SPOTLIGHT

  • Bright Green Lies & Deep Green Deceptions

    For Deep Green fundamentalists there can be no compromise, no middle ground between Deep and Bright Green. JK&W contend “even with steep reductions in our energy-intensive lifestyle, a return to subsistence living, and the best-known permaculture techniques, a city cannot be made sustainable.” They reason that since “cities have existed for less than 5 percent of our time on this planet…Obviously we don’t need cities.” Reality check! Obviously our foraging ancestors had no use for cities on a sparsely populated, biologically rich planet. But do the authors seriously believe our ecologically damaged and depleted planet can support 7.8 billion post-industrial hunter-gatherers?

  • Falling Stars and Lined Pockets

    There is no analogy between a “pocket pardon” and an actual (or proposed) one, any more than there is between a forged passport and a valid one, except that both documents appear to say the same thing—and thus might fool someone into mistaking one for the other. Indeed, a “pocket pardon” is a contradiction in terms, just as a forged passport isn’t a passport, but a seductive imitation: a fake, like its author.

  • African American Existentialism: DuBois, Locke, Thurman, and King

    Race today is often presented as a social construct. But social constructions, as Black people know all too well, can create real existential crises. Philosophers of the Black Experience writing during the Modern Era of the African American Freedom Struggle (1896-1975) engaged questions of freedom, existence, and the struggles associated with the experiences of being Black in America.

  • Surviving the City of Arts

    How do we teach humanities to STEM students in a time of increasing suspicion about the goodness of technology?

  • Silence as Speech: Reading Sor Juana’s Primero Sueño in the Light of her Final Silence

    Sor Juana’s silence is difficult to “read,” but it is easy to hear. What can it show us about the way the absence of speech can itself be a mode of participation in public discourse?

  • Buddha’s Political Philosophy

    By: Stefan Schindler Do not build fifty palaces, your highness. After all, you can only be in one room at a time. Nagarjunaa second century CE Buddhist sage, to an Indian king Nagarjuna’s suggestion – combining wisdom and wit – exhibits the essence of Buddha’s political philosophy: simplicity, humility, compassion. To open a vista onto Buddha’s vision of a just society, this essay takes a brief look at Siddhartha Gautama’s life story; sketches the Buddhist worldview; traces the evolution of Buddhism; and concludes with an outline of Buddha’s political philosophy. Along the way, we’ll draw parallels between Buddhist and Platonic thought, and reference the embrace of Buddhist ideals by peacemakers in the modern and postmodern world.

THEORY

The Fire This Time

By |February 18th, 2021|0 Comments

The fundamental principle of any free society is that for every legal or moral right there is a corresponding duty.  That applies to everyone, regardless of rank.

Who’s the Chump?

By |February 18th, 2021|0 Comments

The fundamental principle of any free society is that for every legal or moral right there is a corresponding duty.  That applies to everyone, regardless of rank.

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PRACTICE

Can We Exit This Road to Ruin?

By |March 5th, 2021|0 Comments

Catabolic capitalism isn't your grandparents' capitalism. Back then, industrial capitalism profited primarily from growth, fueled by abundant fossil energy. But the centuries of cheap energy and an ever-expanding economic pie are over; and so are the rising living standards they generated. Even the recent decades of stagnation, debt-driven bubbles, and government bailouts are reaching their limit. Capitalism's future is becoming catabolic.

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JUSTICE

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ARTS & LETTERS

Collectivism & Consensus in a Post Covid-19 World

By |July 10th, 2020|0 Comments

Death is a great leveler and, a virus that strikes at individuals indiscriminately, a potent reminder of just how precarious life can be and why, much like the pioneers, it might be in humankind’s best interest to re-invest in a philosophy that acknowledges man’s ability to understand the real world around him. Ayn Rand’s maxim that “nature to be commanded, must be obeyed” seems particularly appropriate (9). The question is, do we have the courage and the humility to subject ourselves to the laws of nature and identity?

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