Category: Philosophy and Politics
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Philosophers Petition APA to Issue Statement on Gaza (updated)
“We, the undersigned members of the APA and the wider philosophical community, write to express our dismay and deep disappointment regarding the APA’s conspicuous…
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Philosopher Resigns from Naval War College in Protest of Trump’s & Hegseth’s Policies
Pauline M. Shanks Kaurin, a philosopher specializing in military ethics, just war theory, and applied ethics, has resigned from her position as the Admiral…
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Out in FAFO County (guest post)
“How you talk does not merely express your internal state, it shapes it.”
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APA Signs Onto Statement Defending the Dept. of Education
The Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) has added the organization to a list of signatories of a statement opposing the…
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While Tables Burn: On the (Non) Existence of Trans People and the Failure of Philosophy (guest post)
“There are indeed consequences when we punch down or pretend that what is, in fact, a hostile attack, is merely ‘inquiry for inquiry’s sake.’…
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The Future of the Department of Education
Elon Musk—a businessman apparently being allowed by President Trump to tread upon whatever and whomever he pleases in his capacity as head budget-slasher-of-questionable-Constitutionality of…
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Political Philosophy’s “Obsolescence” In a World of Trump, etc.
“I strongly suspect that much of political philosophy and political theory and not a little bit of ‘applied,’ policy-salient ethics of the last three…
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Patriotism, etc.
In light of Donald Trump’s election victory, there are both substantive and strategic reasons to take up questions about what patriotism is and what…
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Misinformation Mistakes (guest post)
“The mistake involves grouping together into an all-or-nothing package entire sets of claims whose epistemological credentials are quite varied. It also often involves collapsing…
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Moral Philosophy as War Propaganda (guest post)
“The hellish reality of this war is transfigured by philosophers into abstract thought experiments and technical prose.”
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Israel, Hamas, and “Blowback” (guest post)
“The proportionality constraint is backward-looking in the following sense: to determine how bad a prospective harm is for a potential innocent victim, we sometimes need…
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Proportionality, Psychic Harm, and the Day After (guest post)
“Once we count psychic harm, it looks like Israel’s war might be proportional. But it could be proportional only if the Israelis aren’t imposing…
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Condemnations, Moral Guidance, and Gaza (guest post)
“The absence of moral guidance by philosophical condemners conveys that they do not think of Israelis as friends whom they want to morally improve.…
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There Is No Military Objective In Gaza (guest post)
“There is no feasible or achievable military goal, legitimate or otherwise, for Israel’s bloody campaign in Gaza.”
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Israel & Hamas: Another Letter, Another Critical Response (updated)
As mentioned in an update to this post, a group of philosophers posted an open letter, dated November 1, 2023, under the heading “Philosophy…
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Israel, Hamas, and the Narratives of Atrocity (guest post)
“The need to stop the narratives that rationalize what is indefensible is clear. How to stop such narratives is not.”
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Proportionality and Responsibility in the Israel-Hamas Conflict (guest post)
What do the “moral constraints that apply to defensive force” imply in a situation as complicated as the conflict between Israel and Hamas?
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Is Any of Analytic Philosophy’s Dominance Owed to McCarthyism?
“It is clear enough that McCarthyism and its legacy were sufficient to make life hard for a particular strand of opposition to the analytic…
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Philosophy & Activism (guest post)
While some people have argued that political activism is in tension with academic inquiry (here, for example), there have been plenty of well-regarded scholars…