Alani Golanski
@alanigolanski.bsky.social
Philosophy @ Graduate Center CUNY, James Kent Scholar @ ColumbiaLaw, Ghanaian drumming @ CalArts -- Partner/Director @ Weitz & Luxenberg
Americans Betrayed (1949), by Morton Grodzins, was the first major study criticizing the Japanese-American internment during World War II.
November 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Americans Betrayed (1949), by Morton Grodzins, was the first major study criticizing the Japanese-American internment during World War II.
Right consists in liberty to do or to forbear, whereas law determines and binds to one of them; so that law and right differ as much as obligation and liberty; which in one and the same matter are inconsistent.
-- Thomas Hobbes
-- Thomas Hobbes
November 27, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Right consists in liberty to do or to forbear, whereas law determines and binds to one of them; so that law and right differ as much as obligation and liberty; which in one and the same matter are inconsistent.
-- Thomas Hobbes
-- Thomas Hobbes
Reminded of these summertime security personnel
November 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reminded of these summertime security personnel
Scores of Chicagoans gladly delayed their Thanksgiving meals in 1909 to attend the rally in support of the larger struggle for full voting rights, featuring British suffragists, including the indefatigable Emmeline Pankhurst.
November 27, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Scores of Chicagoans gladly delayed their Thanksgiving meals in 1909 to attend the rally in support of the larger struggle for full voting rights, featuring British suffragists, including the indefatigable Emmeline Pankhurst.
Judith Shklar held (1964) that legal theorists were most concerned about confusion not over law and morals but regarding the proper spheres of private and public life.
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Judith Shklar held (1964) that legal theorists were most concerned about confusion not over law and morals but regarding the proper spheres of private and public life.
Karl Marx, in Neue Rheinische Zeitung (June 1848)
November 26, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Karl Marx, in Neue Rheinische Zeitung (June 1848)
Dworkin's basic standard of "integrity" stands for the political ideal by which citizens recognize one another as free and equal, and are obligated to realize the basic norm of equal concern and equal respect for each person in the practices of society.
-- Jürgen Habermas
-- Jürgen Habermas
November 26, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Dworkin's basic standard of "integrity" stands for the political ideal by which citizens recognize one another as free and equal, and are obligated to realize the basic norm of equal concern and equal respect for each person in the practices of society.
-- Jürgen Habermas
-- Jürgen Habermas
The philosopher, social scientist, and German émigré Friedrich Pollack cautioned in 1970, "all these symptoms of disintegration of a 'Great Society' point to no other alternative but the loss of liberties and the rule of narrow materialism under a ruthless 'Führer'."
November 25, 2025 at 10:21 PM
The philosopher, social scientist, and German émigré Friedrich Pollack cautioned in 1970, "all these symptoms of disintegration of a 'Great Society' point to no other alternative but the loss of liberties and the rule of narrow materialism under a ruthless 'Führer'."
Neil McCormick labeled his legal theory "post-positivist," arguing that while law depends on customs and authoritative decisions hence is "posited," there are moral limits (extremes of injustice) that conceptually disqualify the institutional normative order from being "law."
November 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Neil McCormick labeled his legal theory "post-positivist," arguing that while law depends on customs and authoritative decisions hence is "posited," there are moral limits (extremes of injustice) that conceptually disqualify the institutional normative order from being "law."
The premise of Joseph Raz's first book (1970) was that all prior analytical jurisprudence had failed to realize that a theory of the legal system is a prerequisite to any adequate definition of 'a law'.
November 24, 2025 at 8:31 PM
The premise of Joseph Raz's first book (1970) was that all prior analytical jurisprudence had failed to realize that a theory of the legal system is a prerequisite to any adequate definition of 'a law'.
Upon announcing France's collaboration with Germany (Oct 1940), Marshal Philippe Pétain states, "This is my policy. My ministers are responsible to me. It is I alone who will be judged by History."
November 22, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Upon announcing France's collaboration with Germany (Oct 1940), Marshal Philippe Pétain states, "This is my policy. My ministers are responsible to me. It is I alone who will be judged by History."
Wow, Jacques Derrida Interviews Ornette Coleman (Paris 1997)
www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/jso/re...
www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/jso/re...
November 22, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Wow, Jacques Derrida Interviews Ornette Coleman (Paris 1997)
www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/jso/re...
www.jazzstudiesonline.org/files/jso/re...
It is precisely the fact that variations and developments in cultural practices are not determined at an evolutionary level that makes the human characteristic of living under culture such an extraordinary evolutionary success.
-- Bernard Williams
-- Bernard Williams
November 22, 2025 at 6:17 PM
It is precisely the fact that variations and developments in cultural practices are not determined at an evolutionary level that makes the human characteristic of living under culture such an extraordinary evolutionary success.
-- Bernard Williams
-- Bernard Williams
This volume (1937) was a political science staple for three decades - Plato to fascism - George Sabine professor of philosophy @Cornell, also a carpenter and blacksmith, assisted Herbert Marcuse with his 1941 work Reason and Revolution.
