Archives of Kyle Cupp
The Declaration of Independence begins with a bit of bad philosophy: to wit, positing, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator...
Proposition: One must make an act of faith to think about anything at all. In other words, one must believe in order to understand because all understanding is based on unprovable axioms (e.g., the...
Listening to Michael Brendan Dougherty explain to Zack Beauchamp why he doesn’t believe in human rights put me in mind of Alasdair MacIntyre’s argument in After Virtue that “there are no such rights, and...
Following the leader, supporters of newly minted Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan have been downplaying the influence of Ayn Rand upon his political life and thought, but Ryan’s enthusiasm is too well documented for...
Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches worries that Romney’s pick of former Ayn Rand superfan Paul Ryan will “ignite a religious war of words”: Although House Republicans of course were not eager to advertise this,...
We postmodernists get accused of making up truth, which is true in a sense, but also misleading. I can’t speak for all who don the name, but, as a card-carrying member of the club,...
Historian Roberto de Mattei has an old-fashioned and exclusive notion of religious freedom: The liberty of the believer is based on the truth believed and not on the self-determination of the individual. The Catholic...
Zombie survival guides are a blood-stained dime a dozen, but won’t somebody please think of the zombies? It’s a hard “life,” full of unending hunger, long monotonous stretches of boredom, a homogenous diet, and...
Doug Mataconis looks to the definition of a bigot to show that the word does not accurately characterize all opponents of same-sex marriage. He is correct. Bigotry involves obstinate devotion to one’s hatred and...
Ross Douthat wants more candor from religion’s critics and detractors: It may seem strange that anyone could look around the pornography-saturated, fertility-challenged, family-breakdown-plagued West and see a society menaced by a repressive puritanism. But...
