Category: Philosophy

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Trump’s Greatest Threat is to the Idea of Civilized Life Itself

  By Fascism, Philosophy, Political philosophy, Racial Justice, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

To understand Trump and his politics and what we have to do to stop it, we must recognize that he is ultimately a threat to the central idea of human political and social achievement, that human beings do better when everyone is included and our aim is the collective good of all. Let me start with one example, and then return to this general point. There is an interesting and complicated discussion in Machiavelli’s Discourses about whether it is better, when one is in a conflict with another state, to fight abroad or at home. There is a lot to be said on both sides when it comes to conventional war. But when it comes to dealing with infectious disease, isn’t it obvious that it’s better to fight abroad? That is, we protect our own citizens from infectious diseases by helping other countries contain outbreaks of them in their own… Continue reading

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Some initial thoughts on the Male Malaise

  By Economic Justice, Feminism, Love and Sex

I heard a fascinating podcast on my drive to Philly: Ezra Klein talking to Richard Reeves who wrote Of Boys and Men in 2022. It’s perhaps the most detailed / data focused book on the problems of men. I have not read it yet but now will do so soon.   The main outlines of the “male malaise” are probably well known to you: boys do worse in school than girls, are less likely to go to college, and less likely to graduate. They are less likely to hold full-time jobs in their 20s or be on career tracks. As Reeves say, they tend to zig-zag more than women. And then there are the psychological issues: Men are less happy, lonelier, more likely to become substance abusers, more likely to commit suicide, and even more likely to die of COVID women. What is not clear to me is the causes… Continue reading

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Sex, Gender, and Athletics

  By Feminism, Philosophy, Sports

The controversy about the Khelif-Carini fight is, I believe, a terribly missed opportunity for learning something about not just gender and sexuality but about how human practice and thought fits the world. Or at least, that’s my conclusion after reading and thinking a lot about it yesterday and writing down some of my thoughts today. Given that I think I have learned something from some of that thinking,  I want to share it here.  Four preliminary points First, some of what I Iearned—about the biology of sex differences–comes from a post by the biologist Rebecca R Helm. You should read it. I don’t know much more about those issues so some of what I say can be a misinterpretation of what she wrote. Second, this post is not about the Khelif-Carini case. At the end of it I make some suggestions about general rules for determining when women with an… Continue reading

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What Multiple Orgasm Can Teach Us About Sex after Patriarchy

  By Love and Sex

Introduction This is one in a series of short essays that will ultimately wind up in one or more chapters of my book Civilizations and Its Contents: Platonic Reflections on Eros and the Culture Wars. You can find an overview of it here. My book is, for the most part, not focused on the details of our sexual practices. But for a few reasons, I became interested in the phenomenon of multiple orgasm about five years ago. My book *is* very much focused on how theories of sexuality support patriarchal views about the nature of men and women and how patriarchal sexual practices limit sexual pleasure for both men and women. It is widely believed that women have troubles with orgasm, yet at the same time, it is also widely believed that women are capable of multiple orgasms while men are not. Now, on the surface that seems contradictory. Are… Continue reading

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On Israel’s Bombing of Gaza

  By International politics, Just War Theory, Middle East

I’ve been grateful that all the work I had to do in the last weeks of the PA General Assembly has given me a respite from reading and thinking about the Israel-Hamas conflict. I have a couple of things I want to say about it. If I were making a larger argument, this one would not come first. But I finished it after reading an article comparing Israel’s bombing of Gaza with the Allied bombing of German cities in WW II. The article is in the comments. Thanks to Karly Whittaker for sharing that article. … The comparison with Allied bombing in WWII is even more telling than the article suggests. The Allies had three justification for a bombing campaign that aimed at the center of German cities and that probably killed at least 300,000 civilians. Historians are divided about which was more important at different times during the war.… Continue reading

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Patriarchy, homophobia and sexual fluidity in women

  By Love and Sex

It is commonly held that sexual orientation varies in degrees rather than kind. Some men and women are exclusively interested in sex with their own sex; some are exclusively interested in sex and love with the opposite sex, while many of us fall somewhere between these two poles, being little more or less interested in our own sex or the opposite sex. Kinsey claimed that his research found that that most men and women were not at the far poles of his seven point sexual orientation scale but somewhere in the middle Yet it appears that women tend to be more sexually fluid than men. The percentage of women who have had sex with women is higher than the percentage of men who have had sex with men. More importantly, it appears that women are far more likely than men to pursue sex with both men and women during some… Continue reading

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What a just war against Hamas would look like.

  By Just War Theory, Middle East

I am concerned about what Israel has been doing and might do in Gaza. Some aspects of Israel’s current policy is morally dubious. At the same time the issues here are far more complicated than most people seem to recognize and what Israel is doing is, at that point, not totally clear. I think charges that Israel is engaging in genocide or ethnic cleansing, are at this point, and to be blunt, absurd. Israel does have a right to respond with military force to the Hamas’ attack. But it should do so in a limited way, and one that respects the moral rules of warfare that prohibit targeting civilians. And that means, among other things, that it must provide or allow others to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza’s caught up in the war. Its unwillingness to do so now is, also to be blunt, morally indefensible. Here is how I… Continue reading

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You can’t help free Palestine by embracing Hamas

  By International politics, Just War Theory, Middle East

I’ve been paying attention to what is going on in the Middle East not the reaction of people in the US and Europe to it. So I’ve been late to see some of the horrible reactions here and and there. If you are a critic of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and a supporter of Palestinian statehood–or even of a one state bi-national solution–you should be appalled by and furious at Hamas’ attack this week. Not just because it was a deliberate and brazen violation of the rights of non-combatants and because the murder of innocent men, women, and children violates the rights of the same moral code and religious beliefs that serve as the basis of any call for justice for Palestinians. But because  the attack was not aimed at securing Palestinian rights but rather at killing every Israeli Hamas soldiers encountered. The nature of the attack  confirms  that… Continue reading

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Thoughts on the War Between Hamas and Israel

  By International politics, Just War Theory, Middle East

I’m terribly distressed at the war in the Middle East. Already almost 1000 soldiers and civilians have died on both sides. And the likelihood is that the war will continue for some time, with far more death and destruction. As the war goes on, Israel’s military might means that death and destruction will fall heavily of Palestinian soldiers and civilians. I’m also distressed at the one-side reaction of much of the press and also of so many of my Jewish friends, even those who have been critical of Israel in the past. I want to start with three conclusions, which I will defend here and no doubt in further conversation. Hamas is fighting a legitimate war. It has a right to launch war on Israel in the current state of affairs. The idea that it was an “unprovoked” attack is absurd. Hamas is not always fighting legitimately. It is clearly… Continue reading