Philosophy

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Church & State II: Discrimination20 February 2012, 8:48 pm
In the United States, the American’s with Disabilities Act makes it illegal to discriminate against people based on their disabilities. Unless, apparently, the institution doing the discrimination is a church. A disabled woman who was teaching at a religious school …...
Religious freedom and religious privilege19 February 2012, 11:16 am
I enjoyed reading Mike LaBossiere’s post entitled “Church & State: Immaculate Contraception”, but I can’t resist the impulse to add a post of my own – perhaps because I lack free will in the matter, but mainly because I devote …...
Church & State: Immaculate Contraception17 February 2012, 7:36 pm
Back in 1914 Margaret Sanger included information about birth control in the June issue of her magazine, The Woman Rebel. She was arrested under the Comstock Law and her ally, the anarchist Emma Goldman, was soon after arrested for the same crime. …...
Mediums & Muses13 February 2012, 11:05 pm
As I do every spring, I am teaching my Aesthetics class. As might be expected, one of the subjects I address is the nature of artistic creativity and the creation of the arts. Putting things rather simply (perhaps too simply) one …...
Soon-to-Haves10 February 2012, 7:10 pm
I am working on a book on rhetoric and, as might be imagined, this year’s American political season has been a goldmine. Recently Mitch Daniels said “We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of …...
Is Education a Public Good?8 February 2012, 8:29 pm
While higher education is generally regarded as a good (mainly because folks with college degrees make more than folks who lack such degrees), there has been considerable debate in the United States as to whether or not higher education is …...
Towers of Ivory, Towers of Gold6 February 2012, 7:19 pm
Academics in general and philosophers in particular are often accused of dwelling in ivory towers that lift them out of the “real world” (which is, presumably, everything outside of academics). Being a philosophy professor, I do have some sympathy to …...
The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: An Interview with Alex Rosenberg6 February 2012, 7:50 am
Reality, notes philosopher Alex Rosenberg, is “completely different from what most people think… stranger than even many atheists recognize.” And having spent some 40 years trying to work out “exactly how advances in biology, neuroscience and evolutionary anthropology, fit together …...
Corruption, Gravity & Litter3 February 2012, 7:08 pm
The Daily Show recently featured an interesting interview with Yale Law School professor Jonathan Macey. One part of the interview that I found especially interesting was Macey’s “defense” of capital firms like Bain in terms of what seemed to be the necessity …...
Language Games: An Appeal On Behalf of Dave31 January 2012, 10:23 am
“I’m going out with my pal Rick for a beer tonight, he’s got himself into a spot of bother with the police again. Fighting.” said Dave. I think for a minute: “Rick, I don’t think I know him do I?”. …...

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