Essays

A selection of essays from the past six years or so.  Feedback always welcome.

Philosophy Essays

The courses I took at Duke in Philosophy were always the most valuable. Engaging with any philosophical issue is trains the mind and improves one’s logical aptitude.  But by deliberately analyzing others’ carefully constructed arguments, you learn to appreciate the nuances of disagreement and you become more comfortable defending your own positions.

• The Problems & Consequences of Moral Luck

• Performance Enhancers in Sports and Society.   Looking beyond the standard steroids-dominated discussion.  With so many other ways to enhance performance in modern sport, how do we as a society decide what is acceptable and what must be condemned?

• To Pay or Not to Pay: Examining Financial Incentives in Education.  Though paying students to perform better might be unsettling at first, the sobering realities of the US education system compel a closer look at the power of cash-based incentives.

History Essays

• Slave Resistance in the Last Great Hope

• The Birth of Baseball: Sport History’s Most Mysterious Paternity Test

• Harry Truman and the Origins of Cold War Containment

Music Essays

• Eminem  (Coming soon)

• Flipsyde: Combining Old Sounds for a New Era

• Wiz Khalifa Says Yeah
  

Politics Essays

• Exit Polls & Early Calls in Presidential Elections: Are Voters Influenced on Election Night?

• Strategic Voting in US Elections  (Coming soon)

• The Reagan Revolution

+Cliff Satell

Essays