Benjamin Winterhalter
Somerville
residential and commercial landlord-tenant attorney. words in @theatlantic, @bostonglobe, @lareviewofbooks, &c. views here my own.
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Articles by Benjamin Winterhalter
The Future is Androgynous
In its penultimate chapter, Shulamith Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex takes a turn toward the metaphysical. Having assailed patriarchy as a violently enforced “sex class system” dependent on a prehistoric gender binary, and called for the abolition of the sex distinction itself, Firestone turns toward big-picture abstraction—a general theory of human cultural history.
The Madness of John Roberts
On Monday, June 29, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its long-awaited ruling in June Medical Services v. Russo. On a 5-4 split, the Court struck down a Louisiana statute that required any doctor performing an abortion at a clinic to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, a rule that would have effectively reduced the number of clinics in the state to one.
Insect Jewelry of the Victorian Era
In 1891, a Mrs. DeJones debuted a fabulous piece of living jewelry. She strapped a diamond to the back of a live beetle and trained it to fly around her neck, tracing the shape of a necklace. At least, that was the story in Entomological News. This tidbit, snipped from some anonymous daily newspaper, might be best taken with a grain of salt. Even if it wasn’t true, it was certainly on trend.
3 Women Philosophers of the Enlightenment
The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. “This world has always belonged to males,” Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her 1949 book The Second Sex. The same, sadly, may be said of the canon of Western philosophy and of the composition of academic philosophy departments, even today.
Walter Benn Michaels: What’s His Deal?
To oversimplify things a bit, the literary critic Walter Benn Michaels’ intellectual project consists in uniting a number of seemingly unrelated observations into one big thought. Michaels saw three things happening, all around the same time (1967 to the present). One, a postmodernist current in literary theory, which, following the French theorist Roland Barthes, asserted “the death of the author” (and, in turn, of intended meaning), became fashionable in the academy.
The World as Will and Quantum Mechanics
There is, unfortunately, no such thing as fate. If we accept that quantum mechanics—for all the strangeness associated with it—gives an accurate description of the universe’s basic ontology, we should also accept that the will is real.
Franz Kafka's The Trial—It's Funny Because It's True - JSTOR Daily
The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. In Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, first published in 1925, a year after its author’s death, Josef K. is arrested, but can’t seem to find out what he’s accused of. As K. navigates a labyrinthine network of bureaucratic traps—a dark parody of the legal system—he keeps doing things that make him look guilty. Eventually his accusers decide he must be guilty, and he is summarily executed.
Stanley Fish's Academic Clickbait
April 19, 2017, marks Stanley Fish’s seventy-ninth birthday. Originally hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, Fish has established himself as a major figure in literary postmodernism while denying that he is a postmodernist and has—famously—“defended” the humanities while denying that they have any practical value. What gives?
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Radical Project Isn’t Finished
The weather was fine in Washington, D.C., on the morning of November 1, 1978, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg—then a law professor at Columbia University in her mid-40s—ascended the steps of the Supreme Court to present her oral argument in the case of Duren v. Missouri. Ginsburg and her client, a man named Billy Duren who had been convicted of murder and robbery by an all-male jury, prevailed. The case set an important constitutional precedent concerning the fair representation of women on juries.
Do You Believe in Ghosts?
Last summer, after interviewing Professor David Kaiser, a theoretical physicist and historian of science at MIT, I switched off my recorder. As I prepared to leave, I decided to venture another question against my better judgment, apologizing in advance that it would probably sound kooky: “Is there any possibility, however remote, that ghosts exist?” Professor Kaiser’s brow wrinkled. Oh no, I said to myself, he probably thinks I’m yanking his chain or playing gotcha somehow.
The WHO's Controversial Definition of "Health"
The WHO's Controversial Definition of "Health" Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via APAccording to the World Health Organization, health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The apparent fullness of this definition carries a powerful intuitive appeal: A comprehensive definition of health should cover all aspects of life, it would seem.Read Full Article »
What's the Definition of Health?
A Curious Reader asks: What’s the definition of health? According to the World Health Organization, health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The apparent fullness of this definition carries a powerful intuitive appeal: A comprehensive definition of health should cover all aspects of life, it would seem.
It’s Perfectly Possible to Live in a Post-Truth Era
On May 1, 1960, the CIA pilot Captain Francis Gary Powers flew a U-2 spy plane over the USSR, taking photographs of Soviet military installations, including sites capable of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles. Spotting the aircraft on radar, the Soviets deployed long-range surface-to-air defenses, bringing the U-2 down and capturing Powers.
My Summer of Watching Little Women
Sometime in 1996 or 1997—when I attended Bartlett Middle School—I spent an inordinate amount of time sitting on the couch in the den with my mother and her friend Karen while the two of them sipped chardonnay and commented upon every film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. We watched each of the four versions of the movie half a dozen times, at least.
OkCupid's Matching Algorithm Doesn't Work
“Can you bring me something citrusy, bourbon-based?” my date demands of our waiter. He pauses to consider—one eyebrow askew—then deftly recites three cocktail options that, one has to assume, will meet her specifications. And right from that moment I just know, in the murky, preverbal way one knows such things, that this young woman—let’s call her Ms. K—isn’t right for me.
Let Panpsychism Expand Your Mind | JSTOR Daily
The philosophical view known as panpsychism has ancient roots, with its earliest adherents being pre-Socratic thinkers. Simply stated, it is the notion that all matter and energy is sentient. The idea can also be found in the works of Aristotle (“soul is mingled with everything in the whole universe”) and Plato (“this world is a living body endowed with a soul”). The theory saw a revival in the Renaissance: Philosophers Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz advocated variations of it.
The Marketable Misogyny of James Bond
Why did a top-ranking British intelligence official write a letter to the Economist about James Bond? Yes, really.
Reopening The X-Files: Is ESP Possible?
Here I am again, Scully, up late pursuing this obsession with ESP.
The Morbid Fascination With the Death of the Humanities
I have been going to academic conferences since I was about 12 years old. Not that I am any sort of prodigy—both of my parents are, or were at one point, academics, so I was casually brought along for the ride. I spent the bulk of my time at these conferences in hotel lobbies, transfixed by my Game Boy, waiting for my mother to be done and for it to be dinnertime.
Science and Math Don't Have to Be Practical to Be Worthwhile
For better or worse, I spend a fair amount of time hanging out with graduate students in STEM fields, many from elite schools. All the worst things you might suspect about them are (at least partially) true: They're neurotic, privileged, insecure, and narrowly focused on their academic lives. At the same time, though, the best things you might think about them are also generally true: They're hardworking, intelligent, and passionate.
The real reason law schools are raking in cash
Since at least 1985, the American Bar Association’s Section on Legal Education has published annual statistics about the rates of enrollment at American law schools, the costs of attendance, and the eventual employment of law graduates. Looking at how these numbers have changed since the financial crisis of 2008, one thing is clear: Law schools are doing quite well for themselves.
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