Are We Decent Deep Down?

David Livingstone Smith (University of New England)

Review of Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

Genre

Social and Moral Philosophy, Psychology

Length

3,500 words

Keywords

Dehumanization, veneer theory, human nature, essentialism, sociality

On the Value of People and Animals

Christine Korsgaard (Harvard University)

"The two most important moral theories of the modern period both lead to the conclusion that people do not, in the most fundamental sense, have more value than other animals."

Genre

Ethics

Length

3,500 words

Keywords

Animal ethics, Kant, utilitarianism, value

What Was "The Animal"?: Ontology and its Discontents

Cary Wolfe (Rice University)

"There is not really, in ecological terms, anything called "the animal" and there never has been."

Genre

Ontology, Animal Studies

Length

3,000 words

Keywords

Animals, language, Derrida, posthumanism

Beyond Bullshit Jobs

Elizabeth Anderson (University of Michigan)

"Bullshit jobs inflict a kind of spiritual violence on the workers who work at them."

Genre

Political Philosophy

Length

3,500 words

Keywords

Work Ethics, neoliberalism, Puritanism

Artificial Bodies and the Promise of Abstraction

Peter Wolfendale (Newcastle University)

"What really distinguishes Descartes from Plato is his conviction that the physical world can be accurately represented by mathematical models."

Genre

Philosophy of Mind, Phenomenology

Length

5,000 words

Keywords

Embodiment, artificial intelligence, Plato, Descartes

Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (Georgetown University)

"The same tactics of deference that insulate us from criticism also insulate us from connection and transformation."

Genre

Epistemology, Political Philosophy

Length

4,500 words

Keywords

Standpoint epistemology, race, deference, activism

Intercorporeality and Social Distancing

Luna Dolezal (University of Exeter)

"We don’t have to look very far to get some clues as to the consequences of interaction rituals that are dominated by avoidance, fear and distrust."

Genre

Phenomenology

Length

3,500 words

Keywords

Merleau-Ponty, Fanon, embodiment, interaction, alienation

What is "We"?

Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan (Arizona)

"We are never who we think we were nor who we wish to be. Our collectivity requires us to imagine origins and futures that by definition cannot exist.”

Genre

Social Theory

Length

1,250 words

Keywords

Collectivity, identity, nationalism, pedagogy