I Love ‘Newsom at Noon,’ but It Needs a New Star

Let Nonpartisan Scientists and Doctors Lead the State’s Daily COVID-19 Briefings

Dear Governor,

Your lunchtime COVID-19 briefings—“Newsom at Noon”—are must-see TV.

No California governor has ever had such a regular, closely observed platform, and you are making the most of it. Your memory, your command of policy and operational detail, and your rambling verbal dexterity, especially with the long words you favor (do you ever stop to breathe?), are almost superhuman. With these briefings, you are giving California’s most preeminent polysyllabic performance since Julie Andrews sang “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” for Disney’s Mary Poppins.

Your skilled delivery of so much epidemiological data and so many …

by Joe Mathews | July 21, 2020

How the ‘Authentic Politics’ of Hannah Arendt Speak to 2020’s Biggest Problems

The 20th-Century Philosopher and Theorist’s Writing Is Made for a Time of Pandemic and Protest

by Ned O’Gorman | June 22, 2020

Hannah Arendt was one of the greatest political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt, who was Jewish, was born in Germany in 1906. She fled the Nazis in 1933 and …

California, Don’t Let Your Greatest Thinker Die

The Wisdom of 19th-Century Philosopher Josiah Royce Is Needed Now More Than Ever

by Joe Mathews | June 18, 2019

If you’re a Californian who doesn’t know the name Josiah Royce, shame on you. And shame on the schools, libraries, and intellectuals who have allowed us to forget the greatest …

The Crisis of Fake News Isn’t News At All

Technological Change, Skepticism of Authority, and Relentless Politicization Have Always Undermined the Power of Facts

by Kianoosh Hashemzadeh | March 14, 2019

To be human is to have cognitive bias. And these human biases—and the institutions that benefit from promoting these biases—have fueled the current epidemic of fake news and the rejection …

No, We Do Not Have a “Nihilist” in the White House

Far From Being “Mindless,” This Nineteenth Century Philosophy Requires a Deliberate, Desperate Awareness of the Horror of Our Condition

by Robert Zaretsky | February 20, 2019

There has been, quite literally, much ado about nothing of late. Shadowing the rise of Donald Trump is the rise of what Friedrich Nietzsche called the “uncanniest of guests”—namely, nihilism. …

The Philosopher Who Coined the Term ‘Nationalism’ Also Preached Inclusivity

275 Years Ago, Johann Gottfried Herder Imagined Nations Forming Around a Common Language and Culture, Not a Common Enemy

by Robert Zaretsky | January 9, 2019

Since the French Revolution, a brilliant cast of ideologies has starred on the world stage, ranging from conservatism to liberalism to communism. Yet the -ism that has been most resilient, …

philosophy