In her 2007 essay “Gay Divorce: Thoughts on the Legal Regulation of Marriage,” Claudia Card argues that marriage is an evil institution. An evil institution consists of two foreseeable and causally linked components: “Culpable wrongdoing and intolerable harm” (30). Marriage, according to Card, meets these criteria. Spouses – predominantly women – are exposed to intolerable harm, including death, through domestic violence. The emergence of such violence was foreseeable and it is tied to the institution of marriage that the threat of violence can only be mitigate by abolishing the institution. And, finally, there are people who have the power to … Continue reading »
In “Five Faces of Oppression“, Iris Young argues that oppression is structural, part of the existing system. There might not be a clear oppressor anymore; no tyrant to point to. Instead the relations between groups are marred with oppression, even if that oppression is not administered consciously. Importantly, there are many groups in society that are oppressed. No group’s oppression has “causal or moral primacy” (42). (Page numbers refer to the text linked to above.) Young identifies five faces of oppression
I have started to read a book on developmental systems theory (I’ve summarized a little on DST already). It is a fascinating read! And the themes raised are relevant to my recent musings on evolutionary psychology, so I thought I’d muse some more… The chapter I read was a reprint of an article by Daniel Lehrman originally published in 1953 critiquing Konrad Lorenz’s Theory of Instinctive Behavior (the link opens a PDF to the full article, which is excerpted in the chapter in Cycles of Contingency). I would like to touch on a couple of things in response to reading … Continue reading »
Jun 052010
My most exciting discovery during my first year back in school was part of my research for a paper. I had planned on incorporating meme theory into an approach to explaining how beliefs become tradition. Fortunately, my professor pointed me to an article about cultural evolution, which turned me off from memes and turned me onto co-evolution. With excitement, I read about this emerging branch of evolutionary theory (for an introduction, please see the SEP entry). I abandoned that research during the semester when it became clear that my paper idea was way too ambitious. Now that the semester is … Continue reading »
Dec 132009
For one of my classes, I had to put together a creative project. Since writing is my creative outlet, I chose to write a poem. After reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, I wrote the following poem inspired by the liberating energy I felt in the Allegory. After re-reading a piece from Iris Murdoch, I decided to post it here. Maybe the sun of the Good will shine through to reach some of us to go beyond ourselves to develop morally as Murdoch suggested great art can do (note: I think Plato’s work is the great art here!). Deep down … Continue reading »
Sep 242009
I just watched Waltz with Bashir. And I am under shock. How much human inflicted suffering! From the actual massacres to the post-traumatic stress syndrome of the soldiers involved. Lives destroyed. When I was a little kid, I supposedly swore that nothing like the Holocaust would ever happen again. Yet, where was I when those massacres happened? When did they even happen? I didn’t even know about them until this movie. I started reading Peter Unger’s book “Living High and Letting Die.” It’s subtitle is “Our Illusion of Innocence.” He writes about children dying all over the world while we … Continue reading »
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