war

  • On Lying, Concealment, and Strategic Deception

    A Philosophical Happy Hour considering whether every intentional deception is forbidden, or whether some concealment is not only permitted but required. What is a lie?  And do we often call things “lies” that aren’t, or conflate lies with other forms of concealment or deception? A difficult and uncomfortable question—but one, perhaps, crucial to ask today. …

    Read →

  • On Unwitting Conscripts

    In 1970, Marshall McLuhan stated that “World War III is a guerrilla war of information with no division distinction between military and civilian participation” (Culture is Our Business, 66). Two things here deserve our notice. The first is that this war has already begun; the second is that many people have been unwittingly conscripted into…

    Read →

  • On the End of War

    “Only the dead have seen the end of war,” wrote George Santayana in 1922.  A century later his observation clearly remains poignant.  War has proven a commonplace ever since, with seldom a year passing without violent conflict.  Though we in the United States have lived fortunate enough never to have prolonged conflict upon our own…

    Read →

  • On the “Culture War” and Formal Causality

    The term kulturkampf, literally “culture struggle”, has long-since been translated into English as “culture war”.  I have no desire to participate in a “culture war”.  Indeed, as I will argue here, the very notion of the “culture war” is not only misguided but harmful.  But as someone living within a culture, however, I do believe…

    Read →