The Boredom Issue

It’s an understatement to say we’ve all had to deal with boredom as of late. Through bunkering in our homes and replacing classrooms with Zoom rooms, we’ve missed out on much of the in-person connection characteristic of flourishing human lives. For many if not all of us, the natural result has been boredom – much more than we expected to have in college. Yet philosophy gives us some tools to not just be bored but to learn from being bored. In these pieces, we try to do just that: learn from our boredom and reflect on what it can mean. In some pieces, this involves a head-on evaluation of boredom in its own right and a careful evaluation of its different dimensions. For other pieces, this means looking at much broader implications boredom has for politics, for philosophy, and for the very nature of being a person. We hope these pieces give you plenty to think about the next time you find yourself bored and help you model how to treat your boredom not just as a problem but as a springboard for reflection.

Below, please see a list of the 17 articles that comprise our F/W-20/21 issue, and enjoy a few pieces of your own choosing.

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  A Secular Problem of Evil
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  Murray Rothbard: The Philosophical Crusader Against The State
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  Existentialism in Seinfeld
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  Milton Friedman: The Worldly Philosopher
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  Ludwig von Mises: The Critical Surgeon Against The Anti-Capitalist Mentality
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  Cixin Liu’s Philosophy of the Universe
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  Traversing the Twilight Zone: Examining Rod Serling’s Supernatural Imposition of Moral Judgement
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  Plagiarism and Intertextuality
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  Asceticism vs. Hedonism: A Defense of Holistic Hedonism
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  Asceticism vs. Hedonism: A Pro-Ascetic Take
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  The Moral Value of Academic Thought: A Counterpoint
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  Academic Study and the Moral Worth of Humanity
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  Life Is Not Precious: I Am Because We Are
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  Is life precious?
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  Falling From Boredom Into Value
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  The Freedom to Be Bored
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  On Boring Holes: Lessons in Emptiness