Andrew Alam-Nist
A Defense of ESG (Mostly)
ESG — short for environmental, social, and governance, a framework through which businesses consider corporate social responsibility –...
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Andrew Alam-Nist
Jul 21, 20234 min read
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...
Andrew Alam-Nist
May 30, 20234 min read
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, 20236 min read
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, 20238 min read
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, 20238 min read
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, 20228 min read
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, 20215 min read
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, 202112 min read
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, 20215 min read
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, 202111 min read
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, 20213 min read
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, 202110 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20218 min read
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, 20217 min read
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, 20216 min read
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, 20217 min read
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, 20217 min read
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, 20214 min read
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, 20219 min read
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, 20215 min read
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, 20218 min read
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, 20216 min read
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, 20216 min read
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, 20208 min read
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, 20208 min read
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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