A Contemporary Debate in Philosophy of Science — What is an explanation? To be more precise, what is a scientific explanation? A lot has been written about the matter and, as is the case of most philosophical problems, the question has so far remained more or less unsettled. According to one contemporary and widely received view explanation is…

Should we reconsider the role of honor in ethics? — Whatever stance we take in our contemporary moral philosophy, it seems honor is conceived as an obsolete concept. Intellectuals in Western liberal democracies often discuss honor as if it was a remote and primitive thing. For example, James Bowman has written a book-length “history” on honor in which he presents…

Examining an unpopular point of view. — States worldwide have declared that they acknowledge the 18th Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The article states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with…

Investigating Erich Fromm’s critique of totalitarianism. — The rise of the 20th century totalitarian regimes in the West was a peculiar phenomenon. The human rights movement and the first wave of democratization were among the great trends of the early 20th century. …

A Cautious Critique of Social Media and Democracy — When I publish this story on Medium, who will see it? On whose feed will my story appear? Well, I am quite as clueless as you are. Once this story is published, I have basically handed it over to Medium’s algorithm which decides what to do with it and how…

Investigating Hannah Arendt’s critique of totalitarianism. — Hannah Arendt was one of the prominent political theorists of the 20th-century. She is celebrated for her original thinking and theorizing style, which is particularly apparent in her work on totalitarianism. After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, she was, as a Jew, compelled to flee Germany. Roughly two decades…

A theoretical outline of peace and violence. — “Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures” — John F. Kennedy In his speech in the United Nations' general assembly in 1963, United States president John F. Kennedy addressed the obstacles of peace that the cold war…

A deep ecologist’s view on conservation — Over two decades ago, UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) called for a scientific assessment of the relationship humans have with the environment. As a result, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was published in 2005. One of its central claims was that human well-being is necessarily dependent on what scientists began to…

Isaiah Berlin on value pluralism. — We value different things to different degrees. The values we hold constitute our moral compasses. While your values might point to the North, mine might point to the South. You might value equality to a greater degree while I might not. There is a conflict of a moral sort. But…