Essay T.M. Luhrmann on small acts of real鈥憁aking November 11, 2020 The most important question to ask about religion is not why but how. 鈥淲hy鈥� is a skeptic鈥檚 question鈥攁 puzzle around the seemingly absurd ideas (a talking snake, a virgin birth) that we find in religions. Read More
Essay Voting freely in a rigged election November 02, 2020 Can a person act freely in a system that is completely rigged, in which every action is determined from the outset? Maybe you are haunted by this question as you slog off to Town Hall to vote. Maybe it is so bothersome that you just stay home.聽Maybe you鈥檝e already sent in your ballot, but you feel somehow unsatisfied. Read More
Essay How to be content: The contemporary lessons of an ancient poet October 20, 2020 The poet Horace (65-8 BCE) is one of the most celebrated writers of Latin literature. His work has been copied and preserved over the centuries for both its sparkling form and its enlightened content. Read More
Video The Murder of Professor Schlick book trailer October 13, 2020 On June 22, 1936, the philosopher Moritz Schlick was on his way to deliver a lecture at the University of Vienna when Johann Nelb枚ck, a deranged former student of Schlick鈥檚, shot him dead on the university steps. Read More
Essay Spinoza鈥檚 guide to life and death October 01, 2020 How should we face our mortality? Whether death is鈥攁s we all hope鈥攁 far off eventuality or, through age or illness, imminent, what is the proper attitude to take? Should we fear death? Read More
Essay Our worst fears: Conspiratorial fictions and the unremitting assault on democracy September 13, 2020 Two years ago, we put the final revisions on our book about conspiratorial thinking in American politics: A Lot of People are Saying: the New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Read More
Essay A look inside Just Giving July 24, 2020 鈥淵our fortune is rolling up, rolling up like an avalanche! You must keep up with it! You must distribute it faster than it grows! If you do not, it will crush you, and your children, and your children鈥檚 children!鈥� So wrote Frederick Gates to sixty-seven-year-old John D. Rockefeller in 1906. Read More
Essay Idleness at a time of crisis May 13, 2020 Most of us probably never realized the speed with which large elements of the familiar world could disappear. Governmental orders have required changes in behaviour, changes that have generated remarkably similar kinds of experience across the globe. Read More
Essay Escape from quarantine May 12, 2020 Like many professional intellectuals, books were my original escape. I was a strange child with abrasive manners, and real life was lonely and chaotic. I read ceaselessly, anything I could get my hands on. Read More
Interview J. David Velleman on On Being Me May 06, 2020 We鈥檝e all had to puzzle over such profound matters as birth, death, regret, free will, agency, and love. How might philosophy help us think through these vital concerns? Read More
Essay The case for hierarchy April 20, 2020 Imagine a country with no social hierarchies: let鈥檚 call it Equality. People in Equality treat each others as equals regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, religion, family background, class, or position in the workplace. Read More
Essay Should an old man engage in politics? April 07, 2020 Around noon on March 5, 2020, Elizabeth Warren suspended her campaign for president of the United States, leaving Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to run (essentially) a two-man race for the Democratic nomination. Read More
Essay In defense of hierarchy April 06, 2020 The seating arrangements for formal meals in Shandong province鈥攖he home of Confucian culture, with a population of nearly 100 million people鈥攁re rigidly hierarchical. Read More
Essay COVID-19 crisis: What we owe each other March 17, 2020 What do we owe each other in this crisis? Let鈥檚 tackle one aspect of this question. A person might think as follows: If I know I am sick, then I understand why I am obligated to self-quarantine. Read More
Essay A leadership class from the ancient world March 03, 2020 For the ancient Greeks and Romans, leadership was studied through examples.聽One of the best books ever written on the subject, Xenophon鈥檚 Education of Cyrus, appears to be a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.聽In fact, it is a manual of statecraft and strategy.聽 Read More
