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The Best and Worst in Biblical Religion: An Open Letter to Christine Flowers

  By International politics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Religious fundamentalism

Christine, You have asked me to apologize to your friend, who called Islam evil, for calling her ignorant and bigoted. And you have threatened to block me on Facebook if I don’t do so. I have no intention of apologizing and instead I’m going to explain why I think you need to apologize for betraying the best in the religious tradition of which you claim to be so proud. If you don’t like what I have to say and you block me, that’s fine. I frankly think I’ve learned all anyone can from reading you. Let me take a moment to explain how I look at the political, moral, and religious traditions that animate our country. I grew up in an orthodox Jewish synagogue, though I moved away from orthodoxy pretty soon after my Bar Mitzvah. I’ve spent most of the last forty years studying the history of political and… Continue reading

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PGW, Darrell Clarke, and the Papers

  By Philadelphia, Public Policy, Urbanism

In a city that, despite its recent growth, has a poverty rate of 30.2% and schools that have been devastated by deep budget cuts, our two daily newspapers are now crusading to….sell the gas works. In a city that has suffered from a governor who demanded those education cuts and a mayor who was ineffective in blocking them, our two daily papers are now crusading…to make City Council President Darrell Clarke, public enemy number one. This crusade is, fortunately for Philadelphia, not working. Unless I missed a protest at Council or sit-in at Dilworth Park, the city is not rallying to the cause of selling PGW or tarring and feathering Darrell Clarke. Nor should they. The sale of PGW proposed by Mayor Nutter remains a bad deal. And outside of a couple of blocks in Center City and a few pages on Facebook, most Philadelphians know it. I explained the… Continue reading

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Why Women Don’t Report Rape

  By Criminal Justice, Feminism, Love and Sex, Sexual and gender equality

Defending Cosby Many people have long loved Bill Cosby, for his abilities as an entertainer, his attractive persona or, in some cases, his penchant for blaming young black people for their difficulties. And many—although fewer each week—of these people have been so deeply troubled by the multiple accusations of sexual violence against Cosby that they have rushed to his defense. Their responses to the accusations have echoed two themes that are quite common when women accuse men of rape. First, many of the accusers have themselves been accused of lying, of making up stories about Cosby. The motives attributed to these women are varied—some have been said to be gold diggers who either hope for an out of court financial settlement of the kind Cosby gave to Andrea Constand or who hope to parlay their accusation into a magazine or book deal. (The statute of limitations for both criminal and… Continue reading

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Beyond Cameras and Training — Here are 5 More Ways to Improve Police Oversight

  By Criminal Justice

First published in NewsWorks December 8, 2014 Even if I were not a political scientist who understood both the importance of what police officers do every day and the dangers they face in their job, I would have a very personal reason for appreciating their work. Years ago, police officers put their bodies on the line to protect my father, when he was a justice of the peace in upstate New York. So like most Americans, I’m not inclined to criticize police officers who use force to protect themselves and others. At the same time, the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner remind us that sometimes police officers use deadly force in questionable circumstances. And there is dramatic statistical evidence that institutional racism plays a role in who is killed by the police — black men die at disproportionate rates. But very rarely are police officers held… Continue reading

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Moral Rage and Moral Humility: Memorial Day Thoughts

  By Philosophy, Political philosophy

Criticizing the unjust wars our country has fought is as appropriate and important today as is honoring the brave soldiers who died fighting for our country in wars both just and unjust. I wish however that this criticism came in a different mode than I’ve seen a lot of today, one that embraced humility and self-awareness. I know I’m not the only one who has been terribly wrong in my political judgments in the past, including judgments about war and peace. I know I’m not the only one who is capable of such errors. Unjust wars Mare not just created by those different from us who act out of greed and selfishness and aggressiveness. They are also created by people like us who act out of misplaced idealism as well as by people like us who deceive themselves and think that their selfishness, greed, and aggressiveness is justified their ideals.… Continue reading

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Civilization and its Contents: Platonic Reflections on Sex and the Culture Wars

  By Love and Sex, Philosophy

A précis of the book I’m hoping to finish in 2021. I’m going to start linking from this page to posts of of draft chapters soon. Comments always welcome! Civilization and its Contents: Platonic Reflections on Sex and the Culture Wars critiques the conception of human sexuality that underlie both left and right in the contemporary culture wars. It presents a radically new  account of sexuality and its place in human life, one that encourages various good ways of pursuing sex that bring pleasure and a connection to other people and in a way that recognizes and supports the fundamental equality of  men and women. The three philosophical essays of part one of Civilization and Its Contents set out the traditional view of sexuality in some detail and contrasts it with a very different view, inspired by Plato and Aristotle (although admittedly an unorthodox interpretation of them).  I show that extremes of left and… Continue reading

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RIP Nelson Mandela

  By Uncategorized

There is a Greek word, kalon, that refers to someone whose grace and nobility is so impressive that it is in fact beautiful. The human being on this planet whose life is best described by that word died today. Mandela showed us that a political life can be what it so rarely is, graceful, noble, and beautiful. Continue reading

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Religious freedom and the Common Good

  By Uncategorized

The key issue is not just whether corporations have a right to religious freedom that allows them to escape government regulations that have a secular purpose. It is also, and more importantly, whether anyone has a religious right to escape from such regulations. Except with regard to regulations that impinge on religious ritual practices, I think the answer is no. If you look back at the text that gave one of the first and still most powerful arguments for religious freedom, Locke’s Essay on Toleration, you will see that religious freedom is not the freedom to have one’s own religious beliefs trump laws that have a legitimate purpose in serving the common good or protecting the rights of other. Continue reading

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American Anti-Statism on the Left and Right

  By Uncategorized

So I recognized something fascinating today. I sometimes try to explain to progressives that the barriers to some of the policies they favor, like single payer, are not just or mainly corporate contributions but, first, the structural features of our government that make it extremely difficult to enact legislation and, second, the anti-statist views of Americans that lead them to distrust large expansions of government power. And they always say I’m wrong, especially about the anti-statist views of Americans. But let the US government do something of which they disapprove, e.g., collecting the meta-data from phone conversations, or make a botch of something, e.g., the ACA website, and you find these same progressives expressing views that echo the borderline paranoid anti-government, anti-statist arguments of the right. Now they are the ones who are suspicious of or impatient with the “damn government.” My point is not just that the left is… Continue reading