Philosophy in the real world.

Kepler Destroys the Universe

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 […]

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Recognition, Ideology, and Racial Oppression

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.  

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Who Owns the Water?

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 […]

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Wittgenstein and Music

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 […]

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Adjuncts

Academia’s Underclass

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 […]

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A Spirit of Tolerance

True Religion Is Tolerance

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 […]

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