Philosophy in the real world.
It is impossible for us today to appreciate the profound effect of Johannes Kepler’s theory of planetary motion. Before Kepler’s book Astronomia Nova (1609) the unquestioned assumption was that everything in the heavens was perfect. A large part of that assumption was that the motion of heavenly bodies must be […]
Read more
My paper ‘Recognition, Ideology, and Racial Oppression‘ on Academia. In this paper, I set out three tasks: to define what prejudice is, to explain how prejudice leads to racial oppression, and to explain the persistence of prejudice amidst the pervasiveness of moral norms about freedom and rights.
Read more
Although water covers two-thirds of the planet’s surface, only 3% of all water is safe for human consumption. Access to clean, safe water has always been vital for people. With increasing population and pollution, the prospect of water shortages is an increasing concern. Adding to these concerns is the privatization […]
Read more
I have been writing a paper to present at a conference at Cambridge University (an amazing privilege), and was researching the history of Muslim-Christian Relations. Despite what we hear in the media, hatred and violence between Muslims and Christians is not universal and in many times and place, not even […]
Read more
I ran across a paper entitled Wittgenstein, Modern Music, and the Myth of Progress written by Eran Guter. It is pretty dense stuff–good philosophy tends to be–but I like the categorization presented by Guter. Guter’s study is based not on a work published by Wittgenstein, but on entries in Wittgenstein’s […]
Read more
I am going to address a touchy subject and dare to ask: what is the problem with the transgender label? There is absolutely no problem with any human being who could consider themselves “transgender.” All human beings should be accepted for who they are. No, the problem is the label […]
Read more
Academia’s underclass is real, and I am not referring to freshmen and sophomores. Of course, it has to be a foreign publication that carries this story because the American corporate media will not talk about this issue. Please take a quick read and return: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex […]
Read more
Pardesi This is a rare documentary, Pardesi, filmed in 1991 by French filmmakers Martina Catella and Michel Follin, produced by PMA-Ethnies Visions. Most of the dialogue is in English with French subtitles throughout. The word “pardesi” means foreigner or stranger in (ironically) both Urdu and Hindi, from par (other) and desi […]
Read more
Kids on philosophy Philosophy
Read more
I am not at all religious, but I respect religion and religious people. Honestly, I find religion fascinating–what people believe and how their beliefs motivate their actions. That is part of what separates humans from animals. Humans are belief-motivated beings. Religious belief is one type of belief and like all […]
Read more