Appreciating the Forest from the Trees
Why do species matter? Many have instrumental value. Some, for instance, are indicator species (e.g. freshwater mussels), some are keystone species (e.g. sea otters (Enhydra lutris)),...
Recently Published Book Spotlight: Images of the Present Time
Kenneth Reinhard is Research Professor of Comparative Literature and English at UCLA and a longtime translator of the work of the French philosopher Alain...
Why we can’t resolve the scientific realism debate—and why we should believe in science...
Philosophical works about scientific realism often point to public trust in science as a key motivating consideration. The intuitive idea is that if we...
Overcoming Cognitive Bias with Algorithms
This is a revised text of a lecture given at King’s College in March 2023
The judgments of human beings can be biased; they can...
Failed experiments in sex and marriage: Dora Russell on the ‘right to sex’ for...
In the 1920s, Dora Russell, second wife of Bertrand, proclaimed that all women have a ‘right’ to sex, which she detailed in terms of...
Recently Published Book Spotlight: Philosophy and Science of Risk
Philosophy and Science of Risk is a new book written by Isabelle Peschard, Yann Benétreau-Dupin, and Christopher Wessels. Combining insights from a variety of disciplines, it...
Recently Published Book Spotlight: Thoughtful Images
Thomas Wartenberg is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Mount Holyoke College. He has edited or co-edited books on the philosophy of art, the philosophy...
AI and Social Justice: The latest technological ‘revolution’ and the Capability Approach
Face recognition to unlock our phones, navigation apps that show traffic in real-time, digital assistants that turn on lights and lock doors in our...
From Protests to Pronouns to Prisons: Understanding Why We Use ‘Woman’
During Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, Senator Marsha Blackburn asked her “Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?” to which Jackson...
Smartphones and Meaningfulness
This essay explores topics discussed in Tiger Roholt’s recently published book, Distracted from Meaning: A Philosophy of Smartphones.
Imagine that you are at the DMV...