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Patrick S. O'Donnell
Adjunct Instructor, Department of Philosophy, Santa Barbara City College
Interests: philosophy of law and legal theory, philosophy of mind, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of science, religious worldviews, psychoanalysis, psychology
Recent Activity
Is it still properly described as the GOP (‘grand old party’)?
How might or should we characterize today’s Republican Party? In other words, what generalizations* properly describe its views, its policies, and its behavior as a national political party? The GOP is a party of imaginary and delusionary grievance, of crass and cartoonish schtick, of denial and desperation, of repugnance and regression, of illusion and irrationality, of empty gestures and vain cynicism, of authoritarianism and aspirational fascism, of obscene wealth and amoral power, of sycophants and cults, of self-deception and phantasy, of white supremacy and narcissistic privilege, of putatively Christian nationalism, a faux populism of bread and circuses that has failed to conceal, let alone contain, a degraded and debased political practice mired in a toxic dump of greed, corruption, and sleaze. However well-intended, that makes mincemeat of Democratic rhetoric and aims on behalf of bipartisanship. * As with all generalizations, there are exceptions of one kind and degree or another. Continue reading
Posted 2 days ago at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Objectivity and Non-Naturalism in Ethics
“It is not that goodness or rightness are ‘miraculous’ properties, or supernaturally decreed supervenience relations. Rather … goodness is like health: the criteria or its attribution to objects and actions have to do entirely with the presence or absence of certain broadly natural features, such as the tendency to alleviate suffering, the promotion of fellow feeling, respectful treatment, and the like. But the normative status of the obligations connected with such types of behaviour is, as Kant famously pointed out, not simply instrumental or hypothetical: we ought to do these things not just because we have contingently evolved to have certain inclinations, not because our society happens contingently to put a premium on certain goals, but rather because such behaviour is categorically right.”—John Cottingham, from his chapter, “Religion and Value: the problem of heteronomy,” in his profound and invaluable work, The Spiritual Dimension: Religion, Philosophy and Human Value (Cambridge University... Continue reading
Posted 3 days ago at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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The European Enlightenment: a basic bibliography
Posted 6 days ago at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Belligerent foreign policy in the Middle East and the continued neglect and diminution of international law
Posted Feb 26, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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The European Enlightenment: democratic, revolutionary, emancipatory....
Posted Feb 24, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Epistemology, Psychology, and Democracy: the facilitation or hindrance of moral psychological autonomy and human dignity, on the one hand, and … how to make sense of notions of shared intentions and collective (or shared) responsibility, on the other
Posted Feb 12, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Saving Liberal Political Philosophy from Itself: From J.S. Mill, John Dewey, and John Rawls … to Charles Mills
Posted Feb 9, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Worldviews and Ideologies: analysis (or description), evaluation, and … construction
Posted Feb 7, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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argumentum ad hominem and then some
Posted Feb 3, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Black History Month, February 2021
Posted Feb 1, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Civics Test for would-be members of Congress
Posted Jan 31, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Beyond Capitalism: a democratic, socialist, and ecological call to arms
Posted Jan 30, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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The QAnon Myth, Phantasy, Delusion … but NOT “Theory”
Posted Jan 22, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Ilham Dilman: a neglected philosopher
Posted Jan 21, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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The relief of suffering and “ordinary unhappiness” in psychoanalytic therapy
Posted Jan 18, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Wilfred Bion’s normative phenomenology and philosophy of mind derived from clinical experience: the analyst’s need for non-attachment with regard to mental states or afflictions (hence the capacity for ‘free association’ or reverie)
Posted Jan 16, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Toward a Symptomatic Diagnosis of the Foremost Threat to a Liberal Democratic Republic
Posted Jan 15, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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What has motivated and moved President Trump?
Posted Jan 13, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Arguments against presidential “self-pardoning”
Posted Jan 11, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Downplaying or trivializing sedition and the Trump-incited insurrectionary mob at the U.S. Capitol building
Posted Jan 9, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Right-Wing Evangelical (and some Catholic) Christians as Members of the Cult of Trump
Posted Jan 8, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Sedition, Treason, and Coup attempt in the Nation's Capitol: remove Trump from office!!!
Sedition, treason, and attempted coup (including acts, attempted and successful, of domestic terrorism): all of which have been directly incited by the President (as well as people like Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump, Jr., and Republican members of Congress from both houses of Congress) of the U.S., who is not only a megalomaniacal narcissist prone to both psychopathy and sociopathy, but transparently evil (when not immoral) as well (the most glaring example of which is his deliberate mishandling of our country’s pandemic). He should be immediately removed from office per the 25th Amendment (or impeached forthwith, which seems unlikely) and incarcerated. Where was the National Guard?! Why did not responsible office holders and national security bureaucrats plan for this? Had this mob been anyone else, that is, not right-wing nut-jobs—proto-fascists and fascists—they would have been gassed, arrested, and shot with deadly force (as occurred during Black Lives Matter protests). All... Continue reading
Posted Jan 6, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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Tort Law bibliography
Posted Jan 6, 2021 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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all good things (so to speak) come to an end sometime
I am trying to decide if I should spend any more time blogging. I stopped blogging elsewhere when I became the sole blogger and began receiving little if any comments (at Ratio Juris and the Agricultural Law blogs, both part of Jim Chen’s former Jurisdynamics Network), and here at RLL this has happened once more. There are no comments to my posts and I have no idea whatsoever if anyone is reading them. I feel I am pissing into the wind, as they say, and am tired of getting wet. If there are any readers who think I should persevere, please let me know, as I sense this is coming to an end* and thus it will also help to know if others are not surprised. In any case, thanks for your attention to this point. Best wishes, Patrick * We might view this as an illustration of (or one... Continue reading
Posted Dec 29, 2020 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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On the expression “herd immunity” in public health
Posted Dec 28, 2020 at ReligiousLeftLaw.com
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