Feature Archives - Page 83 of 150

Feature

Why Do We Still Believe in Homeopathy?

Two parts volatility, one part mysticism

January 30, 2018 • by Derek Beres

The alternative medicine industry is booming thanks to a growing mistrust of the health care industry. Profits have dominated people for decades in “Big Pharma.” While research costs are exorbitant, executive compensation is excessive. Appeasing a board of shareholders should not take precedence over human suffering. Patients feel powerless against market forces. ...

Feature

Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto

An Excerpt

January 30, 2018 • by Bryan W. Van Norden

The following article is an edited excerpt from Chapter 1 of ‘ Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto’(2017), by Bryan W Van Norden, with a foreword by Jay L Garfield, published by Columbia University Press. The canon of mainstream philosophy in the Anglo-European world is narrow-minded, unimaginative, and even xenophobic. I know ...

Feature

Franco “Bifo” Berardi on the “Possibility of Joy”

An interview

January 30, 2018 • by Clinamen

The following is a transcription of a broadcast aired on the radio program Clinamen, which is co-conducted by Diego Sztulwark, Diego Skliar, and Natalia Genero. It was translated from the Spanish by Ana Vivaldi and Daniel Harper in 2017. Bifo casts his gaze across multiple planes: the personal and the political, the technical ...

Franco “Bifo” Berardi on the “Possibility of Joy”

Feature

How Democracies Die and How They Live

January 29, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Over the past year a number of writers, myself included, have conducted an ongoing debate about the relationship between Trump, Trumpism, and authoritarianism. The debate has shed some real light on an important topic: the state of and challenges to democracy in the U.S. Yet while some illumination has broken through ...

Education

Women and Men in Dark Times (Syllabus Included)

University Lectures at The New School

January 29, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Elżbieta Matynia and I are teaching a special university wide course for undergraduates this semester, inspired by our favorite political thinker, Hannah Arendt, and her illuminating collection, Men in Dark Times. The course is a response to the present political moment. We, as did she, live in “dark times.” And as ...

Women and Men in Dark Times (Syllabus Included)

Feature

Patriot Soldiers from Sh*thole Countries

Remembering African-American and Haitian soldiers in the American Revolution

January 29, 2018 • by Zara Anishanslin

Just over a week ago, it was reported that President Trump referred to Haiti and Africa as “sh**hole” countries, suggesting that immigrants from both places were undesirable. It seems timely to remember that thousands of Patriot soldiers of African descent from both America and Haiti helped the United States win its war of ...

Patriot Soldiers from Sh*thole Countries

Feature

Are Marx’s ‘Capital’ and Althusser’s ‘Reading Capital’ Still Relevant Today?

Princeton professor Nick Nesbitt argues for the transhistorical importance of both works

January 29, 2018 • by Nick Nesbitt

The following are excerpts from an interview with Nick Nesbitt conducted by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paolo and from his introduction to the edited volume The Concept in Crisis. Reading Capital Today published by Duke University Press in 2017. Copyright 2017 Duke University Press. Folha de São Paolo: A century and a half after ...

Are Marx’s ‘Capital’ and Althusser’s ‘Reading Capital’ Still Relevant Today?

Feature

Tonya Harding, Prison Book Bans, and the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal

Past Present Episode 115

January 28, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate Tonya Harding’s comeback, book bans in prison, and the 20th anniversary of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal.

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Tonya Harding, Prison Book Bans, and the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal

Feature

Courts Rethinking Gerrymandering

Pennsylvania Supreme Court throws out congressional districts drawn by republicans

January 28, 2018 • by John Lawrence

Whenever a discussion of the origins and causes of contemporary partisanship takes place, it doesn’t take long for the subject to turn to the pernicious topic of gerrymandering: drawing legislative district lines to enhance the probability that one party will win a larger number of seats than the partisan vote ...

Feature

A Gray Post on a Sunny Friday Afternoon

Democracy and the Social Condition

January 26, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

It’s sunny this morning here in New York. Nonetheless, from this day forward, and retroactively, I am going to label my weekly posts “Gray Friday.” I am doing so because all of my posts have been informed by my appreciation of the beauty of the gray, and because I see ...

Feature

Millions March Throughout Country on Inauguration Anniversary

Hundreds of thousands in New York City

January 26, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

It was called a Women’s March, and it took place on the first anniversary of the massive women’s march on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. But women and women’s rights were only one of several themes. The most prevalent theme was opposition to everything Trump has done and said, before and ...

Millions March Throughout Country on Inauguration Anniversary

Education

The Dark Side of Homeschooling

What the Turpin case teaches us about the lack of oversight on homeschooling in the US

January 26, 2018 • by Milton Gaither

Earlier this month, police responded to a 911 call made by a 17-year-old girl, informing them that her brothers and sisters were being held captive in her family home in suburban Perris, CA. On arrival, police found her thirteen siblings, aged between 2 and 29, showing clear signs of malnourishment and ...