Maximizing Well-Being?
In the final pages of Reason and Persons, Derek Parfit asks, “What would be best for someone, or would be most in this person’s...
What Are You Reading…On Marriage
Commitment is a powerful thing. The moment we make a commitment—whether it is to another person, an institution, an ideology, or something else—our lives...
What Are You Reading…On Pedagogy
Now that the 2017-2018 academic year has begun, it is time to return to some tasks and projects that we’ve set aside for a...
Philosophy in the Contemporary World: Reflections on Charlottesville
The following text is a revised transcript of a talk Lewis Gordon gave to the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS) as part of...
What Are You Reading…On Cosmopolitanism
Since my last “What Are You Reading” column, I have traveled halfway around the world to China, where I am beginning a position teaching...
What Are You Reading…On Dreams
A month or so ago, I read the most recent addition to the Sandman graphic novels, Sandman: Overture. I was struck by J.H. Williams’...
What Are You Reading…On Satire
A couple days ago I was shown an amicus brief filed by the ACLU in support of John Oliver’s defense against coal executive Bob...
Philosophy in the Contemporary World: Women’s History and the Politics of Shame in Ireland
This year, women’s history month opened in Ireland with revelations of a mass-grave containing infant remains at a former institution for single mothers. Excavations...
Ethics and Contemporary Politics: Trump Junior’s Emails and the Rule of Law
With the release last week of Donald Trump Junior’s emails, from which the public learned that he enthusiastically embraced the offer of a Kremlin...
Philosophy in the Contemporary World: Hipsters and Imaginative Resistance
Hipsters are all around us: drinking their underroasted coffee, sporting funny facial hair and wearing knitted hats. I’m not a hipster myself. But some...