by Preston Stovall ___ U.S. citizens are facing a crisis in political polarization and mental health today. Over the last decade, rates of self-harm and depression have skyrocketed among young Americans. This impact is not evenly distributed across the population, however, as it is centered on heavy users of social media (“heavy use” varies from... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Currie-Knight ___ Like so much else, the Enlightenment seems to be a flash point in the contemporary culture wars. Some, like Douglas Murray and Stephen Pinker, suggest that we are moving too far away from “enlightenment values” like liberty, equality, and the idea of a universal human nature (to which they oppose the... Continue Reading →
By Daniel A. Kaufman __ Prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse. --George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” Our public discourse today has disintegrated into a wretched cant, in which words are... Continue Reading →
by Moti Gorin ____ Moti Gorin (Colorado State) talks with Holly Lawford-Smith (University of Melbourne) about her new book, "Gender Critical Feminism" (Oxford University Press). Please pardon us for some choppiness in Moti's audio/video. https://youtu.be/CQSWrYO_DlU 0:00-25:06 Background and Opposition 25:06-35:00 Overview of Gender Critical Feminism 35:00-50:00 Gender Critical vs “Mainstream”/“Liberal” Feminism 50:00-58:55 Engaging with “the... Continue Reading →
by Jay Jeffers ____ American Pragmatism has been controversial from the start. It was accused of “cosmic impiety” by Bertrand Russell, a founding father of Anglophone analytic philosophy. Rifts developed quickly even within the young school of thought, with the original pragmatist Charles Sanders Peirce renaming his approach “pragmaticism,” which he thought was “ugly enough... Continue Reading →
by Robert Gressis ____ The following is a research proposal that I'm going to submit for various year-long fellowships. Generally, these fellowships request that you explain what you're up to in about 1,000 words. I offer it to the EA community for your reactions and advice. Even though it's already at its limit, any ways... Continue Reading →
By Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Not too long ago, my wife and daughter headed to our regional airport to catch a flight to NY to visit my elderly mother, who readers may remember is recently widowed. Because our small city is off of the major routes, flights have to transfer at a hub, in this... Continue Reading →
By Kevin Currie-Knight ___ Political and cultural polarization is on the rise. And it’s not just that we increasingly see things differently, but that we’re more hostile to views that differ from ours, often seeing them as threats rather than mere differences. Social media – and this likely bleeds into other online and real-life spaces... Continue Reading →
by Bharath Vallabha ____ For sixteen years I studied and taught philosophy. As a professor I taught Plato, Descartes, Kant, Wittgenstein and Heidegger. I thought I knew Western philosophy. Boy, was I wrong. Though I taught the great texts, in an important sense I didn’t understand them or the thinkers who wrote them. For --... Continue Reading →
by Miroslav Imbrišević ____ A PhD student of Japanese Studies at Manchester University (UK) recently published a paper in Qualitative Research, which has been condemned in the media and is now being investigated by the university and by the journal. Two things have caused offence: the research method (masturbation); and the material used during masturbation... Continue Reading →
