Category: Social Sciences
-
A Lasting Environment and Lasting Institutions
Originally submitted for Oxford Energy Society blog Climate change is a hot topic (pun intended). As with many hot topics, the momentous forces of the often well-intentioned activism and not-so-well-intentioned political catering threaten to melt away the institutional framework on which progress depends. Two recent examples of such risk come to mind: one from Europe…
-
The Bitter Lessons of Roe v Wade
The challenge before the Supreme Court Abortion is not an easy topic to discuss. It is unique in that the contention between the two sides is on a fundamental level. On one hand, it is about woman’s autonomy over her own body; on the other, about the life that is growing inside her body. In…
-
On political representation and parliamentary quotas (applied to Armenia)
Introduction Someone once said that if philosophers used consistently the same meaning for a given word, most philosophical debates would be instantly resolved. It is worth considering whether the same can be true of political issues, where words like “rights”, “freedom”, and “justice” often carry very different (even opposite) meanings for different people. One that…
armendanielian
-
Four arguments for the irreducibility of mind
One often reads about the ambitions to explain our minds with chemistry and physics, with algorithmic equations, and the corollary aspirations to create artificial intelligence that would achieve the kind of consciousness and reason that human being possess. Whether such a thing is possible has been a topic of many philosophical debates and discussions. I…
-
Is there a gender pay gap in Armenia?
Introduction Certainly, some people think so. Lara Techekirian, writing for the Erevan report [1], cites a study from 2020 by UN Women [2], arguing that there is a roughly 10% adjusted (i.e. taking into account differences in occupation sector, job level, working hours, etc) wage gap, and follows up with recommendations of the study on…
Blog by Armen Danielian 