Perhaps what is most horrifying is being unable to turn away from one’s own destruction. This theme, particularly as it applies to greed, is explored in the Pardoner’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories from fourteenth-century England by Geoffrey Chaucer, who was regarded by his earliest readers as a supremely “philosophical” poet. The frame narrative Continue Reading …
Demagogue Lover: Aristophanes’s “Wasps” in the Age of Trump
Surely if liberalism has a single desperate weakness it is an inadequacy of imagination: liberalism is always being surprised. –Lionel Trilling In the winter of 422 BCE, the Athenian comedic playwright Aristophanes presented Wasps, the play about the most fundamental political problem of his time, and of ours—the problem of persuasion. The play asks how it might be possible to Continue Reading …
Equal Protection Is Not a Reverse Popularity Contest
A misconception holds sway over how many people think of the principle that it is wrong to discriminate on the basis of personal characteristics like race and sex. The misconception is that the principle applies only to the lucky winners of a reverse popularity contest: only the unpopular get equal protection. You can see this misconception at work in a recent post on the Continue Reading …
Aquinas, MLK, and the Philosophical Foundations of Equal Protection
Natural law seems like a relic, remembered only by Catholics who use it as thin grounds for odd sexual theories: the evil of condoms, the intrinsic disorder of homosexuals. Undeterred, our Not School Philosophy of Law group decided to take a look at this relic, including selections from Aquinas and Martin Luther King. It turns out to provide some interesting foundations for our Continue Reading …
Philosophy of Law Not-School Report: Aquinas, MLK, and Equality
[From new-to-us blogger and PEL Citizen Dan Johnson] Natural law seems like a relic, remembered only by Catholics who use it as thin grounds for odd sexual theories: the evil of condoms, the intrinsic disorder of homosexuals.   Undeterred, our  Not School Philosophy of Law group decided to take a look at this relic, including selections from Aquinas and Martin Luther King. Continue Reading …