, three things distinguished democracy from other regimes: all citizens having a right...
Why Egalitarian Philosophers (and the Rest of Us) Should Be More Concerned About Roads
Traffic is trivial. Rules of the road are a basic necessity for a well-functioning society, but their design is largely a technical matter of...
Can We Blame Rioters?
Political riots raise important moral questions. When we see or hear about a riot, we are prompted to consider whether the cause is just...
Columbia University’s Self-destruction
In April, I wrote a plea for the Columbia University leadership not to appease the Trump administration by giving in to its demands for...
Hope, Argos, and Donna
The Tangier smoke cat catches a piece of meat in his front paws like a monkey…my little monkey beast. The white cat rubs his...