Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

CPAC goes Anti-Vax

14. July 2021 Philosophy News News
As a quick recap, the Trump administration and its allies responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by downplaying it, ignoring it, and calling it a hoax. After Trump’s defeat, the right persisted in treating the pandemic as a political game, attempting to score points with their base. While Trump got vaccinated early on, many on the [More]
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Newton’s Philosophy

14. July 2021 Philosophy News News
[Revised entry by Andrew Janiak on July 14, 2021. Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, notes.html] Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) lived in a philosophically tumultuous time. He witnessed the end of the Aristotelian dominance of philosophy in Europe, the rise and fall of Cartesianism, the emergence of "experimental philosophy," and the development of numerous experimental and mathematical methods for the study of nature. Indeed, he helped to develop many of those methods. Newton's contributions to mathematics - including the co-discovery with G.W. Leibniz of what we now call the calculus - and to what is [More]
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Philosopher Spotlight: Jess Flanigan

14. July 2021 Philosophy News News
Thanks to Jess Flanigan for contributing this guest post, sharing her interesting and provocative work, as part of my ongoing "philosopher spotlight" series.  Enjoy!* * *My published research falls into three categories. I am interested in rights and their enforceability, public health policy, and economic justice issues. In this post I’ll say a bit about my research, hopefully in a way that explains how these topics are all related. Then I’ll talk a bit about the things I’m working on lately. Instead of listing the titles of each paper, each link will just say what the paper is about. If you’re interested in that argument you can click through to see where it’s published.First, let’s talk about rights and enforceability. A lot of my work is motivated by the conviction that just because something is bad doesn’t mean there should be a law against it. I wish that this were more widely appreciated. For example, it’s bad for people to fail to help those in need, but it doesn’t follow from that fact that duties of rescue are enforceable—they aren’t. Assistance isn’t enforceable because people aren’t liable to be interfered with just because they’re well-placed to help. On the flip side, there are lots of rights that people don’t think are enforceable but they are (e.g., gun rights or economic freedom). I argue that all liberty is basic because the same considerations that liberal egalitarians cite in support of upholding the classic list of basic liberties are also [More]
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PragerU’s Unintended Tweet of Truth

13. July 2021 Philosophy News News
PragerU, a right-wing propaganda engine masquerading as an educational YouTube channel, attempted to push back on Twitter against arguments advanced by young Americans about racism. In general, getting involved in Twitter battles is a bad idea. To use an AD&D analogy, Twitter fights are often like punching green slime: the more you attack, the more [More]
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History of Western Philosophy of Music: since 1800

13. July 2021 Philosophy News News
[New Entry by Matteo Ravasio on July 13, 2021.] This entry covers the development of Western philosophy of music since 1800 - for its earlier history, see the entry on history of western philosophy of music: from antiquity to 1800. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, Western philosophy of music starts to consider instrumental music as the key to understanding music's place among the arts. No longer [More]
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