People Power?
The phrase “liberal democracy” has degenerated into an ideological cliché
Democracy is not an all-knowing and arrogant Ideology. It is its antidote. ...
Read More
Chimpanzee Culture Wars
Cultural primatology in the Anthropocene
Photo Credit: Observing chimpanzee cultures in the wild, Bossou, Guinea / Nicolas Langlitz
—————
As the culture wars became more heated in the 1980s, significant parts of American cultural anthropology broke ties with evolutionary anthropology. Supposedly, the evolutionists’ Panglossian perspective regarded human life as perfectly adapted and thereby naturalized the status quo ...
Read More
Impeachment and Rousseau’s General Will
Insight from the Past on the Politics of the Present
The article encapsulates many of the debates leading up to the president’s impeachment -- that it is grossly inappropriate for presidents (but presumably any government officials) to prioritize their own personal or private interests above the national interest. In impeaching Trump on this count the House emphasizes that while a ...
Read More
Reviving Humanities Education
A counterintuitive suggestion
A 2017 Pew Research Center poll reveals a majority of Republicans believe American universities have a negative impact on the country. It seems the nation’s system of higher education is falling prey to growing political polarization. Just as Republicans have increasingly come to distrust other seemingly liberal institutions, such as the ...
Read More
Critical Love
Night of Philosophy Love Symposium
Mériam Korichi invited me to prepare a ten-minute speech for a Symposium of Love that she was hosting at the annual Night of Philosophy. Realizing I didn’t have anything to say about love, I thought about how I might begin to answer the question: What is love? What unfolded was ...
Read More
Authenticity, American Style
The meaning of authenticity in the era of “reality show” politics
In her 2012 book The Politics of Authenticity in American Presidential Campaigns, Erica Seifert documents the growing importance over a 25-year period of the voters’ perception of candidates’ authenticity in determining the outcome of presidential elections. In recent years Al Gore, John Kerry and Mitt Romney’s bids for the presidency were all ...
Read More
Rousseau and Critical Theory
An excerpt from Alessandro Ferrara’s latest book
Among the modern philosophers who have shaped the world we inhabit, Rousseau is the one to whom we owe the idea that identity can be a source of normativity (moral and political) and that an identity's potential for playing such a role rests on its capacity for being authentic.
The idea ...
Read More