November 22, 2025 at 1:53 PM
This volume (1937) was a political science staple for three decades - Plato to fascism - George Sabine professor of philosophy @Cornell, also a carpenter and blacksmith, assisted Herbert Marcuse with his 1941 work Reason and Revolution.
Interestingly, Kelsen likened national law & the dogma of an unrestricted state sovereignty to the Ptolemaic view & linked this to an imperialist political ideology; in contrast, he analogized international law to the Copernican frame of reference, tending to foster pacifism.
November 21, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Interestingly, Kelsen likened national law & the dogma of an unrestricted state sovereignty to the Ptolemaic view & linked this to an imperialist political ideology; in contrast, he analogized international law to the Copernican frame of reference, tending to foster pacifism.
In case wondering what the crime of sedition actually is, or to what extent it's punishable
November 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
In case wondering what the crime of sedition actually is, or to what extent it's punishable
Robert Paul Wolff distinguished two approaches to philosophical writing: (1) precise anatomical dissection defending against innumerable possible counterexamples; (2) deep development of a central insight, capable of both introducing the material and genuinely advancing thought.
November 20, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Robert Paul Wolff distinguished two approaches to philosophical writing: (1) precise anatomical dissection defending against innumerable possible counterexamples; (2) deep development of a central insight, capable of both introducing the material and genuinely advancing thought.
Vincent Willem van Gogh, The Prison Courtyard (1890)
November 20, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Vincent Willem van Gogh, The Prison Courtyard (1890)
Joint Forward by, in the order referenced, Robert Paul Wolff, Herbert Marcuse, and Barrington Moore, Jr.
November 19, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Joint Forward by, in the order referenced, Robert Paul Wolff, Herbert Marcuse, and Barrington Moore, Jr.
A commitment to equal freedom is not a compromise between freedom and equality. What 'equality' does in that formula is to pin down the form of our commitment to freedom; and what 'freedom' does is to indicate what it is that we are concerned to equalize.
-- Jeremy Waldron
-- Jeremy Waldron
November 18, 2025 at 9:10 PM
A commitment to equal freedom is not a compromise between freedom and equality. What 'equality' does in that formula is to pin down the form of our commitment to freedom; and what 'freedom' does is to indicate what it is that we are concerned to equalize.
-- Jeremy Waldron
-- Jeremy Waldron
If one believes with Gramsci that an intellectual vocation is socially possible as well as desirable, then it's self-contradictory to rest analyses of historical experience on an exclusionary axiom that only a group's members can understand that group's experience.
-- Edward Said
-- Edward Said
November 16, 2025 at 8:30 PM
If one believes with Gramsci that an intellectual vocation is socially possible as well as desirable, then it's self-contradictory to rest analyses of historical experience on an exclusionary axiom that only a group's members can understand that group's experience.
-- Edward Said
-- Edward Said
Amartya Sen credited, among others, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, Ronald Dworkin, and Seyla Benhabib, for harnessing the notion of public reasoning in service of a view of democracy broadened from that of public balloting toward one of "government by discussion."
November 15, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Amartya Sen credited, among others, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, Ronald Dworkin, and Seyla Benhabib, for harnessing the notion of public reasoning in service of a view of democracy broadened from that of public balloting toward one of "government by discussion."
At least by HLA Hart's lights, Ronald Dworkin and Hans Kelsen held oddly similar views on the position of judges, for RD legal rights being those held against judges to the correct legal decision, for HK laws being commands made on judges and directing that they impose sanctions.
November 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
At least by HLA Hart's lights, Ronald Dworkin and Hans Kelsen held oddly similar views on the position of judges, for RD legal rights being those held against judges to the correct legal decision, for HK laws being commands made on judges and directing that they impose sanctions.
📸 Gauri Gill -- Mira Nair et fils Zohran
November 13, 2025 at 8:27 PM
📸 Gauri Gill -- Mira Nair et fils Zohran
Andrei Marmor's critique of anti-positivist logic:
1) some facts about legal validity are moral;
2) moral facts aren't fully grounded in beliefs;
3) so mistaken moral beliefs are possible;
4) so comprehensive errors about legal validity are possible,
2 & 3 are plausible, but not 4.
1) some facts about legal validity are moral;
2) moral facts aren't fully grounded in beliefs;
3) so mistaken moral beliefs are possible;
4) so comprehensive errors about legal validity are possible,
2 & 3 are plausible, but not 4.
November 13, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Andrei Marmor's critique of anti-positivist logic:
1) some facts about legal validity are moral;
2) moral facts aren't fully grounded in beliefs;
3) so mistaken moral beliefs are possible;
4) so comprehensive errors about legal validity are possible,
2 & 3 are plausible, but not 4.
1) some facts about legal validity are moral;
2) moral facts aren't fully grounded in beliefs;
3) so mistaken moral beliefs are possible;
4) so comprehensive errors about legal validity are possible,
2 & 3 are plausible, but not 4.