Philosophers’ Corner

  • Against Marriage

    It might seem baffling that the state gets involved in our love life. Why does the government need to keep track of who’s married to whom? Will they next start tracking who our friends are?

  • The Morality of Big Business

    “Big business” for many has largely immoral associations: corrupt, profit-driven at the expense of human wellbeing or the environment, threatening to mom-and-pop shops everywhere. But this wasn’t always the case—big businesses used to be viewed positively by the public.

  • On Deepities and Bullshit

    The so-called Law of Attraction, one of the cornerstones of New Age positive thinking, is a textbook case of what Dan Dennett calls a “deepity”—an ambiguous claim that on one reading is either true but trivial, on another is false but would be earth-shattering if true.

  • Consciousness Deniers?

    The idea that consciousness is an illusion may be a familiar one. Thinkers like Daniel Dennett, Brian Farrell, and Richard Rorty espouse this basic notion. But is it, as philosopher Galen Strawson calls it, “the silliest claim ever made”?

  • Is there a Right to Sex?

    Most of us would think that straight men who demand the right to sex are motivated by a patriarchal sense of entitlement. As a reaction against this claim, we may naturally argue that nobody is entitled to sex. But this reaction can buttress sexual preferences that are extremely problematic.

  • Faith and Humility

    For better or for worse, believers and non-believers are unlikely to fully agree about the relationship between faith and humility. Indeed, some non-believers may insist that there is an inherent conflict between the two.

  • Happy 200th, Karl Marx!

    It’s Karl Marx’ 200th Birthday! It is hard to deny that Marx left a lasting, far-reaching impact on the course of history. But how exactly can we distill the core insights of Marx’s teachings?

  • May the Fourth Be With You

    In honor of 5/4, Star Wars Day, we’re taking a deeper look at the paradox of Force in Star Wars. Eduardo Perez, an Assistant Professor of English, examines the paradox of the Force in George Lucas’ Star Wars universe.

  • Dark Knowledge: A User’s Guide

    The Intellectual Dark Web has developed into an academic counterculture, with an enormous and rapidly growing fan base. While it’s wonderful that there are sites where taken-for-granted orthodoxies can be challenged in accessible ways, I have grave concerns about the way that this movement is unfolding.

  • Is There Life on Mars?

    Are we alone in the universe? Or is the cosmos teeming with life? And what difference would it make if we found the answer? Those are just some of the questions we address in this week’s show.

  • Toppling the Dehumanization Thesis

    Perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities in human history have used rhetoric that labels the group they oppress as animals or objects, like “vermin” or “roaches.” But is this kind of dehumanization required for humans to commit violent atrocities?

  • Are We Really All Equals?

    Most of us hold the deep moral commitment that we are all equal in some basic way. All humans are worthy of equal (moral) concern, respect, and dignity. But is a commitment to basic equality enough to ground meaningful principles of justice?

  • Stop Silencing Sex Workers

    The popular imagination typically pits feminism and free speech advocacy against each other. But in reality, they often align. The new SESTA-FOSTA bill is a case in point. Both feminists and free speech advocates should strongly oppose this law, and for closely related reasons.

  • The “Complicated” Causes of Gun Death (Part II)

    Despite how obvious it is that the perpetually recurring “arguments” given against gun control are bad, many people in the United States are taken in by them. So why aren’t these bad arguments more easily dismissed?

  • The Not-So-Goodness of Liberalism?

    Is liberalism really the “unmitigated good” many of us Westerners believe it is? Is more freedom always a good thing? Shadi Hamid explores these questions, questioning whether liberalism truly is ideologically neutral.

  • Who Gets To Decide the Truth?

    It isn’t just the United States that is preoccupied with the threat of fake news. In Malaysia, a bill outlawing fake news just passed. The new law could mean jail time for those who not only create but also spread misleading information.