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Dennett on AI: We Must Protect Ourselves Against “Counterfeit People”

“Creating counterfeit digital people risks destroying our civilization.”

Logic and the Law

“‘And’ may be read ‘or,’ and ‘or’ may be read ‘and’ if the sense requires it.” (more…)

A Philosopher Helps A Former Prisoner Dig Deep Into His Experiences, Thoughts, and Art

“I realized I couldn’t be what the officials were expecting of me. You got to put that in your head so they can’t break you. They want to break you. If you’re not broken, they say you’re crazy.” (more…)

Supreme Court Rules Civil Rights Law Protects LGBT Workers, Echoing Philosophers’ Brief

The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling this morning in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, holding that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender employees from workplace discrimination. (more…)

Protesting the Murder of George Floyd

Protests against the institutionalized racist violence against blacks in the United States, most recently exemplified by the recent murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, took place in cities around the country this weekend. (more…)

Why Ethicists Advising in Crises Should Take a SEAT (guest post by Per Sandin)

“For academic philosophers, being solution-oriented can be a challenge.”

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Philosophers File Amicus Brief on LGBT Discrimination Cases

This fall, the Supreme Court will be looking at a trio of cases concerning the protection Federal employment discrimination law provides to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons. An amicus curiae brief signed by 80 philosophers, in support of the employees in the cases, has just been filed. (more…)

Bowling Green Receives $1.6 Million to Expand Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law Program

Bowling Green State University (BGSU) has received a $1.6 million donation from the Charles Koch Foundation to expand its Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) program. (more…)

Philosopher Named to New State Dept. Commission on Unalienable Rights

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo earlier this week announced the creation of a new “Commission on Unalienable Rights,” comprised of scholars and activists interested in various dimensions of human rights, law, and religion, to provide him with “advice on human rights grounded in our nation’s founding principles and the principles of the 1948 Universal Declarat..

Philosophers On the Ethics and Politics of Abortion

This year, nine U.S. states have passed legislation that bans early abortions in an attempt to provoke a challenge to the abortion rights protected by the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision. (more…)

Philosophers: Consider Signing Amicus Brief on Insanity Defense

“Does a state’s abolition of the insanity defense comport with fundamental principles of justice and pluralist toleration?” That is the question taken up in an amicus curiae brief by Gideon Yaffe, professor of philosophy and law at Yale University, in regards to Kahler v. Kansas, a case the Supreme Court will be hearing. (more…)

Williams from Columbia to Northeastern

Patricia Williams, currently the James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, will be moving to Northeastern University, where she will have a joint appointment in the School of Law and the Department of Philosophy and Religion. (more…)

2019 Fred Berger Memorial Prize Winner Announced

Deborah Hellman, the David Lurton Massee, Jr., Professor of Law and Roy L. and Rosamond Woodruff Morgan Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, is the winner of the 2019 Fred Berger Memorial Prize. (more…)

Raz Wins Tang Prize in Rule of Law

Joseph Raz (Columbia Law School, Kings College London), well-known for his work in legal, political, and moral philosophy, is the 2018 winner of the Tang Prize in Rule of Law. (more…)

Separating Migrant Children From Their Parents Is Not Required By Law, But Even if It Were…

There is no law requiring family separation at the border. And even if there was, that still would not be enough to justify the administration’s cruel policy. (more…)

On Reporting Green-Card Marriages

The latest edition of “The Ethicist,” the The New York Times‘ moral advice column (published last Wednesday), takes as its topic sham green-card marriages. The advice seeker asks current Times ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah (NYU), whether she should report that at a wedding of an acquaintance, the bride explained to her that the marriage “was a fraud, one she’d ent..

Political Philosophy and the “Aggressive Use of the Law to Impose Controversial Rights”

Gerald Gaus (Arizona) reminds us of the law’s limited power for social change in a new essay at The Critique. There is only so much that the legal declaration of a right can do,and when controversial rights are imposed on a society, we should not be surprised by backlash. This is supposed to be part of what explains the electoral success of Donald Trump.

Legal th..

Philosopher Faces Blasphemy Charges (updated)

Philosophy professor Sheikha al-Jassem (Shaikha Binjasim) is facing charges of blasphemy and the possible loss of her faculty position at Kuwait University, owing to remarks she made in a television interview about freedom of conscience, the politicization of religion in Kuwait, and how the Kuwaiti constitution, not the Quran, is and should be the basis of law in Ku..

Did This Monkey Intentionally Take A Selfie?

Some monkey business is raising questions in philosophy of action, philosophy of language, legal theory, and animal ethics.

British photographer David Slater traveled to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, came across some macaque monkeys, and set up a camera with a tripod. One of the monkeys, Naruto, reportedly pressed the button on the camera, with the result be..

Philosophers On Prostitution’s Decriminalization

This past Tuesday, Amnesty International representatives from 60 countries voted on which stance the influential non-governmental organization should take regarding the legal status of prostitution, ultimately deciding to support its full decriminalization, including both the selling and buying of sex.

The position is highly controversial—particularly the decri..

Nussbaum on Stalkers, the Internet, the Law, and Medication

“Like a surprisingly large proportion of Americans, I have a cyberstalker.” So begins Martha Nussbaum’s lengthy and wide-ranging review, in The Nation, of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace by Danielle Keats Citron. Nussbaum (Chicago) goes on to describe her stalker, his stalking and her reactions to it, delving into the culture of the internet (including the effects of anon..

Ferguson & Philosophy Class

It is the beginning of the school year. Some professors start off their first class with deep puzzles, or thought experiments, or polls. Others begin with definitions of philosophy or by reciting and discussing inspiring passages from great philosophical works. Still others, strangely, hand out syllabi and read through them. There are those, though, that like to bri..

Way Too Much Going On Here, Mill Edition

In England, a judge who relied explicity on the writings of John Stuart Mill in his ruling granted an imprisoned mentally ill Jehovah’s Witness sex offender the right to refuse a blood transfusion after a suicide attempt.

The judge was told that had been moved to hospital from prison after cutting his arm with a razor blade and opening an artery. Specialists said ..