Top News, Articles, and Interviews in Philosophy

The Hiddenness of God

17. May 2019 Philosophy News News
2019.05.14 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews Michael C. Rea, The Hiddenness of God, Oxford University Press, 2018, 198pp., $30.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780198826019. Reviewed by Charity Anderson, Baylor University Some people seek God, but seem not to find him. To others, God seems distant or absent. In one way or another, God seems hidden to many people. This is unexpected if there is a God who wants us to know that he exists, and even more puzzling if there is a God that loves us. Not only is the situation puzzling, but it causes some people significant pain. In various ways, divine hiddenness has been thought to pose a challenge to traditional Christian theism. Michael C. Rea's book offers a multifaceted response to phenomena related to God's apparent hiddenness and the family of philosophical problems it raises. The version of the hiddenness problem most... Read [More]
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What Are Conspiracy Theories?

16. May 2019 Philosophy News News
Conspiracy theorists get a seriously bad press. Gullible, irresponsible, paranoid, stupid. These are some of the politer labels applied to them, usually by establishment figures who aren’t averse to promoting their own conspiracy theories when it suits them. President George W. Bush denounced outrageous conspiracy theories about 9/11 while his own administration was busy promoting the outrageous conspiracy theory that Iraq was behind 9/11.If the abuse isn’t bad enough, conspiracy theorists now have the dubious honour of being studied by psychologists. The psychology of conspiracy theories is a thing, and the news for conspiracy theorists isn’t good. A recent study describes their theories as ‘corrosive to societal and individual well-being’. Conspiracy theorists, the study reveals, are more likely to be male, unmarried, less educated, have lower household incomes and see themselves as having low social standing. They have lower levels of physical and psychological well-being and are [More]
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Foucault, Feminism, and Sex Crimes: An Anti-Carceral Analysis

15. May 2019 Philosophy News News
2019.05.13 : View this Review Online | View Recent NDPR Reviews Chloë Taylor, Foucault, Feminism, and Sex Crimes: An Anti-Carceral Analysis, Routledge, 2019, 272pp., $140.00 (hbk), ISBN 9781138367319. Reviewed by Jemima Repo, Newcastle University This is a rich, rigorously argued, and provocative volume that makes a distinctive new contribution to the Foucauldian feminist literature on sex crimes. In addition to its core work of bringing together Michel Foucault's writings on rape and other sexual 'deviancies' with abolitionist perspectives on crime and punishment, readers of Foucault will welcome the inclusion of the full 1868 medical legal report on Charles Jouy, both in its original French and an English translation by Chloë Taylor and James Merleau. The book's main offerings, however, extend well beyond Foucault; it staunchly argues for a non-pathologising, abolitionist feminism through engagement with issues such as rape, child sexual abuse, and sex work that are at the forefront of current feminist debates. [More]
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