Aristotelian reflections riffing off a student’s insight — Some time back, while I was grading student essays discussing Aristotle’s virtue ethics, I posted an insight one of my students had expressed, but not fully worked through, on my Facebook page. …

an era and movement that produced some of the greatest metal bands of all time! — One of the most fruitful, important, and influential scenes within the ongoing development of heavy metal is what quickly came to be called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). …

even failing to define virtue, we learn about the priority of justice and wisdom — Many who have read the dialogue Meno in an Introduction to Philosophy class carry away from it a commonplace, partly-right sum-up. The dialogue is suppose to be fundamentally about trying to define virtue, and the interlocutors fail in this project, though not without making a number of efforts and attempts…

Reflections on the Ethics Guy’s idea that “honor” gets more traction than “ethics” — Years back, a friend and colleague of mine, Bruce Weinstein (the “Ethics Guy”), raised a provocative question for the field of ethics, tapping the expertise and sounding the sentiments of his many Facebook friends: What do you think of “Live Honorably” as my proposed slogan? I’d use it as a…

Going back on the road after saying goodbye — is that wrong for metal bands to do? — Since I go occasionally by the title of “heavy metal philosopher,” and in my professional life specialize in the field of Ethics — and since my co-host, Scott Tarulli, often brings up questions of right and wrong in our discussions, it seems pretty natural that we’d begin exploring and analyzing…

where, when, and how heavy metal identity was being forged! — After devoting a few early sessions to the origins and development of heavy metal (session 1: early Heavy Metal & session 2: the Sabbath-Purple nexus), we decided to move forward into more music history, focusing on another fertile period, the mid- to late-1970s, and specifically on the British scene. This…

devote time and thought to a philosopher, and people will assume you’re on that philosopher’s team! Eleven years ago, I began producing videos on philosophy in YouTube. At this point I have over 2,000 in my main channel, and I produce about six new videos each week. That’s roughly 300…

In the Phaedo Socrates teaches us what these virtues really involve and require — Plato’s dialogue The Phaedo, a recounting of Socrates’s last conversations with his friends on his deathbed, includes early on in the discourse a short and startling discussion of the nature of several virtues — courage and temperance first, and then wisdom and justice. …