Departments

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ethics

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    5/10/2023

    Forum: Is "Equal Opportunity" the Wrong Goal?

    by Christine Sypnowich

    A political philosopher introduces a forum on inequality and justice by arguing that the focus on opportunity at the expense of equalizing outcomes will inevitably allow significant inequality to continue. 

  • 5/14/2023

    Political Pundits, Apply the "Resentment" Label with Caution

    by Robert A. Schneider

    As the brief respite between two Trump-Biden races reaches its end, "resentment" is once again the go-to political explanation. But too often the term is used to describe voters as irrational and unhinged while obscuring some real causes of moral aggrievement in contemporary society. 

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    2/22/2023

    Drawing the Line between Assigning and Endorsing

    by Steve Mintz

    Controversies about recent books about the history and legacy of colonialism raise questions about what it means to assign – or refuse to – a book for students to read, discuss, and potentially critique, and how provocation works in the liberal model of inquiry. 

  • SOURCE: Noēma
    12/7/2021

    Michael J. Sandel on the Dark Side of Meritocracy

    by Nils Gilman

    "The growing awareness of the problems with meritocracy in recent decades is a direct result of the deepening divide between winners and losers. The divide has poisoned our politics and set us apart."

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    2/23/2021

    The Broken System: What Comes After Meritocracy?

    by Elizabeth Anderson

    Philosopher Elizabeth Anderson reviews Michael Sandel's critique of meritocracy, a book that locates an explanation for the Trumpian moment in the rise of competitive individualism in the platforms of both major parties. 

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    7-3-18

    Genocide hoax tests ethics of academic publishing

    by Reuben Rose-Redwood

    An academic journal published a controversial article advocating for colonialism last fall. Would academic journals also publish an outrageous article advocating for genocide?

  • 6-17-13

    Canadian Historians: Come Clean About Your Relationship with Big Tobacco

    by Daniel J. Robinson

    Image via Shutterstock.Later this month, Acadia University historian and former Dean of Arts Robert Perrins will testify in a Montreal courtroom on behalf of the tobacco industry. There he will discuss his 400+-page expert witness report on the Canadian government’s handling of tobacco issues since the 1950s.  The year-long trial involves two class-action suits seeking to compensate Quebec smokers for nicotine addiction and disease caused by smoking. The combined claim at $27 billion is the largest in Canadian history.

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Ed.
    3-25-13

    Mark Kingwell: The Barbed Gift of Leisure

    Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. His most recent book is Unruly Voices: Essays on Democracy, Civility, and the Human Imagination (Biblioasis, 2012).A magazine ad campaign running in my hometown quotes a youngster who wants to study computer science, he says, so he can "invent a robot that will make his bed for him." I admire the focus of this future genius. I, too, remember how the enforced daily reconstruction of my bed—an order destined only for destruction later that very day—somehow combined the worst aspects of futility, drudgery, and boredom that attended all household chores. By comparison, doing the dishes or raking the yard stood out as tasks that glimmered with teleological energy, activities that, if not exactly creative, at least smacked of purpose.