Philosophy for the Public Good

Philosophy as a tradition—and philosophical analysis as a practice—have a great deal to contribute to contemporary life.

These tools have been underutilized, and it is time to remedy that. Doing so involves choosing topics and approaches that make philosophy relevant and accessible .

Over the next several years I will be working on a program of “public philosophy.” (That’s the name professional philosophers give to philosophical work that is not aimed at other professional philosophers, more or less in the way “popular science” is written by but not for scientists.) Rather than being philosophy written “to” (or worse, merely “at”) the public, I think of my work in this area as philosophy “for” the public. Especially, for the public good in the sense of improving society, promoting democracy and peace, defending freedom, and helping individuals to flourish in their individual lives. I have a set of projects in mind for my public philosophy work, including these:

  • A defense of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion; in part this is a response to the rising threats of Christian Nationalism and fascism in the USA and around the world. As of January 2025 I have about 110k words drafted on this, with the working title Freedom of Conscience and the Separation of Church and State. I have been blogging on these topics at Towards a More Perfect DISUNION: Separating Church and State.

  • A defense of abortion rights on the grounds that anti-abortion arguments can only be based on religious-metaphysical assumptions, and legally imposing those assumptions on everyone is a violation of freedom of religion (and of the First Amendment to the US Constitution).

  • A defense of atheism as both moral and the most rational response to the evidence and arguments available to us about the supernatural.

  • An explainer designed to help people know how to answer climate denialists, anti-vaxxers, flat Earthers, Biblical literalists, corporate shills, and political propagandists.

  • If it counts in this category, I have almost completed a draft of a science fiction novel that uses philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, and a great deal of humor to tell a story about gods, multiverses, and the meanings of life.

In addition to 20 posts (and growing) at TheDisunion.com, I’ve done a few short pieces of public philosophy already, including: