What does “Categorical Imperative” mean? Kant's Attempt to Build Morality Out of Reason Alone
Kolby Granville Kolby Granville

What does “Categorical Imperative” mean? Kant's Attempt to Build Morality Out of Reason Alone

Some philosophical phrases survive because they sound authoritative even when few people know what they mean. "Categorical imperative" is one of those phrases. It often appears in ordinary language as shorthand for a rule that must be followed no matter what. That usage is not entirely wrong, but it misses both the force and the ambition of the idea. Immanuel Kant did not mean merely that some duties are strict. He meant that morality itself must rest on a kind of rational law that applies to every person simply because they are rational beings.

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Simone de Beauvoir on Becoming: You Are Not Born Into a Role, You Are Trained Into One
Kolby Granville Kolby Granville

Simone de Beauvoir on Becoming: You Are Not Born Into a Role, You Are Trained Into One

Simone de Beauvoir's most famous claim is also one of her most misunderstood. In The Second Sex, she writes, "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." The line is often repeated, but its force is easy to miss. Beauvoir is not saying that the body is unreal, nor is she making the simple point that society influences people. Her argument is stronger than that. She is saying that much of what people take to be natural femininity is actually the result of social formation, repetition, expectation, and constraint.

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How to Start a Literary Magazine: What We Learned in Seven Years.
Kolby Granville Kolby Granville

How to Start a Literary Magazine: What We Learned in Seven Years.

After Dinner Conversation has been publishing for seven years. That feels like a good moment to stop and say something simple: if you are working on a literary magazine, thinking about starting one, or just curious about how this kind of thing actually runs, we are happy to talk.

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Nozick's Experience Machine: If Happiness Is All That Matters, Why Not Plug In?
Kolby Granville Kolby Granville

Nozick's Experience Machine: If Happiness Is All That Matters, Why Not Plug In?

Imagine a machine that could give you any life you wanted. Once connected, you would experience perfect success, deep love, creative achievement, pleasure, admiration, or peace. You could feel as though you had written a masterpiece, raised a family, climbed mountains, changed history, or become the person you always hoped to be. Inside the machine, none of it would feel fake. From your point of view, it would simply be your life.

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Sartre on Bad Faith: The Lie You Tell Yourself to Avoid Freedom
Kolby Granville Kolby Granville

Sartre on Bad Faith: The Lie You Tell Yourself to Avoid Freedom

Jean-Paul Sartre believed that one of the most common forms of self-deception is not lying about the world, but lying about ourselves. We tell ourselves that we have no real choice, that our roles define us, that our personality is fixed, or that our circumstances fully excuse what we do. Sartre called this kind of self-deception bad faith, and he thought it was one of the central failures of human life.

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