Carmen’s Many HatsMy grandmother Carmen passed away last November — two days shy of her 98th birthday. She suffered from severe dementia and her health had…Jan 15Jan 15
Bentham and Utilitarianism: An AppreciationIn a recent series of articles on this website, Russ Roberts develops a “critique of utilitarianism” as a theory of individual decision…Jul 20, 2022Jul 20, 2022
More on the Purported Moral Right to own IPThe most important defense of the idea that IP protections respect pre-existing moral rights is Robert Merges’ 2011 book Justifying…Feb 8, 2021Feb 8, 2021
There is no Moral Right to Intellectual PropertyVaccine development has been one of the few bright spots in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it also brings renewed…Feb 8, 2021Feb 8, 2021
Why care about consistency?The expression, “I just care about consistency,” sometimes comes up in political arguments. It is interesting because it suggests a…Feb 5, 2021Feb 5, 2021
Two Cheers for Mutual AdvantageIn this post I want to explore a dimension of politics that seems to have been wrongly marginalized in discussions of political conflict…Dec 1, 2020Dec 1, 2020
No, We are Not Living Through a “Coup Attempt”One consequence of social polarization in American politics has been an increase in public accusations of “coups” and “treason.” This…Nov 8, 20201Nov 8, 20201
What Netflix’s New Documentary Misses About the Challenger DisasterNetflix has a new four-part documentary out called Challenger: The Final Flight on the January 1986 space shuttle disaster. As other…Oct 2, 2020Oct 2, 2020
When should we replace public monuments?One problems with the debate over renaming institutions and removing statues is the absence of a coherent set of principles for deciding…Aug 2, 2020Aug 2, 2020
When does the charge of “undermining agency” rest on a mistake?There is a familiar dialectic in debates over “individual responsibility” in politics, and which has become salient in the recent debate…Jul 22, 2020Jul 22, 2020
