Ethics

Utility

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Ethics, J.S. Mill, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

Roughly 90% of the courses I teach are in moral and political philosophy, which means I am regularly given cause to lecture on utilitarianism. In my experience, almost all students arrive in the classroom as what I call “default utilitarians.” I say “default” because I think, in most cases, their’s is not so much a…

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Technology and Human Values

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Ethics, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

If this were a post on Buzzfeed or Upworthy or some other such listicle-driven site, the thumbnail caption would read: “You won’t BELIEVE the AMAZING things these COLLEGE STUDENTS did in their PHILOSOPHY class! Check it out!” That would be a 100% true description, but I will attempt to be more measured in what follows….

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On Teaching Our Incapacity To Unexperience

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Ethics, Film, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, SPEP, Teaching, Thinking in Images, Trigger Warnings, Weak Humanism 0 Comments

They say you can’t “unring a bell.” It’s an analogy that is often used to illustrate our incapacity to un-experience things, to erase lived-experiences from our bodies and minds. What I discovered recently is how particularly true that is in the classroom. A few weeks ago in my Philosophy and Film course, we screened Werner…

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Our Dirty War

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #BlackLivesMatter, Democracy, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

The disappearance of citizens displays a perversely cruel and absolute sovereignty. —Ruti Teitel, Transitional Justice (2002) I should begin by noting that I started writing what follows last week, after the publication of the New York Times story on the “1.5 Million Missing Black Men in America” but before the popular uprising in Baltimore that began Monday as…

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Our Dirty War

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #BlackLivesMatter, Democracy, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

The disappearance of citizens displays a perversely cruel and absolute sovereignty. —Ruti Teitel, Transitional Justice (2002) I should begin by noting that I started writing what follows last week, after the publication of the New York Times story on the “1.5 Million Missing Black Men in America” but before the popular uprising in Baltimore that began Monday as…

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Our Dirty War

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #BlackLivesMatter, Democracy, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

The disappearance of citizens displays a perversely cruel and absolute sovereignty. —Ruti Teitel, Transitional Justice (2002) I should begin by noting that I started writing what follows last week, after the publication of the New York Times story on the “1.5 Million Missing Black Men in America” but before the popular uprising in Baltimore that began Monday as…

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On Blurred Lines, Pop Music, Pirates/Thieves and Memphis’ Mustang Sally

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Ethics, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Yesterday, a Los Angeles federal jury awarded $7.4 million to the family of late, great R&B singer Marvin Gaye for copyright infringement by contemporary pop-icons Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams.  The jurors determined that Thicke’s 2013 chart-topper “Blurred Lines” copied elements of Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Although they were instructed to consider only…

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Relativism, Revolutionary Fictionalism, Moral Facts and #TheDress

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Ethics, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Relativism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology 0 Comments

[Disclaimer: this post is a brief, quickly-composed and so incomplete response to a number of tangentially-related events and essays from the last several days.  I have a lot more to say about all of them, including how they are not merely tangentially-related, but not now.] If you haven’t already, you should read yesterday’s Stone article in the…

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#Hashtags

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments
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