The Attainder Clause Prohibits Senate Expulsion of Al Franken and Roy Moore.

And Even if it didn’t their expulsion would still be unconstitutional, and even if it weren’t it would still be a sin against sound political theory

The Status of Women in Anthony Trollope's Science Fiction

Although we are now well past the seventh decade of the 20^th Century, there may still be some instruction in reflecting on the long-range predictions about the 1980s made by a leading light of English letters. Everybody knows George Orwell’s pessimistic vision 35 years in advance of 1984. Anthony Trollope’s 1880 imaginings a century into the future are familiar to at best a thousandth as many. Trollope was, however, a widely published and sometimes celebrated literary figure. There are more than twenty pages of mostly Trollope works on Amazon.

Proving Abandoned and Malignant Heart Murder: The Zarate Case

The gunshot death of Kathryn Steinle on San Francisco’s Pier 14 in July, 2015, became a chief exhibit in Candidate Trump’s “bad hombre” attacks against sanctuary cities. The claim that San Francisco would be a safer place were it not a sanctuary city is almost certainly wrong as is the claim that unlawful immigrants have a higher percentage of bad hombres than the general population. I will not, however, further discuss those well discussed issues.

My focus will be on the murder trial now under way and in particular on proof of the element of “malice aforethought” for second degree murder in California. (The charge is not first degree murder because it is not alleged that it met any of the special requirements of that offense “. . . a weapon of mass destruction, . . . poison, . . . torture,  . . . arson, rape, carjacking, …” California Penal Code Sec. 189.) The question in my mind is whether there is any way that the prosecution can prove second degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt and whether this offense should even have been charged.

Not knowing what you are sure of: e.g. “π + e is irrational.”

It is as unexceptionable as philosophical principles ever are that we can claim to have knowledge if, in addition to belief, we have the proper sort of justification. It seems we can have excellent justification for believing that that π + e  is irrational, leading to high confidence that it is. Yet no mathematician would say that we know the sum is irrational. Why is that?

What Antifa Gets Right, and Wrong

Antifa groups are not centrally organized and do not have established doctrines.  There are, however, common themes and practices that warrant some praise and some condemnation.

The Right to Drown Out Speakers

If you don’t want to risk being drowned out by opponents, don’t hold a rally on the Boston Commons.

David Hume on Emoluments

The top-five-all-time-philosopher David Hume did not actually interpret the Emolument Clauses of the United States Constitution, which will not surprise you when you recall that he died two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Hume did, however, leave us a little evidence of the usage of “emoluments”  from one of the eighteenth century’s most literate and astute pens:

Two (or More) Moving Spotlights of Time

There is something special about this moment: that it is now.  We talk about the “flow” of time, are tempted to say “the now moves” and may find appealing the analogy of a spotlight sweeping across a series of pictures.  I am not, here and now, going to defend the, philosophically controversial, moving spotlight theory. What I am going to do is to show that we could have evidence, not decisive evidence but pretty good evidence, that there were two or more spotlight nows moving along the timeline, and perhaps moving at different speeds, or even in different directions.

Things Unfolding as They Did II

I didn’t mean to sound so oracular last post. Let me expiate by filling in a little. The claim is that things unfolding as they did from the big bang, including such things as an ordinary trip to the store as ordinarily described, had a probability either of 1 or something exquisitely close to 0. In light of quantum theory, it is almost certainly the latter.

The Probability of Things Unfolding as They Did

Measured from the early big bang, the probability that you would buy just those items you picked up on your last trip to the store could only be either 1 or a number distinguishable from 0 only by a quantity smaller than humankind has ever used or even contemplated.

Mandates, Democratic Theory, and President Trump

It is common for a national leader who wins election by a large margin to claim a mandate from the voters and a right and duty to make sweeping policy changes. It is also not uncommon for a candidate who barely squeaks by in an election to be cautious, proposing a less bold program, and seeking common ground with other parties. The current US president exhibits the opposite conduct.

Libertarian Island II: Individual Rights

In this second installment of the adventures of shipwrecked Libertarian Bob and Left Libertarian Ann somewhere in the south seas.

"trump" and Google

I searched for "trump," and on not a single page was there any mention of bridge, or any reference to the games of hearts or spades either. Why haven’t we been told that the distinction between upper and lower case is deceased?  "trump hearts," "trump diamonds," "trump clubs," and "trump suits," were all Donald, and after the first couple of pages even “trump bridge” was mostly Presidential. Only "trump spades" returned many results about a card game.

Choosing Libertarian Island

Shipwreck survivors on unknown islands are beloved by the writers of fiction, by cartoonists, and also by philosophers. Crawling up the beach on day on the island I have in mind were a "libertarian" Bob, and Ann,  who might, for want of a better label, be called a “left libertarian,” as will emerge. The pair were spotted by a stranger who helped them into the shade of the nearest palm.

Impeachment for Acts Prior to Taking Office?

It may be only an academic question, but one that has been edging  a little closer to the real world: Can the President of the United States can be impeached and convicted for acts committed before Inauguration Day?

The Fundamental Theorem of Ontology: Not Everything Exists.

There may be some in the world population who, even if they understand the importance of other branches of metaphysics, hold no brief for ontology – the study of what exists and what it is to exist. Some are quite satisfied with, “Everything exists.” It is, of course, true in one obvious way that everything exists. To be included among the things of everything is to be. So understood “Everything exists” is  tautological.  There is, however, a way of asserting “Everything exists” so that it carries real content, indeed makes an important metaphysical claim. Once many years ago, I made just this claim, and was as wrong as wrong can be.

The Infinite Regress Step of Cosmological Arguments

Arguments for the existence of God purporting to show that there must have been a creator ex nihilo, first mover, or ultimate sustainer of physical reality all share a step that the particular sort of infinite regress that there would otherwise be is a metaphysical impossibility. I will here defend one particular kind of "no infinite regress" premise, although I don't think it goes very far in buttressing even the species of cosmological argument that can claim this true premise.

Team Spirit in US Politics

There is reason to doubt that the swing voters of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin will find their hopes for the Trump Administration much met. There will not likely be a big upswing in good jobs; coal will not come roaring back; Mexico will not pay for any walls;  the number of people of dusky complexion will not noticeably decrease. There likely will be loss of health care coverage and the quality of that coverage and inroads against Medicare and Social Security. In short those lower middle income voters who voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016 because they were disappointed with their economic prospects may very well not find very much to celebrate in the coming years. Many, however, may well remain loyal for reasons that follow.

God, The Source of Morality, and the Source of Logic

Many theists argue that God is the source of morality and its essential and defining source. As a matter of intellectual consistency should these same theists hold that God is in the same way the source of logic?