Month: October 2020

  • Basket of Deplorables: Crisis in American Federalism

    by E. John Winner ___ The presidency of Donald Trump has revealed two truths, not merely inconvenient but tragic. These truths are only hinted at by pundits on the contemporary political scene, for they violate long inculcated beliefs and assumed norms that allow us to communicate and share living space – however uncomfortably – with […]

  • Self-Knowledge, Self-Alienation, and the Curious Case of NXIVM

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ___ “What does it mean to be afraid?” Sarah Edmonson recalls Lauren Salzman saying this to strengthen Sarah’s resolve right before Sarah was to be branded with a cauterizing gun. Sarah was understandably scared. Lauren asked her to think about what that fear meant. Sarah didn’t interpret it as most would; i.e. […]

  • Cinema: A Personal Perspective

    by Mark English It is impossible to put an exact date on it, but around 1990 I changed my mind about movies – or at least new movies. I was increasingly indifferent to them. Even many films of a type I would normally have appreciated had become positively painful to watch. An appreciation of the […]

  • Lives and Principles

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ The older I get, the more I appreciate the importance of having principles and of living a life of integrity and honor. I recognize this quality in my friends, too, and it’s admirable. People who lack these qualities are sad, and likely are surrounded by others without scruples. –Nicholas A. […]

  • Racist Language

    by Miroslav Imbrišević I’m white, but I know a thing or two about racism. When I was three, my parents moved to Germany. In kindergarten, a boy once invited me to come and play at his home in the afternoon. I had never been to a German home. We played in the vegetable patch, and […]

  • Social Justice Discourse and the Question of “Standpoints”

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ My remarks here are anticipatory of a more thorough treatment of the question of Standpoint Epistemology – or “Theory” – in conversation with Crispin Sartwell, who finds the notion amenable. I do not, and a brief back-and-forth on the topic on Twitter convinced me that our differences were worth exploring […]