politics

“But Quiet, Be Quiet a Minute”: On The Death of Fred Phelps

The news has just been released that Rev. Fred Phelps, founder and lifelong shepherd of the Westboro Baptist Church (in Topeka, Kansas) has died at the age of 84.  I find it difficult, I confess, to summon the normal human compassion that usually accompanies news of another’s death in this case, largely because Phelps dedicated…

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On “Solidarity”

Let’s face it: exercising solidarity is tricky business, not the least of which is because “solidarity” itself is a tricky concept, which requires the subordination of real differences (across a whole host of important categorical domains) for the sake of some particular common interest that might prioritize similitude– often for prudentially strategic reasons– over, across…

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Please Do NOT Revise Your Tone

As some of you already know, I am also one of the bloggers at NewAPPS.  I’m re-posting here a piece co-authored by Edward Kazaian and I that appeared this past Tuesday on NewAPPS.  It’s generated a lot of conversation so far, and I’ll have a post forthcoming soon on my take on that conversation. What…

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Dr. J’s 2013 Year in Music

Today, I begin my annual Year in Review lists for 2013.  (If you’re feeling nostalgic, you can check out my past lists for the 2010 Year in Review, 2011 Year in Review and 2012 Year in Review.)  I make several lists every December, but almost every year, the Music list is my favorite to compose. …

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Dr. J’s 2013 Year in Politics

It’s time for the next installment of my 2013 Year in Review Lists: the 2013 Year in Politics. Each December that I do this, it gets increasingly difficult to distinguish between the stories that properly belong on this list and those that fit more comfortably on the Year in Pop Culture list, which says something…

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The Problem With Echo Chambers

Here’s one thing I will presume that we can all agree upon: every single one of us likes to have our views, positions, arguments and preferences confirmed by others.  (If you don’t, then those aren’t your views, positions, arguments or preferences in any really defensible sense, are they?)  Of course, because we live in a…

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Help Stop the Hastening of Death in Tennessee

I was recently asked by a colleague, Dr. Lisa Guenther (Philosophy, Vanderbilt University), to add my signature to an open letter to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, petitioning him to suspend the scheduled execution of 10 inmates beginning in January.  I agreed to lend my name to the petition alongside several others in a coalition named…

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Female Brains Are Prettier, More Fun At Parties, Less Tasty

I almost titled this “Once More Into The Breach, Part Deux” in reference to my Once More Into The Breach, Dear Friends post from last week, which criticized the way in which conversations about gender disparity in professional Philosophy continue to be framed by concept-distorting and argument-disfiguring gender essentialism.  My targets today are not “philosophers”…

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Remember Who The Enemy Is

[Disclaimer: I haven’t read any of the books in Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular Hunger Games trilogy, though I did see the first movie version of that trilogy (The Hunger Games) last year and I just saw the second film, currently out in theaters, Catching Fire.  I’ll go ahead and stipulate that the books are probably…

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Once More Into The Breach, Dear Friends

Prompted by a recent piece on newAPPS, I’m (somewhat reluctantly) forced to acknowledge the renewed attention to a not-at-all-new phenomenon in the world of Philosophy over the last couple of years, namely, the dramatic under-representation of women in our profession.  Here’s what you need to know up front, assuming that some of you readers are…

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