A Thinking Reed

  • Thrifty

    Took a trip this afternoon to a big Salvation Army thrift store just outside of DC in Maryland. These were my finds: –Peter Singer, ed., In Defense of Animals –Keith Akers, A Vegetarian Sourcebook: The Nutrition, Ecology, and Ethics of a Natural Foods Diet –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion –Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives,…

  • The virtues as a response to climate change

    Thanks to Derek for passing along this terrific piece on “Changing the Climate: Spiritual steps for Sustainable Living” by a Benedictine monk, Abbot Christopher Jamison. Abbot Jamison thinks that the classical virtues provide an important part of the response to global warming and other aspects of our changing environmental situation. This reminds me of a…

  • Less Friedman, more Schumacher

    Patrick Deneen calls for an economic re-thinking on the Right. It remains to be seen, I think, whether the Right or the Left will be the first to seriously re-examine the assumptions underlying an unlimited growth/unlimited consumption economy. The Left has a long history of attending to social justice issues and questions of equality, but,…

  • Beyond Prejudice 3

    If, following Pluhar, we agree that any reflective agent has reason to affirm that she has basic rights to freedom and well-being, why should that agent extend those rights to others? In other words, must the reflective agent also be a moral agent? To start, let’s review why Pluhar (following Gerwith) thinks that any reflective…

  • Jan Lievens – “Forgotten Dutch Master”

    I recently saw this exhibit at the National Gallery. Lievens was a contemporary and friend of Rembrandt who became somewhat overshadowed, partly because some of his work was later mis-attributed to Rembrandt. The exhibit is an attempt to give him his proper due. I thought that his “Raising of Lazarus” was particularly striking. (This image…

  • What kind of Green Deal?

    Sharon Astyk critiques Al Gore’s climate change wish list for the next administration on the grounds that, among other things, it would require a huge up front investment in technology and infrastructure that may put us over a climate change tipping point because of the fossil fuels that would be required for such an undertaking.…

  • Friday metal – Between the Buried and Me, “Alaska”

    Four minutes of shred, friends.

  • 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.