Volume 9 is now available.

On behalf of the entire editorial board, we're proud to be presenting the 9th volume of A Priori, featuring ten exceptionally thoughtful philosophical papers from undergraduates across the world. We congratulate and thank the authors and our editorial staff who have made this volume possible.

— The 9th Editorial Board of A Priori

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A Priori: Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy at Brown University

A Challenge to the Moral Argument: The Problem of Animal Suffering

Adrian Haagen

Within contemporary theology, the moral argument is one of the most frequently cited challenges to the naturalist. Andrew Ter Ern Loke offers a new formulation to the argument, framing divine nature as the necessary ontological standard for moral realism. This paper will offer an internal critique…

A Challenge to the Moral Argument: The Problem of Animal Suffering

Image via Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625).

Sensing Blackness, or: the (Racial) Difference of the Same

Daniel Zheng

This paper stages an encounter between the notion of différance in Jacques Derrida or Jean-Luc Nancy and various theorizations of blackness by Christina Sharpe, Achille Mbembe, and David Marriott. I suggest that différance offers a useful framework for understanding the claim to "ontological…

Law, Liberty, and the Limits of Selfhood

Adam Lewis Sebastian Lehodey

Is the state justified in protecting individuals from themselves? This paper advances philosophical conversations around the interlinked nature of selfhood and the law, proposing that the self ought to be understood not as an isolated concept, but rather as a series of narratives deeply connected…

Perfectionism and Ableism

Amanda Lopatin

Perfectionism is a theory of well-being which states that well-being is based on human nature: a person's well-being is correlated with the extent to which they develop their characteristically human features. One concern is that perfectionism is an ableist theory of well-being—that it automatically caps the well-being of certain individuals based on their (lack of) physical and mental capabilities. I argue that though at first it seems that perfectionism can be modified such that it is not inherently ableist, this modification does not succeed. I first motivate a definition of perfectionism…

Can Early Marx Ground His Critique of Capitalism?

Yuezhen Li

The period between 1843 and 1845 marks an important and distinctively formative stage in Marx's career, from Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right of 1843 to The German Ideology of 1845, signifying his early attention to German idealist philosophy and his increasing interest in capitalism. It was…

Justifying Extraterritorial Political Obligations

Sun Woo Lee

The central question of this paper concerns whether imposing political obligations that apply to nationals beyond the bounds of a state's territory can be justified by liberal accounts of political obligation. Using the example of South Korea's extraterritorial jurisdiction over its citizens'…

Is Circumventing the Euthyphro Dilemma By Appealing to God's Nature Problematic?

Toby Eugene Bollig

The Euthyphro dilemma has plagued theistic metaethics and undermined moral arguments for the existence of God throughout history. More recently, this has led a number of philosophers and theologians to try to circumvent the dilemma by appealing to God's nature. I argue that these appeals are prima…

The Mathematician Qua Mathematician Makes Value Judgements

Cameron Hubbard

In this article, I aim to show that there is a type of argument for the necessity of value judgments in mathematics exactly analogous to a type of argument for value judgments in science based off of risk assessment. I develop the argument out of the conception of mathematics posited by Imre…