From Student to Scholar

I know there are more pressing matters in the world today, but I want to spread the word about a little book I just read, having picked it up from the Columbia University Press table at the SPEP meeting last week.  (That’s the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy — doesn’t exactly slip off the [...]

Politics of Attack

Today’s New York Times lead editorial echoes what I’ve been thinking about the ugly turn in the presidential campaign. I’m not going to try to say it better, so I’ll just quote the whole piece.  (I hope the lawyers don’t come after me.)
It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, [...]

Political Illogic 101

In Philosophy 101 one of the first things we teach is logic, along with logical fallacies. Here’s the big one we’re starting to see in this presidential campaign, as well as in some comments on this very blog (especially regarding Barack’s Mother): guilt by association. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ” [...]

VP Debate Gets Real

The vice-presidential candidate debate was really interesting — not that anything suprising was said, but for what it revealed.  A potential weakness in such a debate is the policy differences within a party’s own ticket.  There’s a real difference between Palin and McCain on capping emmissions, civil unions, and ideology, and Palin generally skirted the [...]