We upload two essays a month to this page.
To read all of the essays we publish at the time of writing, please consider buying a copy of the journal or taking out a subscription.
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