Category Archives: Philosophy
You want more Surveillance? You can have it.
I just read this: A new CNN/Time … Poll indicates four in ten Americans say they are willing to give up some civil liberties to fight terrorism. Only 38% favor expanding government monitoring of e-mail and cell phones. While this … Continue reading
Is there an Alternative to Liberalism?
The final project of the second year (of three) of my MA in Philosophy was supposed to give an answer to the question “Is there a serious alternative to liberalism as a political theory?” Here is what I wrote: I. … Continue reading
Did you notice the Irony? (# 2)
Recently, on a blog I sometimes visit although I disagree with its content more often than not, the question was posed if the USA are becoming “fascist” or if they would have become fascist under a President Romney. The first … Continue reading
Ethical Dilemmas on Election Day
For election day, I would like you to imagine the following scenarios and tell me in the comments how you would decide and for what reasons. Scenario 1: Imagine you are a strong supporter of Barack Obama. You are 100% … Continue reading
Punishment and Liberalism
The following essay was part of the second year of my MA in Philisophy and set out to examine which problems criminal punishment poses for liberalism, especially in view of John Rawls‘ theory of punishment in “A Theory of Justice”. This … Continue reading
John Rawls: “A Theory of Justice” versus his later works
This essay was part of the second year of my MA in Philosophy and concentrated on the work of one philosopher exclusively: John Rawls. If you haven’t read any of his work, I would advise against reading this essay. There will … Continue reading
I will take you seriously when you learn how to pronounce foreign names
Because I go on a lot of long walks at all times of the day, I regularly download podcasts to provide me with stimulating intellectual company during these walks – as nobody seems to wish to join me in person. I listen … Continue reading
What do you want to do with Philosophy?
In the year 1995 Question: What do you study? Me: Law. Reaction: Wow! In the year 2012 Question: What do you study? Me: Philosophy. Reaction: ??? When I studied law more than a decade ago, some of my high school … Continue reading
Equality versus Sufficiency
The second paper in my second-year module Contemporary Social and Political Philosophy as part of my MA in Philosophy had to discuss the conflict between egalitarianism and the sufficiency criterion. Here are my thoughts on this, as always confined by the strict limit of … Continue reading
Functional Explanation in the Social Sciences
The first paper in my second-year module Contemporary Social and Political Philosophy as part of my MA in Philosophy had to address the following question: ‘Functional explanations are essential for the study of evolution. Evolutionary explanation through chance variation and … Continue reading
The Happy Hermit 