Andrew Alam-Nist
Is Evil the Mere Absence of Goodness?
A few days ago at work, I grabbed lunch with another intern. While our conversation meandered from law to politics to philosophy, it...
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Andrew Alam-Nist
- May 30
- 4 min
Literature As A Medium To Express Philosophic Ideas
Whenever I write articles for this blog, I am tempted to open with anecdotes from Directed Studies, a program focusing on great books in...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- May 19
- 6 min
Is Religion The Opium Of The People?
In the introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Karl Marx famously characterized religion as ‘das...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Mar 20
- 8 min
Some Thoughts On Economic Growth
In the second week of Directed Studies, a yearlong course at Yale that gives a survey of the history of Western Thought, we read...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Jan 10
- 8 min
Do Robots Deserve Moral Consideration?
About a month ago I went to a talk by Shelly Kagan, Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale, on the moral status of robots. The room was...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Jun 16, 2022
- 8 min
On Moral Responsibility
I. Introduction Moral responsibility is a concept that permeates our regulations, legal systems, and general manner of thinking....
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Nov 29, 2021
- 5 min
A Critique Of Pascal's Wager
Blaise Pascal is one of the most famous, mathematicians, philosophers and theologians in the Western Canon. Following a period of...
Theo Naylor Marlow
- Nov 22, 2021
- 12 min
The What And Why Of Fascist Tendencies In Western Politics
It can be no secret that the term ‘fascist’ has become a particularly cantankerous word in modern politics. Under the auspices of...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Nov 15, 2021
- 5 min
On Ethical Relativism
For nearly its entire existence, cultural relativism has been a monolithic building block of the study of anthropology. According to John...
Toby Levy
- Oct 25, 2021
- 11 min
Do Medical Ethics Support Euthanasia?
Euthanasia is the deliberate ending of someone’s life with the intention to end suffering. The word euthanasia itself stems from the...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Sep 27, 2021
- 3 min
The Morality Of Fur And Leather
Recently, Karl Lagerfeld had a go at what is in his view a form of moral hypocrisy. He argues that ‘In a meat-eating world, wearing...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Sep 13, 2021
- 10 min
Should Capital Punishment Have Any Place In 21st-Century Democracies?
Intro For most of human existence in organised society, most societies have punished the perpetrators of serious crimes with the penalty...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Aug 29, 2021
- 4 min
Some Thoughts On Animal Suffering And Theodicy
An animal is struck by a severe disease in the wilderness. The disease is non-curable and terminal. Being of simple mind, the animal...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Aug 15, 2021
- 8 min
Should We Judge Those In The Past By The Standards Of The Present?
Editors Note: This essay was originally written for John Locke Institute Essay Competition Intro David Hume, in an infamous footnote in...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Jun 20, 2021
- 7 min
A Philosophical Justification of Abortion Rights
Intro Abortion is a topic that has brought about moral acrimony like few others in recent times. Many Conservatives have compared...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Jun 7, 2021
- 6 min
Is The Repatriation of Colonial Artefacts A Moral Duty?
Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing awareness of and support for the repatriation of colonial artefacts to their...
Purav Menon
- May 2, 2021
- 7 min
Is It Immoral To Take Joy In Somebody's Death?
On April 8th, 2013, almost exactly eight years ago at the time of writing, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died of a...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Apr 26, 2021
- 7 min
A Critique of Anselm's Ontological Argument
Editor's Note: In this essay, in a somewhat different tone to some of my other blog posts, I decided that it would be interesting to...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Mar 28, 2021
- 4 min
Are Aristotelian Virtue Ethics Relevant in the 21st Century?
Following a general disappearance from Anglo-American philosophy during the 19th Century, virtue ethics have experienced a broad...
Towa Matsuda
- Mar 21, 2021
- 9 min
Is Healthcare a Fundamental Human Right?
(Figures referenced are placed at the bottom of the article) Article 25 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Feb 14, 2021
- 5 min
The Issue With Incentivising Good Behaviour
In the opening pages of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s bestseller, ‘Freakonomics’, they state that ‘economics is, at root, the study...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Jan 31, 2021
- 8 min
From Where Does Scripture Derive Its Authority?
I Intro The origin of the authority of scripture is highly disputed. To many, it may not have any authority at all. To determine its just...
Jiayi Li
- Jan 11, 2021
- 6 min
A Comparison Between The Idea Of Unity Of Opposites Present In Taoism And Heraclitan Philosophy
Taoism emerged around 500 BCE during the Zhou Dynasty in China. Rather than concerning with state duties and administrations as a great...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Jan 3, 2021
- 6 min
Has Christianity Been An Aid Or A Hindrance To The Development Of Western Philosophical Thought?
For nearly 1500 years prior to the Enlightenment, as well as during it, Christianity held a stranglehold on Western philosophy throughout...
Nicco Bargioni
- Dec 18, 2020
- 8 min
An Introduction To Demonism
Introduction: The Nature Of The Beast Demonism, the theory that it is necessary for an individual to commit atrocities to help, found, or...
Andrew Alam-Nist
- Sep 1, 2020
- 8 min
Should A Drink Driver Who Hits Nobody Be Punished As If They Did?
When driving under the influence of alcohol, drivers are unable to fully control themselves, and lose a significant degree of motor...
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