Everyday Ethics

In a world of mass media, instant communication, and a myriad of differing opinions about dozens of topics, disagreement is an unavoidable aspect of our lives.  Couple that with the innate desire of many people to “win” in cases of conflict and the widespread lack of reasoning skills that plagues our society, and the stage [...]

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The Miss USA pageant is certainly not something that most people interested in philosophy pay attention to.  Frankly, I’m a little shocked that they can find enough women to participate in this thing, since it’s clearly a contest that evaluates women as objects.  That aside, the recent Miss USA pageant produced an interesting sound bite [...]

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Most people agree, for a variety of reasons, that there is something wrong with killing another person.  There are clear cases where killing is deemed acceptable, such as wartime, but this is not because killing is not bad in those cases.  To claim that killing is sometimes acceptable is just to claim that sometimes the [...]

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I apologize in advance to those who visit this site expecting to read something overtly philosophical.  This will not be that sort of piece.  Rather, I want to talk a little bit about the trials and tribulations associated with trying to make a career out of being a philosopher in the 21st century.  In addition, [...]

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Anyone hoping to attend a PhD program in philosophy this fall is familiar with the date of April 15th.  This is the day that funded offers must be either accepted or rejected, and as I write this, that day is tomorrow.  As of two weeks ago, I was fairly certain of my fate.  I had [...]

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For anyone pondering graduate study, the date of April 15th has some special significance.  This is the day that many of us will make the final decision about where we are going to continue our education.  This is also the day that the arduous waiting list game will cease.  A substantial amount of wait-list movement [...]

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Most of the initial PhD decisions have now been released, and prospective students across the nation are trying to make the difficult decision of where to continue their philosophical careers.  One of the best ways to get a feel for a program is the campus visit, and we’ve prepared a list of helpful tips to [...]

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In the last several articles on liberalism and social problems, we have focused on a variety of different liberal arguments regarding illegal drugs, gun ownership, and pornography.  We saw that one can give a liberal argument on both sides of these issues, and that relevant considerations on one matter sometimes suggest an undesirable policy endorsement [...]

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The final social issue relevant to our discussion of liberal values in society is whether pornography out to be legally permitted.  Studies have shown that there is a statistically significant correlation between misogynistic pornography and violence against women.  Viewing pornography is not a part of most peoples’ idea of the good life, and there is [...]

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