Monday, January 19, 2026

Socratic politics: Lessons from the Gorgias

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Almost forty years ago, the liberal pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty published an essay titled “The Priority of Democracy to Philosophy....
86 comments:
Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Church history does not support Trump’s expansionism

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Some Catholic voices online have been suggesting that the example of Spanish colonialism justifies the Trump administration’s expansionist f...
127 comments:
Friday, January 9, 2026

Pope Leo XIV on politics and the death penalty

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From a couple of posts today at Twitter/X, commenting on Pope Leo’s address to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican : A marvelous address b...
76 comments:
Thursday, January 8, 2026

Review of Gorman

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Readers who have access to the journal The Thomist might be interested in my review of Michael Gorman’s terrific book A Contemporary Introd...
8 comments:
Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Interview on the Venezuela situation

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In an interview with Edward Pentin published at his Substack , I discuss just war doctrine, the Venezuela situation, and the false choice be...
71 comments:
Friday, January 2, 2026

On Searle at First Things

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On the Editor’s Desk podcast at First Things , Rusty Reno and I discuss John Searle and his place in contemporary philosophy. (The take-off...
8 comments:
Thursday, January 1, 2026

Some basic principles of masculinity

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From Twitter/X today , inspired by an excellent article by Justin Lee:
45 comments:
Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Catholic natural law thinkers on nation versus race

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As I’ve noted many times (e.g. here and here ), natural law theory and Catholic moral theology both affirm the indispensable role in human ...
75 comments:
Thursday, December 25, 2025

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas to all my readers. I love you all (including the grinches out there). May God bless you and yours!
18 comments:
Sunday, December 21, 2025

Return of the missing links

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My Christmas gift to you, dear readers – a revival of the blog’s “links of interest” posts, by popular demand.  Let’s get to it: J.P. Andr...
64 comments:
Thursday, December 18, 2025

Lawful authority in just war doctrine

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In an earlier article , I set out the conditions that traditional just war doctrine says a war must meet in order to be morally legitimate, ...
43 comments:
Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Kant’s claustrophobic metaphysics (Updated)

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My review of Marcus Willaschek’s Kant: A Revolution in Thinking appears in the latest issue of the Claremont Review of Books . UPDATE 12/2...
24 comments:
Wednesday, December 10, 2025

Would a U.S. war against Venezuela be just?

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To all appearances, the United States is preparing for war with Venezuela.  For months now, American military forces have been blowing up Ve...
79 comments:
Tuesday, December 2, 2025

It's an open thread!

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We’re due for an open thread.  Now is your chance to bring up matters that would otherwise be off-topic.  For example, sometimes readers wan...
124 comments:
Thursday, November 27, 2025

Liberalism and the virtue of gratitude

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In a new essay at Postliberal Order , I reflect on the virtue of gratitude or thanksgiving and the ways it tends to be eroded in liberal soc...
16 comments:
Friday, November 21, 2025

Pope Leo on immigration enforcement

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Pope Leo was recently asked by a reporter about the deportation and detention of illegal immigrants.  In response , he made the following re...
54 comments:
Thursday, November 13, 2025

Searle contra deconstruction

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In a new essay at Postliberal Order , I recall the late John Searle’s critique of deconstructionism and postmodernism more generally, which ...
8 comments:
Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Remembering John Searle

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I wrote an obituary for John Searle , which appears in the December 2025 issue of First Things .
8 comments:
Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Cardinal Fernández on doctrinal clarity

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From Twitter/X today , apropos of Mater Populi Fidelis :
55 comments:
Friday, October 24, 2025

There are two sides to the Catholic immigration debate

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Everyone knows that the Catholic Church teaches that wealthy nations ought to welcome immigrants.  It is less well known that she also teach...
87 comments:
Saturday, October 18, 2025

Vallicella on Immortal Souls

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At his Substack Philosophy in Progress , my old buddy Bill Vallicella engages with my book Immortal Souls: A Treatise on Human Nature .  Bi...
114 comments:
Friday, October 10, 2025

Fastiggi and Sonna on Catholicism and capital punishment (Updated)

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Recently, theologian Robert Fastiggi was interviewed about the topic of the Church and the death penalty by apologist Suan Sonna on his pod...
107 comments:
Monday, September 29, 2025

Against flag burning

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In a new essay at Postliberal Order , I argue that burning the flag as an expression of contempt for one’s country is contrary to the virtue...
100 comments:
Sunday, September 28, 2025

John Searle (1932-2025)

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Daily Nous has reported that John Searle has died.  Searle was one of the true greats of contemporary philosophy, having made huge and las...
18 comments:
Saturday, September 20, 2025

How not to limit free speech

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I am by no means a free speech absolutist.  In an article at Postliberal Order a couple of years ago, I set out the natural law position on...
79 comments:
Friday, September 12, 2025

Thucydides’ times and ours

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All of my readers will no doubt have been following the horrific and heartbreaking news of the assassination of conservative activist Charli...
137 comments:
Saturday, September 6, 2025

Is mandatory vaccination intrinsically wrong?

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Florida governor Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo have announced that they will be ending all mandatory vaccination...
79 comments:
Friday, August 29, 2025

Maimonides on negative theology

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Negative theology (also known as apophatic theology) is the approach to understanding the divine nature that emphasizes that what we know ab...
12 comments:
Monday, August 18, 2025

Diabolical modernity

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Satan tempted Christ to avoid the cross, and offer us instead the satisfaction of our appetites, marvels or wonders, and political salvation...
54 comments:
Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Hanson on observation

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According to the conception of scientific method traditionally associated with Francis Bacon, science ought to begin with the accumulation o...
30 comments:
Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Newman on capital punishment

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It was announced last week that Pope Leo XIV will be declaring St. John Henry Newman to be a Doctor of the Church.  As the Catholic Encyclop...
48 comments:
Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Suffering for the truth (Updated)

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As many readers will have heard by now, last week Detroit’s new archbishop Edward Weisenburger suddenly fired three well-known professors a...
30 comments:
Thursday, July 24, 2025

A postliberal middle ground on trade

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In my latest article at Postliberal Order , I defend a postliberal middle ground position between free trade dogmatism and rigid protectioni...
10 comments:
Saturday, July 19, 2025

Heeding Anscombe on just war doctrine

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Elizabeth Anscombe’s “War and Murder” is a magnificent essay, an intellectually rigorous and morally serious defense of traditional Christi...
92 comments:
Friday, July 11, 2025

A second Honorius?

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Like his predecessor Honorius, Pope Francis failed clearly to uphold traditional teaching at a time the Church was sick from heresy.  So I a...
38 comments:
Thursday, July 10, 2025

Aquinas and prudential judgment

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In contemporary debates in Catholic moral theology, a distinction is often drawn between actions that are flatly ruled out in principle and ...
53 comments:
Monday, June 30, 2025

Talk it out

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Time again for an open thread.   Now’s your chance to get that off-topic comment off your chest.  The burning philosophical or theological q...
225 comments:
Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Solidarity

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The ideal to strive for in international relations is what in the natural law tradition and Catholic social teaching is called solidarity . ...
13 comments:
Monday, June 23, 2025

Preventive war and the U.S. attack on Iran

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Last week I argued that the U.S. should stay out of Israel’s war with Iran.  America has now entered the war by bombing three facilities as...
61 comments:
Saturday, June 21, 2025

Shields on Aquinas on the Unmoved Mover

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My review of Daniel Shields’ important recent book Nature and Nature’s God: A Philosophical and Scientific Defense of Aquinas’s Unmoved Mov...
4 comments: