A Tale of Four Great Powers, Three Civilizations, Two Rivals, and One Hegemon — (Written 7/14/22) 1. Introduction Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has challenged several modern assumptions about the nature and foundations of the international system. First, that international law can constrain revisionist states. Second, that nuclear war cannot be won. And third, that culture and ideology do not matter as much as economics and security. In this…

Or Living Constitutionalism. Democracy can’t have both. — Living Constitutionalism is the judicial philosophy that the Constitution should be interpreted with regard to the current culture, as understood through public opinion. This stance argues that the Consitution was written in a different time and culture when people had different ideas about what laws were just and unjust. These…

A Test of Defensive Deterrence — Introduction Switzerland has acted as a neutral state since 1516, with the exception of the Napoleonic Wars between 1798 and 1815. …

The Moral System Without Morals — Utilitarianism: “the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of a majority” (Oxford Languages). Two utilitarian philosophers walk into a bar: What is useful? Many things are useful. Ok, who decides which things are relevantly useful? Well, it can’t be you, or me, cause…

If there were there would be no rights at all — There are two different ways people talk about rights, and many different terms used to describe them. On one side there are natural rights, liberty rights, and negative rights; on the other there are positive rights and claim rights. …

I swear that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation — to pursue truth above all else and no matter what. I will never claim to know the truth for certain, yet I will only act upon what I believe to be true. …

Here’s mine — Read: Most all human knowledge, experience, and imagination have been encoded into words on paper. Don’t let that incredible value go to waste. Learn history and science: History tells us where we’ve been, science tells us where we could go. …

Or not? — The Freedom House research institute has noted a continuous global democratic decline over the past decade and a half; free countries have been losing ground to not free countries. …

On the topics of adult vs juvenile justice and prison education — To come to any conclusions about how criminal punishment should work, what punishment is for must first be understood. In an effort to find a good answer to that question I will examine two philosophical theories of punishment, Retribution theory, and Moral Education theory, and argue that the former is…