SPOTLIGHT
THEORY
Philosophical Arguments for Abortion
Arguments for ethical and legal conclusions on the topic of abortion are often pursued dialectically, with positive arguments developed in response to contrary positions and objections. Many people say they just “feel” that abortion is wrong or their “opinion” is that it’s not wrong. But complex issues require informed, fair and honest critical thinking, not just mere “feelings” or “opinions.”
Freud, Woodstock, and Crowd Behavior
When you have a master or a leader, there’s always another master somewhere fighting them off or trying to contest them. The masters of other people can look pretty annoying to you, if not contemptible, irrelevant, reprehensible. I think about Beatlemania, where people were just horrified — What the hell is going on? These four guys with weird floppy haircuts. Or with Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, or any of the other rock stars. The disgust and terror that people have that others are caught up.
The Mythical Fathers of Psychology
We recognize the Founders of our field because they coined the names for critical movements and gave the early shape and direction to critical ideas. But to be a founder, to parent a movement is all mythology.
PRACTICE
Naomi Klein, Autism & Climate Activism
By Craig Collins In a recent interview (TruthOut, Sept. 17, 2019) with Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein linked Greta Thunberg’s autism
Weathering the Storm: Revisiting the Hariri Resignation
U.S. policymakers must realize that Lebanon is, indeed, the “eye of the storm” in the Middle East and devise policy accordingly.
Trump Forecasts Hurricane Dorian to Return and Decimate All 50 States
Washington, D.C. - After swiping at the Eastern seaboard of the United States and then heading out to the Canadian Maritimes last week, Hurricane Dorian will be coming back with a vengeance, according to Meteorologist-in-Chief, Donald Trump.
JUSTICE
Euthanasia, or Mercy Killing
Nathan Nobis from 1000-Word Philosophy examines the arguments pertaining to the difficult issue of euthanasia. Sadly, there are people in
Social Contract Theory
When you make an agreement of some significance (e.g., to rent an apartment, or join a gym, or divorce), you typically agree to certain terms: you sign a contract. This is for your benefit, and for the the other party’s benefit: everyone’s expectations are clear, as are the consequences of failing to meet those expectations.
Plato’s Crito: When should we break the law?
Plato’s Crito describes a conversation that takes place in 399 B.C.E. in an Athens prison, where Socrates awaits execution.Not long before, an assembly of more than 500 Athenian citizens convicted Socrates of corrupting the youth and impiety, essentially failing to respect the gods of the city.
ARTS & LETTERS
Freud, Woodstock, and Crowd Behavior
When you have a master or a leader, there’s always another master somewhere fighting them off or trying to contest them. The masters of other people can look pretty annoying to you, if not contemptible, irrelevant, reprehensible. I think about Beatlemania, where people were just horrified — What the hell is going on? These four guys with weird floppy haircuts. Or with Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, or any of the other rock stars. The disgust and terror that people have that others are caught up.
A Search for Meaning: The Hemingway Hero & Fifty-Grand
Pinker points to both the origin and function of a code of conduct that became the Western view of masculinity. ... the biological realities of the male species could be best and most productively served through the attainment and development of specific virtues.
Featured Author: Jared Marcel Pollen
Jared Marcel Pollen is a novelist and essayist, whose writing on political subjects looks out upon the world from a space where one might have once found Orwell, Hitchens, or Arendt.