Philosophy

Our Schizophrenic Politics — Sex, Health, Religion, Money, and Other Important Stuff [Good Life series]

schiz•o•phren•ic, adjective: Of, relating to, or characterized by the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic elements. Let’s talk about one reason why politics makes us all a little crazy — its incoherent mix of laws and regulations. (Warning: overcharged metaphor ahead.) Not only does the left hand of government often not know what the right hand

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Ukrainian translation of Nietzsche and the Nazis published

Mariupol State University Press has published the Ukrainian translation of my Nietzsche and the Nazis book. Much thanks to Dr. Przemysław Zientkowski for initiating the project and to the team at MSUP for producing it. Here is is the book’s description in English: Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is famous for his statement that “God is dead”

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Lifeboat ethics: how scarcity thinking sets us at each others’ throats [The Good Life series]

A scenario beloved of ethicists, public policy experts, and management consultants asks you to imagine yourself on a lifeboat. Built into such scenarios are powerful assumptions with life-or-death consequences, so as we work through the lifeboat scenario try to make those assumptions explicit. Here we go: You were flying over the Pacific, but bad weather

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Nuestro problema con el Che Guevara

por Stephen Hicks  [This is a Spanish translation of “Our Che Guevara Problem”, first published in English at EveryJoe and then translated into Portuguese at Portal Libertarianismo.] Es muy probable que alguien que conozcas tenga una camiseta del Che. Versiones románticas del rostro barbudo de Ernesto Guevara Lynch son muy populares en los campus universitarios y

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Quando o altruísmo torna-se patológico [Portuguese translation]

[This is a Portuguese translation of “When Altruism Becomes Pathological”, originally published in English at EveryJoe.] Quem é mais propenso a trapacear — praticantes de esportes individuais ou de esportes coletivos? Um experimento fascinante realizado pelo professor Sharon K. Stoll, publicado no Chronicle of Higher Education, compara atletas de esportes individuais como golfe ou tênis simples

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Why power does not corrupt — and it is character that matters most [The Good Life series]

As with sex and money — and most of the important matters in life — many silly things are said about power. Perhaps the granddaddy of those silly things is the oft-quoted phrase, Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is an important truth that Lord Acton’s phrase tries to capture. But taken literally

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Recent sex scandals in philosophy departments

Sex scandals in Philosophy departments: * Miami’s Colin McGinn resigned. * Colorado’s Graeme Forbes resigned. * Yale’s Thomas Pogge is under serious investigation (thanks to Alex Tabarrok for the link). We might expect philosophers — especially those who specialize in ethics — to be more principled than the average. So Eric Schwitzgebel’s question is an

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