The first text I assign in my social and political philosophy course is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges entitled “The Lottery in Babylon.” In it, Borges’ narrator tells the story of his former home, Babylon, where (over the course of many years) a lottery evolves from being a voluntary game of chance into a mandatory…
Read MoreI am fairly certain that I watched a man die in the street in Memphis last Saturday night. [TW: disturbing content follows] I say that I’m “fairly certain” because, the truth is, I still do not know for sure. In the past several days, I’ve recounted the events of that night to a few friends,…
Read MoreIn the January edition of the New Yorker, there was a story (“The Hit List”) about the so-called “Islamist war” on secular bloggers in Bagladesh. It begins with the murder of blogger Avijit Roy: atheist, rationalist and advocate of scientific understanding. (Roy: “The vaccine against religion is to build up a scientific approach.”) It is a…
Read MoreYesterday, at a rally in advance of the upcoming Iowa caucuses, GOP Presidential candidate and frontrunner Donald Trump said (in his outside voice): “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters. It’s, like, incredible.” My first thought was: yes, that IS incredible, as in not credible. It’s almost…
Read MoreIf 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….
Read MoreTonight, on Facebook and Twitter, I posted that I was “praying” for Minneapolis, for Chicago, for #BlackLivesMatters, for refugees fleeing violence and seeking safety and, more generically, for anyone and everyone who loves justice, defends and protects the most vulnerable among us, who is under assault, in danger and in need of not only our supportive solidarity, but our active advocacy. This was…
Read MoreThis is the second installment of my Reading Coates posts, offering some reflections on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me in light of our summer reading group’s discussion of the same. You can read Part 1 here. Before I jump right into Chapter 2, I want to take a moment to comment upon what I…
Read MoreOver the last several years, I’ve steadily increased the amount of time I spend in my moral and political philosophy courses on the theme of “digital identity.” I’ve done so in part because one important cornerstone of my pedagogical practice is to use my courses to combat digital illiteracy– the single greatest vulnerability that will…
Read MoreI just got home from a whole day at the first ever TEDxMemphis event– I say “first” because it looks like plans are already in the works for another one next year (THIS MUST HAPPEN!)– and I cannot possibly exaggerate what an amazing, informative, inspirational and motivational event it was. Especially for this city, my city,…
Read MoreThere are certain works of art in every medium– literature, theater, photography, sculpture, film, painting, music, et al.– that somehow manage, through an impossible-to-determinately-calculate alchemical combination of human creativity, the raw materials of Nature, and some other mysterious thing we might generically point toward and say “meaning” or “truth,” to reach beyond the mere representation…
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