A Thinking Reed

  • Beyond Prejudice 2

    I want to zero in on what I think would be the most controversial steps in Evelyn Pluhar’s argument for rights (both for human and nonhuman animals). In this post I’ll focus on the first: the move from an agent affirming her own goals and desires to affirming a right to freedom and well-being necessary…

  • Beyond Prejudice 1

    I recently finished Beyond Prejudice, a book on “the moral significance of human and nonhuman animals,” by philosopher Evelyn Pluhar. Pluhar is part of a second generation of animal rights/liberation theorists who build on the pioneering work of thinkers like Peter Singer and Tom Regan. Pluhar’s main contention is that attempts to rebut the assertion…

  • Water of life

    What my sweetie got me to ease the transition into my (sigh) mid-30s. On the bright side, while sharing a birthday with Brother Martin, I did not turn 525.

  • The new Cold War?

    Robert Scheer worries that the old Cold War hawks advising Obama will lead to a ratcheting up of tensions with Russia.

  • “In my view the question is whether one believes or not in the Incarnation and the divinity of Christ”

    First Things interviews Rene Girard.

  • Keith Ward at the National Cathedral

    It was a gorgeous fall day here in DC, and we decided to enjoy it and take an outing to the Washington National Cathedral this morning for their Sunday forum. The guest, as it happens, was British theologian/philosopher Keith Ward, whose work I admire and have written about frequently here at ATR. The format was…

  • “A clear mandate for clean energy”

    Grist is hopeful about Obama’s energy plan: The key is the long game. Obama worked carefully, diligently, and adeptly to get elected on a clean energy agenda. Despite the many reasons he gave greens to recoil along the way, he got there. There is every reason to believe he will now work carefully, diligently, and…

  • Liberty and/versus democracy

    Like many, I’m disappointed by the passage of Proposition 8 in California. Outcomes aside, though, this highlights an ongoing tension between the liberal and democratic aspects of liberal democracy. Liberalism is primarily about protecting people’s rights, specifically the liberty to pursue their own projects and flourish according to their own lights. Democracy, on the other…

  • Prospects for conservatives, “left” and otherwise

    Russell Arben Fox has a thoughtful meditation on the prospects for his brand of “left conservatism” in a bluer America. Hard to believe that we were talking about a permanent Republican majority four years ago. All the more reason to be wary of overconfident (or dire, depending on your view) pronouncements about the triumph of…

  • Change, hope, and all that good stuff

    Like most of the people in my immediate social circle I’m somewhere between delighted and ecstatic about Obama’s victory, both because of what it means for our immediate future as a country and for overcoming, to some extent, the sins of our past (recent as well as more remote ones). Over the course of the…