Kant in the 21st Century: On Work, Precarity, and Citizenship in the A.I. Era
We are living in a time of upheaval, as A.I. – and other overlapping crises – are rapidly changing how we work, how we think, and how we learn. One thing we scholars like to do in times of upheaval is to turn to thinkers from other time for insights on our own. So, for…
Read MoreThe Monsters are Here
Works Discussed: Richard Seymour, Disaster Nationalism: The Downfall of Liberal Civilization Siddhartha Deb, Twilight Prisoners: The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Fall of India Over 2,000 people, overwhelmingly Muslim, were slaughtered in the 2002 riots that swept through the western Indian state of Gujarat. As detailed by Richard Seymour in Disaster Nationalism: The Downfall of…
Read MoreThe Future of Judaism in America: On Joshua Leifer’s Tablets Shattered
The war between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah, the expansion of hostilities into Lebanon and the missile assault on Israel by Iran have thrust the Jewish state foremost into the headlines. It has also sown new divisions in the American social and political fabric, further exacerbating tensions and hatred in what is already a deeply divided…
Read MoreA Humanist Perspective on the Causes, Reasonings and Consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian War
Introduction Wars always cause human suffering, even when they are justified. Although suffering is not measurable, it is possible to qualify it as an illegitimate endeavor. Therefore, wars are substantially immoral. If this is the case, one should ask why human beings resort to war and violence, causing much suffering. Many philosophers, historians, and social…
Read MoreA New Judaism?*
A fundamental question: “Are we, Israelis, still Jews?”, asked the philosopher Ernest Simon in 1953.[1] What looks like a provocative question, was indeed a descriptive statement. He concluded that the establishment of the Jewish state sharply imposes on Israeli Jews a new type of religion in which the state enjoys total rule over religious institutions.…
Read MoreHas Labor Reawakened?
For the past four decades the labor movement in the United States has been somnolent. Ever since the administration of Ronald Reagan broke the Professional Air Traffic Controllers’ (PATCO) strike in 1981 organized labor has staggered from defeat to defeat. Its most effective weapon, the strike, atrophied. Too often when unions chose to strike, usually…
Read MoreThe Backlash Continues: How Two Recent SCOTUS Rulings Pose a Threat to LGBTQ+ and Especially Trans and Gender Non-Binary Persons
Our Present Context My research and analysis of the backlash against LGBTQ+ and trans inclusion since the Obergefell decision of 2015 legalized same-sex marriage, has convinced me that trans and gender non-binary persons exist as a newly created national political scapegoat of the far right. This isn’t to suggest that trans and gender non-binary persons,…
Read MoreThe Rise of Trumpism
In today’s politics, Donald Trump supporters praise him as welcome relief to what they consider failed politics and policies. Trump opponents see him as narrow minded and intemperate. But there’s more. In a December 2023 national poll, 51 percent of the respondents agreed that Trump would be “a threat to democracy if he is elected…
Read MoreTrump and Trumpism: An American Brand of Fascism
All too often, pundits depict Trump and Trumpism as a unique expression of political extremism, but Trumpism is not entirely unique. When the defining characteristics of his campaign were made public in 2016, Trump and Trumpism began to amplify forms of hate and violence that were pre-existing in the political culture of the United States. …
Read MoreKant After Three Centuries
April 22, 2024 was Immanuel Kant’s three-hundredth birthday. Kant is the most influential modern European philosopher, viewed as a direct ancestor by both the European continental and the Anglophone “analytical” traditions. His philosophy, and the revolution (or revolutions) it set in motion, mark the point of division between early modern and later modern philosophy. Kant…
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