We are witnessing what can only be called an anti--critical thinking trend in contemporary society. In this brief essay I want to describe how and why critical thinking is in crisis, and what this means for the promotion of critical thinking as an educational aim. Several of my examples show how this crisis has distorted the public debate over…

In this paper, we discuss the historical relationship between empathy and reasoning from a historical and philosophical (continental and Western philosophy) point of view. We explain how empathy has lost its original aesthetic connotations through its journey from one language and culture to another. Nowadays, we often find a quite reduced…

John Rawls (1985) famously argued that social justice ought not to concern itself with the metaphysical disputes that separate us as groups and individuals. Identity is supposed to be irrelevant to the deliberations of free and equal citizens. Since the recent turn toward right-wing populism, renewed attention has been devoted to the place of…

In her thoughtful examination of the complexities of identity in the article "Political and Metaphysical: Reflections on Identity, Education, and Justice" (EJ1277341), Lauren Bialystok provides a full and incisive vocabulary for thinking through the tensions among authentic, political, and social recognition-requiring aspects of…

In "Political and Metaphysical: Reflections on Identity, Education, and Justice" (EJ1277341), Lauren Bialystok makes a nuanced and timely case for a reassessment of the moral and political significance of identity within liberal societies in general, and for education in particular. She offers an impressive philosophical reconstruction…