Richard Moran

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I tried to write some replies here but it doesn't seem to be working for me.

He is understanding 'duties are dischargeable' in the sense that a debt can be paid off, and then you are 'quits' as far as the debt is concerned. But he wants something different from the idea of 'acknowledgement', something that is not dischargeable like that.

It is indeed a puzzling part of the book. Starting out with his tying his idea of 'acknowledgement' to the more Kantian idea of 'duties toward others'. Combined with his insistence that "duties are dischargeable". It's an unstable combination, which is what I think he is getting at here.

Much noise that political philosophy not equipped for realities of oligarchic rule (too utopian, aspirational etc). But don't forget (cf Tocqueville) that bones of liberal and republican thought were all sketched out under Ancien Regime conditions. All seemed hopelessly utopian until they weren't

Around the neighborhood this morning.

Opinion | Harvard Has Already Capitulated to Trump’s War on Academia The administration is trying to assert political control over American higher education.

"Obey in advance" is now official Harvard policy. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...

A Harvard undergraduate outlines some of the things wrong with the recent speech codes imposed on the University. That campus-wide speech codes could be imposed as part of settling a civil lawsuit is outrageous enough. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Wow, so very cool! Congratulations!

Yesterday, in protest of Harvard University's response to the genocide in Gaza and deepening repression of campus activism against it, I submitted a letter of resignation from my job there. Here is that letter.

College freshmen saying "from the river to the sea" is an existential threat to Jewish people. America's shadow president giving Nazi salutes at a rally is not.

by Bret Stephens and Bill Ackman

Whatever happens to my family, know this: No pardons were offered or discussed.

I cannot begin to describe the level of betrayal and hurt I feel.

big victory for Indigenous activists

MLK Now - Boston Review Canonization has prevented a reckoning with the substance of King’s intellectual, ethical, and political commitments.

Dr. King saw that Du Bois “did not content himself with hurling invectives for emotional release & then retire into smug, passive satisfaction.”

“It is not enough for people to be angry,” he argued; “the supreme task is to organize & unite people so that their anger becomes a transforming force.”

Surprised that Eisenberg had it in him. Needs a different title though.

Yes! (Still learning how to work this thing)

We just saw it last night!

Mary Whiton Calkins

Honored by the Psychology Dept anyway, which separated from Philosophy in the 1920s. psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/mary-...

Thanks Kranti! Just feeling my way here. I have no idea yet how to use this. But good to be in touch.