War

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Russian Government Investigating Institute of Philosophy

Russian Philosopher Svetlana Mesyats is under house arrest and the offices and homes of several other employees of the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences were searched, according to social media postings from a pro-Russian government account and other media sources. (more…)

Top University in Iran Bombed

Early this morning, Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s leading technical university, was bombed. (more…)

The Ethics of Intervention in Iran (guest post)

“In light of the awful brutality by the Iranian government against the uprising in late December 2025, the case for humanitarian intervention in Iran is not obviously implausible…”

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Anthropic’s Statement on the Department of War’s Demands

Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, earlier this week ordered Anthropic, the company that makes Claude artificial intelligence products, to allow the Department of War unrestricted use of Claude. Anthropic is resisting, saying that certain restrictions on Claude’s use are necessary to protect “democratic values”. (more…)

The APA Board & the Gaza Petition

At the end of last month, a petition was launched to move the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association (APA) to issue a statement about Gaza that would, “Unequivocally condemn the ongoing atrocities and war crimes against Palestinians” and “Express solidarity with Palestinian scholars, intellectuals, and students who are enduring immense suffering..

Opportunity to Volunteer to Teach Online Courses for Ukrainian Universities

A pair of philosophers have created a program through which people can volunteer to team-teach online courses at Ukrainian universities. (more…)

A Philosophy Conference in Kyiv this Summer

“Existential Questions” is the name of a philosophy conference being held at the Kyiv School of Economics this coming August, organized by Jason Stanley (Yale). (more…)

Protests & Universities

“A university is special to the extent that it is a place where teaching and learning replace fighting and grandstanding.”

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Disproportionate and Intended Harm to Innocents in Israel’s War in Gaza (guest post)

“Experts on just war disagree on what precisely counts as permissible proportion. But clearly this is grossly disproportionate.”

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Philosophy’s Importance in “Times Like These”

The Los Angeles Review of Books has just concluded publishing a series of articles on the importance of philosophy in “times like these”. (more…)

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 to look at what that victim has suffered in the past, and whether we’re responsible for what they’ve suffered” as well as “whether we should have acted differently in the past thereby avoiding the n..

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 on basically all Gazans a greater psychic burden than the psychic burden that Israelis hope to avoid,” which could be the case “if Israel takes it upon itself, as soon as possible, to reassure the Gazans that Gaza will not ..

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.” (more…)

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 for Palestine.” (more…)