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AbstractKant claimed that we have a duty to seek peace, and encouraged a hope for peace to support that duty. To encourage that hope he argued that peace was reasonably likely. He thought that peace was reasonably likely because he believed that historical trends would create opportunities to implement his plan for peace. But authorities claim that globalization is undermining such opportunities. Consequently Kant's arguments can no longer sustain our hope for peace. We can sustain that hope by devising a new plan for peace that globalization will give us opportunities to implement. But in order to devise such a plan we need to sustain our hope for peace. We can sustain such a hope by reflecting on the value of peace because hope is sustained not only by the belief that the object of hope is likely, but also by the conviction that it is valuable. In this way we can perhaps sustain a hope for peace that will support our duty to seek peace. But the fear of war and compassion for the victims of war may also support the duty to seek peace. Kant ignored these opportunities to support the duty to seek peace because they could support only the duty to avoid war. But Kant never showed that the duty to seek peace—as he saw it—outweighed the duty to avoid war. I conclude that Kant's arguments lead us to endless war rather than to peace.

W. E. B. Du Bois's idea of the role race plays in the general progress of humankind is outlined & defended. Du Bois's conception of race is argued to be historical & cultural, rather than biological, allowing him to construe civilization advances as the result of the collective cultural contributions of multiple races within a single society. Du Bois's theory of progress is defended against economic determinism, which could undermine the possibility of racial harmony. His notion of the "Talented Tenth" in every race was designed to ensure that whatever cultural contribution a race might make would be moral & beneficial for the larger civilization. Du Bois observed that the greatest threat to this vision of racially driven progress is the propensity of the Talented Tenth to be corrupted by capitalist social orders. H. von Rautenfeld

Two principal arguments raised against preferential hiring by philosophers are: (1) that, because preferential hiring benefits just those of the preferred group who are most qualified & least harmed, it compensates just those who do not deserve it; & (2) that preferential hiring is unfair to young white men. It is argued that (1) fails because of an illicit passage from "least harmed" to "only slightly harmed" or "not harmed at all," & a confusion between "indirect harms" & "vicarious harms"; & that (2) fails because of failure to distinguish the kinds of costs imposed on young white men by preferential hiring. AA.

Self-respect & protest are related. The self-respecting person may protest his wrongs, not to get relief or sympathy, but to know that he is self-respecting. Unopposed wrong shakes a person's faith in his rights & thus his self-respect. However, because to have self-respect is to believe that one has rights & worth, the person with self-respect also believes that his self-respect is valuable & consequently wants to know that he has it. He wants to know, not merely that he has rights, but that he believes he has rights. Protest, the defiant affirmation that one has rights, is evidence of the belief that one has rights. AA.