Electric Agora (archive)

Month: February 2017

  • Course Notes – Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

    by Daniel A. Kaufman http://www.inp.uw.edu.pl/mdsie/Political_Thought/Kant%20-%20groundwork%20for%20the%20metaphysics%20of%20morals%20with%20essays.pdf I’ve just finished two rounds of teaching Kant’s moral philosophy – once for my introductory level Ethics and Contemporary Issues course and again, for my upper-division Theories of Ethics course – so it seemed like a good time to give our favorite deontologist his time in Course Notes.  (Actually, my […]

  • Nationalism and Mythical Thinking

    by Mark English A lot of nonsense is talked about “destiny.” I’m referring here to the idea that individuals or groups can be seen to have some kind of pre-existing or pre-ordained path to fulfillment that they may discover and embrace. Certainly, given an individual, say, at a particular stage of life, there are choices he […]

  • Please Welcome The Electric Agora’s Newest Contributor: Margaret Rowley

    Margaret Rowley is a PhD student in ethnomusicology at Boston University, where she works variously on music and gender, nationalism, and torture. Her academic influences come from a broadening array of disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy, and sociology; she is a passionate, if concerned, advocate for the humanities in higher education. Prior to her time at […]

  • “Turtles All the Way Down”: What Ethnography Can Tell Us About Fake News

    by Margaret Rowley As a PhD student in a theoretically-oriented department of ethnomusicology (a real word!), I have been searching within my coursework for a mechanism to explain the current political system. I suspect I’m not the only graduate student doing this. I count myself extremely fortunate to not only be able to devote my […]

  • What Should We Do When Values Clash? Moving Forward On Campus Debates

    By Daniel Tippens An abridged version of this essay originally appeared here on Quillette Magazine. In 2016, allegations of sexual harassment against Thomas Pogge, an internationally recognized professor of philosophy, came to public light. Accusations against him had been made by other students in the past, but the most widely publicized claims were brought by […]

  • Violence and Identity

    by E. John Winner “I wouldn’t have it any other way” The Wild Bunch is a 1969 film directed by Sam Peckinpah (written by Peckinpah and Walon Green) [1]. Nominally a Western, it tells the story of a gang of aging outlaws in the days leading up to their last gun battle. After a failed […]

  • Trigger Locke

    by Dwayne Holmes A recent video discussion posted at The Electric Agora tried to pin down the history and definition of “classical liberalism.” [1] This largely agreed with my own understanding. However, at one point Dan and David addressed Social Contract theory, particularly as derived from John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. There, Locke contrasted […]

  • Political Myth, Conspiracy and Foreign Policy

    by Mark English Apparently a number of highly-placed representatives of the intelligence community were recently taken in by a fanciful report concerning Donald Trump’s sexual activities during a visit to Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov branded the former MI6 officer who authored the report in question a “swindler” who trades in “absurdities.” The Russian […]