Rapid Fire

Basically a blog where I try to do philosophy outside.

My Dissertation: pt. 1

For the past month, I’ve been running an experiment. I started going to two therapists so we can form a consensus. Weirdly, this is kind...

We’ve confused Intrinsic & Ultimate value and it’s been a Disaster

If you’ve happened to take a course in intro ethics, you might have heard of a classic distinction between instrumental and intrinsic...

Someone could get it Wrong

I had a really interesting conversation about art criticism this week. So here we go: What does it mean to be great at jazz? Look, I know...

On being taken Seriously

Now that I’m back in Bloomington for a while, everyone has a ton of advice on how to present myself on the academic job market so that...

The Politics of Age of Empires II

I’ve been playing a lot of Stellaris lately, but as a kid, the only computer game I really played much was Age of Empires II (AoE2, as in...

I got Published

Neat! You can check out a free version of my paper “Mutual Aid as Effective Altruism” here. (The final, professionally edited and typeset...

I had to write a research statement about what I’m working on. Here’s my first draft.

Let me know what you think! I'm still figuring out how to summarize my research program and instill confidence I’ll be a “productive”...

Justice for Assholes (and why we need Utopias)

I’ve been putting together a syllabus called Utopias that draws from a bunch of fields (philosophy, literature, anthropology…) to try to...

Here's my dissertation in 9 minutes

From a comedic storytelling showcase at Jackalope Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Ricky Mouser