Particularly in time of crisis, it’s important to think about how we can help and support people – and not forget to look after ourselves at the same time. In light of these questions, center member T. Ryan Byerly has written an article entitled “Putting Others First Is Healthy If You Do It the Right Way”.
In it, he thinks about what motiviates supportive behaviour, “whether being the kind of person who puts others first is unequivocally good”, and discusses recent work in Philosophy and Psychology that illumniate these and related questions. You can find the full article here.
The other article we want to draw attention to, “Trump, Plato and Tyranny”, was published recently by Angie Hobbs and can be found here. The article discusses how current political developments can be analysed by looking at some texts by Plato, particularly his “coruscating analysis in the Republic 8 and 9(562a-576b)” of “how a democracy can be subverted to tyranny by an opportunistic demagogue, rule by the people swiftly degenerating into authoritarian leading of the people.”
Hobbs writes that this was the first text she turned to when Trump was elected in November 2017, and asks: “Have Trump’s words and actions since, particularly in the last few weeks, shown my fears to be justified?”
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Centre for Engaged Philosophy 