Public Philosophy

Adulting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

As a general rule, I’m not a fan of the contemporary obsession with gerunding (#seewhatIdidthere), i.e., turning words that were perfectly fine being nouns, perfectly fine accepting the assistance of helping verbs to make sense of some phenomenon, into stand-alone verbs themselves. My allergy to this practice is, for the most part, a consequence of countless, maddening…

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Motivation

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Music, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

It’s Saturday, the hardest day of the week to find motivation to get things done.  Luckily for me, I have almost unrestricted access to all the music ever written (thanks, Google Play!), a stereo with a volume dial that goes all the way up to 10 (thanks, technology!), and neighbors who don’t mind my loudness because…

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Horror

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Film, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I do not enjoy horror films. Not even a little bit. They genuinely terrify me. I hate them, I won’t voluntarily go to them, and no amount of cajoling or ridicule will change my mind about that. Now, I should note here at the start that I don’t believe that ghosts or spirits or devils…

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Purposiveness

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I thought I might slip in a somewhat “technical” philosophy post, since I’m blogging every day this month and those of you not interested in such things can just hold on until tomorrow. Today, I’m going to say a bit about Kant, and a tiny little thing that has been nagging about his Critique of…

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Forgetting

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

I dedicate a significant amount of time in my courses to thinking with students about our “digital selves” and our “digital lives.” Most students– most people, for that matter– tend to think of the aggregate data that constitute their digital selves (social media profiles, Google searches, Netflix or Amazon preferences, banking transactions, medical records, online…

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Anonymity

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Digital Humanities, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

What difference does a signature make? I’ll assume that the phenomenon of trolling is one familiar to most of us on the interwebs, a phenomenon that is, in turns, infuriating, exasperating, unpleasant, and often genuinely hostile and threatening. There’s much to abhor about trolls– their pettiness and vitriol, their disregard for basic conversational decorum, their…

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Vulnerability

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 0 Comments

Several years ago, I read a fascinating article by David Dobbs called “The Science of Success,” in which he discusses the influence of certain genetic factors on social/psychological development. Dobbs recounts the studies of Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, who set out to test a dominant hypothesis of psychiatry and behavioral science known as the “stress diathesis” or “genetic…

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Torture

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Torture 0 Comments

Several years ago, a friend and colleague of mine invited me to come speak to his class about torture. The class was a writing seminar organized around the theme of “citizenship” and my colleague was feeling (understandably) frustrated because, in his words, he “just didn’t feel like [he] had the tools or the knowledge to…

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Handy Guide to Tone-Policing

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I won’t even bother with summarizing or linking to the most recent debacle in the Philosophy blogosphere.  Instead, I’ll just note that, commensurate with the rest of the nation, the discipline of Philosophy has a real problem determining between when one ought and ought not “tone-police.” I’ve said my peace (here) before about tone-policing and/or…

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Temptation

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, The Search for Values 0 Comments

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the first day of Lent on the Western Christian calendar. Many observant Christians fast or practice some other manner of self-denial for the duration of the Lenten season, commemorating Jesus’ forty days in the desert where (as recounted in the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke) he was…

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