Official Website for Amitabha Palmer
Introduction For a while, I’ve had the idea of writing short posts presenting right wing and conservative ideas as charitably as possible. There’s a tendency on both sides of the culture wars to oversimplify and straw man (person?) the opposition. I fall prey to this just as much as the next person but in an […]
Read More Gender, Sex, and Transgender DebatesI. Introduction Anytime a constitutional case intersects with the culture wars, you can bet your bottom dollar that everyone on social media will magically become a constitutional scholar–in their own minds anyway. Yes, folks, merely believing something is sufficient for it being true. But I digress (already)… In this post, I’m going to give an […]
Read More Theories of Constitutional Interpretation and How to Think About Upcoming Constitutional CasesAnyone teaching in college these days knows that plagiarism is a growing problem. Not just the incidence rate but student attitudes. Here’s an excerpt from a recent NPR piece on it: Student: Technically, I don’t think it’s cheating because, like, you’re paying someone to write an essay, which they don’t plagiarize, but they write everything […]
Read More How to Prevent Your Students from Plagiarizing: Stop Looking for A Technological SolutionHere’s a short essay I wrote for a one-page essay competition on the meaning of life. I was a dumbass and didn’t read the rules properly. The rules were one page double-spaced. Mine was one page single spaced which I figured out only after I’d submitted it. Anyway, I’ve posted it here so it doesn’t […]
Read More Stoicism vs Existentialism on the Meaning of LifeIntroductionI’ve been seeing what I take to be a lot of bad inferences by smart people concerning the Jussie Smollet hoax. There is a long-running narrative on parts of the right (particularly online) that we should be skeptical of the authenticity of many hate crimes. The Jussie Smollet hoax is pouring gasoline on this narrative […]
Read More Jussie Smollett, Bad Inferences, and NarrativeIntro Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to my annual fitness post. Last year I wrote How to be Aristotle in the Gym, so this year I thought I’d try doing something similar with Epictetus. Epictetus is one of the 4 famous heads of the Stoic school (Zeno of Citium, Cleathes, and Chrysippus are the other […]
Read More How to Be Epictetus in the Gym and on the MatsIntroductionLet’s begin with what Liberals know to be self-evident: All current Liberal views are true and all non-liberal views are false. Let’s add to that what everyone on the Right knows: All Liberals hold exactly the same views on all issues. There are no divisions. No subgroups. And there is certainly no nuance.So, here’s the […]
Read More Lessons for LiberalsIntroductionHere’s a science-based strength and muscle-building program for anyone looking for a change in their old routine. If you’re completely new to using weights, this might be a good program to use after about 3-6 months. This program is suitable for advanced beginner to upper intermediate. It’s not meant for competitive or aspiring competitive bodybuilders […]
Read More A Simple Strength and Muscle-Building Program and the Death of Bro SplitsIntroductionThis post is directed primarily at teachers but I think students and parents alike can benefit from reading it in order to understand what goes on behind the curtain. I’m going to focus on course design rather than teaching technique, although the two overlap. Designing a course is perhaps one of the most complex and challenging […]
Read More The Holy Grail of Teaching: Better Learning Outcomes with Less Prep-Work and GradingIntroduction Yo. Check it. You can’t have a functioning democracy without at least two things: a concern for truth and civil discourse. Although perhaps too obvious to state, democracy requires citizens have a concern for truth. Without it, policy will be ineffective at best. Y’see, in (many conceptions) of democracy, policy represents, to some degree, […]
Read More Identity, Truth, and Stoicism in the Face of Crumbling Norms of Civil Discourse
Wrestling with Philosophy 