I’m somewhat perplexed by Arif Ahmed’s latest piece in the Times Literary Supplement. By all accounts Ahmed looks to be a brilliant young philosopher working at one of the most prestigious English language philosophy departments in the world. …

Socrates famously found himself most comfortable in the marketplace, dialectically engaging his fellow citizens in discussions on the weightier matters of life. Despite the occasional op-ed, contemporary philosophers have largely moved the discussion indoors. …

Dylan Matthews recently wrote an article for Vox in which he argues that the best thing we could do for the long suffering people of Syria would be to open our borders to them. Presumably, this would serve as a more humanitarian alternative to the current U.S. policy, which appears…

Once an idea gets purchase in the popular imagination, it becomes very difficult to dislodge it. If the idea is backed by emotion and narrative resonance, all the statistics and probabilistic argumentation you can muster will have little effect. This is particularly the case when the stakes are high, as…

While skimming over some television news clips, I came upon a CBS Evening News report about a young man, Jason Amaral, who was struggling to overcome heroin addiction. At one point, the interviewer asks Jason if he is afraid of dying. Jason responds that he is specifically afraid of dying…

Somewhat unpredictably, the media darling of the 2016 American election cycle was the “white working class.” Supposedly ignored by the increasingly multicultural left and capitalist, supply-side right, the members of this ethically inflected class quickly rose to prominence thanks to a variety of influential books and articles. Popular concern with…

Myisha Cherry and Eric Schwitzgebel wrote an article for the LA Times a few months ago criticizing the academic field of philosophy for its lack of diversity. They identify the main problem as a “subjectivity and bias in the evaluation of philosophical quality.” …