The right to choose your career path, the right to travel in the US, and the right to marry (or not) are all protected — for now — In December 2021, a friend of mine — “Laura” — contracted COVID-19 and learned during her doctor’s visit that she was unexpectedly pregnant. Despite that surprise, Laura and her husband celebrated the news and made plans to welcome another child into their family. At her 8-week ultrasound, however, Laura’s doctor…

Harvard University wants to test Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, but climate activists worldwide fear it might make matters worse — Harvard atmospheric scientist Frank Keutsch is on a mission. In 2014, his research team devised the controversial Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment — also known as SCoPEx. It’s designed to glean data about the risks of “Stratospheric Aerosol Injection.”

The Lion King shows how an Epicurean lifestyle upholds Kant’s categorical imperative — I worry a great deal about my children’s future. Every day I am confronted by news of school shootings, rising teen suicide rates, and epidemic youth opioid addiction. Those are minor worries, however, compared to the runaway train of climate collapse, which seems inevitable given the wholesale cultural changes needed…

Anti-natalists seek to end human procreation — and climate change is underwriting their appeal — In Feb. 2019, 27-year-old Mumbai businessman Raphael Samuel decided to sue his parents. His grievance? He never consented to be born or to live with suffering. Since his parents forced him to do both by ushering him into life, Samuel argues that they should pay him simply to live so…

A quick and easy guide to the world’s most hated philosophy — Despite its broad influence and popularity, “deconstruction” is a dirty word in most university philosophy departments in the English speaking world. Renowned British philosopher and political conservative Roger Scruton, for example, regards deconstruction with unvarnished disdain: “Deconstruction deconstructs itself, and disappears up its own behind, leaving only a disembodied smile…

A structuralist reading of a quintessential American myth — Right now, Russian forces are shelling the Donbas region of Ukraine and slowly conquering the territory. Lysychansk is on fire, Russian war crimes abound, and there is no end in sight to the suffering. As we all know, the US has been dangling the hope of NATO membership before Ukraine…

The father of philosophy sought to reconfigure society by engineering cooperation into humanity’s most fundamental institution — Celebrating Father’s Day always reminds me of Plato’s Republic. Clearly, that observation demands an explanation, so here goes. My high school had a terrible boys basketball team. …

A quick and easy guide to Plato’s hypothetical “regency of the enlightened” — Regardless of how you identify on the political spectrum, it’s safe to assume that we agree on at least one thing: there is little to admire in American political discourse these days. Television political “analysis” is reductive at best, conspiracy theorist at worst — Tucker Carlson’s spurious claims that the…

Plato, Karl Marx, and Bertrand Russell each claimed that philosophy is essential to the good life — I grew up in a Southern Baptist church that preached a fate of everlasting torment in a lake of unquenchable fire for those on the wrong side of God. I believed that story and all that came with it for the first half of my life — I took for…