Zoom Info for the First Session of the Next Substack Philosophy Class Tomorrow
We're starting up G.A. Cohen's book "Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality" tomorrow, with Cohen's essay dismantling Nozick's Wilt Chamberlain argument.
Philosophy for the People w/Ben Burgis
Weekly philosophy essays
Latest episodes
Friday Pick: "Yglesias, Israel, and Moderation" by Matt Bruenig
The perils of constantly gravitating to the middle of a constantly changing political spectrum
Nozick FINAL Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
We've done Anarchy. We've done State. Now it's time for Utopia.
Cohen Class Starting in Two Weeks
The Substack Philosophy Class is finishing "Anarchy, State & Utopia" on Tuesday. The next Tuesday is off. After that, we're starting up on G.A. Cohen's "Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality."
Nozick Ch. 9 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Nozick is clearly right that Locke can't coherently avoid saying parents own their children. But how NOZICK avoid having to say that? And what's this guy's theory of just original acquisition anyway?
Friday Pick: "The Left Is Rising, So Centrist Dems Are Cynically Woke Again" by Branko Marcetic
After the 2024 election, centrist Dems absurdly tried to blame the Left for their own embrace of identity politics. They couldn't even keep up the pretense for two years.
Nozick LAST Ch. 8 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
If Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose has a right to decide who uses his antlers however much it inconveniences the Woodland creatures, do capitalists have a right to do what they like with factories?
Socialism and Eglitarianism
A response to Jesse Spafford
Nozick Fourth Ch. 8 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Is the market price of Napoleon's letters a counter-example to Marx's theory of value? Come to think of it, what IS Marx's theory of value? Also, some stuff about the Sorites Paradox.
Bhaskar Sunkara vs. Jonathan Chait on DSA's Success
Jonathan Chait imagines that the Democratic Socialists of America are crypto-Stalinists. Bhaskara Sunkara has a very different worry.
Nozick Third Ch. 8 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Do symphony orchestras really demonstrate that workplace subordination isn't degrading, Nozick? Also, let's talk about the Prisoners' Dilemma!
Sufficientarianism and Trillionaires
A line-by-line response to "The Trouble with Inequality Politics" by Jerusalem Demsas
Nozick Second Ch. 8 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
What's the relationship between envy and egalitarianism? What happens to status hierarchies under full communism? And if Rawls denies free will do his basic premises about human dignity fall apart?
Nozick First Ch. 8 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Does property come "attached to" rights-holders? Should doctors be allowed to sell recreational heart surgery to people who don't need it? Can you starve someone to death without violating any rights?
Nozick Last Ch. 7 Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Is Rawls arguing in a circle when he includes natural assets in the veil of ignorance? And why doesn't state coercion to enforce property rights count as the state bringing about a given distribution?
Nozick Next-to-Last Ch. 7 Section II Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
More Nozick vs. Rawls! Just one more session of Ch. 7 left.
How Should We Fit Salaried "Elites" Into Marxist Class Analysis?
My opening statement for a panel day before yesterday at UC-Irvine
Nozick Continuing Ch. 7 Section II Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Mostly just a general chat about left and right critiques of Rawls and how some of what Nozick says fits in. We'll be reading through the "Macro and Micro" subsection for Tuesday.
It's Hard to Make Sense of Marxism Without a Conception of Objective Human Flourishing
Or: "Marx and Aristotle and Erik Olin Wright vs. William Clare Roberts and Dylan Riley and David Hume"
Nozick Starting Ch. 7 Section II Recording for Substack Philosophy Class for Paid Subscribers
Finishing up discussing the analogy between Nozick's "redistribution is forced labor" and Marx's "being mutely compelled to work hours of surplus labor is forced labor." Kicking off Nozick vs. Rawls.