Over at the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan notes my response to Alexander Berger’s NYT Op-Ed advocating the creation of organ markets, and provides a counter-response from Roger McShane: [D]onors…see only the slightest increase in their risk of dying from kidney disease…their altruism is likely to lead to more than a decade of improved and prolongedContinue reading “Why Kidney Markets Might Offend Me”
Author Archives: Samir Chopra
Teaching Philosophy By Reading Out Loud
This semester, while teaching my two classes (Freud and Psychoanalysis; Modern Philosophy), I’ve relied at times on reading out loud my assigned texts in class. In particular, I’ve read out, often at great length, Leibniz’s Discourses on Metaphysics and The Mondadology, portions from The Critique of Pure Reason, and in the Freud class, portions ofContinue reading “Teaching Philosophy By Reading Out Loud”
Pearl Harbor and Tora! Tora! Tora!
Today is the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the US fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. My intention today is not to talk about the attack but a cinematic depiction of it: the US-Japanese production Tora! Tora! Tora! directed by Richard Fleischer and released in 1970. I saw TTT with my father and brotherContinue reading “Pearl Harbor and Tora! Tora! Tora!”
Should Selling Kidneys Be Legal?
In today’s New York Times, Alexander Berger, who will be donating a kidney on Thursday, argues that a market associated with kidney donation would lead to better outcomes than the current voluntary-unrecompensed donation model. Berger’s is an interesting argument; I’m going to respond to one small part of it here. In addressing the fear thatContinue reading “Should Selling Kidneys Be Legal?”
An “Intellectual Property” Lesson From A Busker
On Saturday morning, as I sat at 7th Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, waiting for a Q train to take me back home, I noticed a banjo player playing across the tracks from me on the Manhattan-bound platform. The station was noisy as usual, but still, somehow, his urgent strumming and foot stomping (on aContinue reading “An “Intellectual Property” Lesson From A Busker”
Saul Bellow on Artists and Philosophers
In his two-part essay in the New York Review of Books on being a Jewish writer in America, Saul Bellow is typically uneven. There are some rambling portions (Bellow seems to have a talent for such rambling, nowhere more evident than in this bizarre 1994 New York Times Op-Ed where he attempts to defend himselfContinue reading “Saul Bellow on Artists and Philosophers”
Two Bad Ways of Liking Pop Music
Numero Uno: The easy academic way. The interest in pop music needs to contextualized by making your interest and listening pleasure part of a project of aesthetical investigation: What makes a pop song “listenable”? What is the semantics of “catchy”? What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for a track to be “pop”? I realizeContinue reading “Two Bad Ways of Liking Pop Music”
Getting Rid of “Mastery” Over Mountains
A couple of days ago, in response to my post on the language of mountaineering, my friend Karl Steel said (on a Facebook page somewhere, far, far away): Great piece, but haven’t you shifted the language of battle from climber vs. mountain to climber vs. self? what if we lose the battle or mastery languageContinue reading “Getting Rid of “Mastery” Over Mountains”
Can The Mere Presence Of Police Be An Escalation?
Yes. Here is a familiar scenario: students at an American university call a meeting or an assembly. They congregate, and as they do so, a large contingent of security guards or police, sometimes armed with deadly weapons, sometimes not, show up, and form impressive-looking rings of security, setting up cordons and enclosures. The escalation hasContinue reading “Can The Mere Presence Of Police Be An Escalation?”
Posner on Occupy Wall Street
Over at the Becker-Posner blog, Richard Posner (finally?) turns his attention to Occupy Wall Street. By and large, other than little quibbles about phrasing that accommodates Posner’s extreme market-friendliness, there is little to disagree with here: OWS was inspired by the Arab spring, depressions lead to demonstrations, social media makes organizing easier, the police tacticsContinue reading “Posner on Occupy Wall Street”
Samir Chopra 