Past Meets Present
Writers interested in intellectual history reflect on the consequences of their scholarship for pressing topics in the contemporary world.
Why a Kantian embrace of conflict might serve as a helpful re-framing for much ‘university in crisis’ discourse today.
Michael Schapira
In “On the Balance of Power”, David Hume recognized that just causes are often pushed too far.
Daniel Klein
Since the leak, we have seen the discussion of laws banning ectopic pregnancy abortion, rights for rapists, poor maternal care and the banning of contraception. These conversations are being led by white, straight, male lawmakers…
Megan Chance
Can we effectively care for ourselves? And, if so, what kind of care can we provide? Is it the kind of care that we really need?
Lauren Slater
Was he really using his fictionalized narrator to mask (thinly) his pro-slavery, ‘racist’ sentiments or was it a device to expose what, in his opinion, were hollow public displays of outrage at social injustice and misplaced philanthropy – what nowadays we might call ‘virtue signalling’ or gesture politics?
Quinlan Mann
The hours, energy, and craftsmanship going into sewing, knitting, or crocheting a garment will make you appreciate it more and wear it longer. Neither time- or cost-effective, crafting defies the imperatives of capitalism and its adjunct throw-away culture.
Lina Weber
Debates over the value of feminist art remind us of the long fight for the equal rights that make democracy possible.
Eileen H. Botting
What Trump’s opponents have long failed to understand is that Trump’s supporters simply do not react the same way: that they never have, and never will. And there are at least two reasons for this, both of which Smith can help us to understand.
Paul Sagar
The properly Nietzschean position in today’s age of fake news and infodemics would not be to deny the possibility of truth, but to ask what motivates all parties to the debate.
Matt Bennett
When I first read this passage a few years ago, I was very much taken aback. After rereading it a few times, I—a student of Hume—found myself confused. The footnote seems like a lampoon of vulgarity…
Kenda H. Asher
The controversy over empire in 1776 has shown the close connection between public debt and political union. In the current discussions of aiding economic recovery from the ongoing pandemic, similar issues are at stake.
Lina Weber
Tocqueville would not be surprised by these developments if he returned to America today. But he may feel inclined to revisit some of his original remarks, beginning with his emphasis on the equality of conditions as the defining trait of American democracy.
Aurelian Craiutu & Sheldon Gellar
Tom Bombadil is discovered at the origin of Tolkien’s inquiry into prehistoric Britain; but before following Tolkien beyond the limit of philology we may explore the source of Pocock’s misreading of Tolkien.
Simon J. Cook
Perhaps the only positive thing to say about the growth of vaccine hesitancy is that we have been here before. Anti-vaccination sentiments are, in fact, as old as the vaccine itself.
Lasse Andersen
History demonstrates the ease with which ordinary people commit atrocious acts, particularly during times of crisis. When you believe you are morally superior, you can justify almost anything.
Katrin Redfern & Richard Whatmore
The best-known churches of our collective cultural patrimony have been adapted, one could say desacralized, by their respective leaders for political gain and to set themselves apart from other nations.
Nayeli L. Riano
If you look up ‘sovereignty’ in a dictionary, you’ll get a definition such as ‘supreme authority in a state’. This makes it sound straightforward and uncontroversial. Unfortunately, it is anything but.
Paul Sagar
My family’s driven home to Maine before the COVID-19 lockdown led me back to the wisdom of Atwood, Thoreau, and Frost.
Eileen H. Botting