I think that given all of the understandable browbeating about the relevance of philosophy it is worth pointing out that with today's U.S. Supreme Court decisions it is clear that academic philosophy has non-trivially helped the world become closer to what it ought.
Andrew Sullivan's PhD is in government from Harvard, but his dissertation was on philosopher Michael Oakshott. And Wayne State's John Corvino has, like Sullivan, worked tirelessly to charitably construe the best arguments against homosexual rights, and to publicly show why they are lacking.
When I was an undergraduate resident assistant at the University of Texas, Corvino came to a program I sponsored and gave a speech on morality and homosexuality. It was the most packed program in any of the U.T. dorms that year, filling a mondo-sized classroom. He was such an amazing guy, able to be so patient and kind with a crowd that contained a sizeable number of very angry people (pretty vile and scary casual expressions of bigotry about gay people were until very recently much more tolerated in public spheres in the United States than they are now). It's been a blessing to follow his career and see him help to accomplish on the public stage at large what he was able to do that night at U.T.
The change represented by the Supreme Court decisions today is huge. Those of us of a dyspeptic temperment ought to be optimistic that other travesties of justice and inhumanity might also be changing, and that the philosophical and political labors of the Corvinos, Guenthers, Lances, Mays, and Sullivans among us might continue to help better realize a just kingdom here on Earth.
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