Here is a selection of my popular writings, published in Commonweal magazine and elsewhere. For a while I wrote a regular column at 3 Quarks Daily, and you can find all of those posts here.
"Picture Imperfect", Commonweal, September 2022 — a review of David Chalmers's Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
“False Choices”, Commonweal, October 16, 2021 — co-written with my friend and colleague Mark Souva, on the very idea that the massacre of civilians could be given a consequentialist justification
"Calling Torture by its Name", First Things (online), January 31, 2017 -- on whether, and how, torture works, and why it's important to call it by its name
"A 'Tragic Question' of Academic Life", Daily Nous, March 16, 2016 -- on why being a good professional philosopher shouldn't require compromising one's personal and family life "The Mount at a Crossroads", Commonweal (online), March 2, 2016 -- on the controversy at Mount St. Mary's University, and what is to be done going forward
"What (Who?) Is a University?", First Things (online), February 12, 2016 -- on the controversy at the Mount, and how it relates to the very idea of a university
"A Tale of Two Churches", Commonweal (online), June 18, 2015 -- on the massacre in an historically black church in South Carolina, and my own experience as a white parishioner at a similar church in Tallahassee
"Finding a New Self", Commonweal, February 19, 2015 -- a review of Laurie Paul's Transformative Experience
"More History, Less Science", Commonweal, September 1, 2014 -- a review of Bernard Williams's Essays and Reviews: 1959-2002
"Peter Geach, R.I.P.", Commonweal (online), December 24, 2013 -- a note on the death of the philosopher Peter Geach
"Natural Enemies?", Commonweal, February 25, 2013 -- a review of Alvin Plantinga's Where the Conflict Really Lies
"Michael Dummett, 1925-2011", Commonweal (online), December 31, 2011 -- a note on the death of the philosopher Michael Dummett
"An Economy of Care" (with David Cloutier), Commonweal, October 24, 2011 — on the economics of caritas, as illustrated by the buying and selling of food
"The Thinking Animal", Commonweal, February 8, 2010 -- a review of John McDowell's The Engaged Intellect and Having the World in View
"After Enlightenment", Commonweal, January 26, 2009 -- a review of Louis Dupré's Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture
"Moving the Soil", Commonweal, April 21, 2008 -- a review of Leszek Kolakowski's Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?