Which of Your Selves Should Win?
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s newsletter, Alice Gregory on the philosophy of L. A. Paul, and then:Instagram’s favorite New Yorker cartoonsIngenuity and daring in “Nickel Boys”The coming purge of Trump 2.0Photograph by Jordan Tiberio for The New YorkerL. A. Paul Wants Us to Think About Our SelvesTo whom should we have allegiance—the version of ourself making choices, or the version of ourself who will be affected by them?Before she presented the paper that became her book “Transformative Experience,” L. A. Paul remembers thinking, “This is going to ruin my career.” She was forty-six, a philosopher with tenure at the University of Arizona, and she was asking her colleagues to consider the experience of having a child—a vital area of concern in millions of people’s lives, but rarely discussed in the world of academic philosophy. “It’s all going to be over, because here I am talking about babies.”In fact, the opposite happened. Paul won the 2020 Lebowitz Prize for philosophical achievement, and “Transformative Experience” has been translated into several languages and is widely read outside academic circles. It is an investigation of personal change, those “special types of situations that change not only what we know but also who we are,” Alice Gregory writes, in a Profile of the philosopher for this week’s issue. Childbirth, or going to war, or taking LSD, could be considered a transformative experience. So could divorce, Paul realizes, in the wake of her breakup after twenty-two years with her husband. Paul is now at Yale, and her work has been used by others to examine issues such as gender transitioning, whistle-blowing, treating Alzheimer’s—and it provides a framework for Gregory to reflect on aspects of her own pregnancy. “Choosing to undergo such an experience, on the occasions when choice is even possible,” Gregory notes, “requires us to violate who we take our current self to be.” Read or listen to the story »The LedePhotograph by Dave Sanders / NYT / ReduxThe Afterlife of Donald Trump’s Criminal CasesThe President-elect is on the verge of beating most, if not all, of the criminal charges against him. In general, “Presidents have become less, not more, subject to criminal law,” Jeannie Suk Gersen writes, “and have become more, not less, likely to view criminal law as an option for use against political opponents.” What will be the long-term consequences? Read the story »More Top StoriesThe Scandal of Trump’s Cabinet Picks Isn’t Just Their Personal FailingsInstagram’s Favorite New Yorker Cartoons in 2024Great Books Don’t Make Great Films, but “Nickel Boys” Is a Glorious ExceptionDaily Cartoon“Looks like it’s another creepy appointee to a federal agency.”Cartoon by Adam Douglas ThompsonCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s bite-size. A clue: 2024 W.N.B.A. Rookie of the Year Caitlin. Five letters.Shouts & Murmurs: My Kids Think I’m a BoomerP.S. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook California yesterday, prompting a tsunami warning. It wasn’t quite “the really big one,” a long-predicted quake that would be somewhere between 8.7 and 9.2 on the Richter scale and would leave the region unrecognizable. Read Kathryn Schulz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the next full-margin rupture, and follow up with her piece on how to stay safe when it comes.
In today’s newsletter, Alice Gregory on the philosophy of L. A. Paul, and then:
- Instagram’s favorite New Yorker cartoons
- Ingenuity and daring in “Nickel Boys”
- The coming purge of Trump 2.0
L. A. Paul Wants Us to Think About Our Selves
To whom should we have allegiance—the version of ourself making choices, or the version of ourself who will be affected by them?
Before she presented the paper that became her book “Transformative Experience,” L. A. Paul remembers thinking, “This is going to ruin my career.” She was forty-six, a philosopher with tenure at the University of Arizona, and she was asking her colleagues to consider the experience of having a child—a vital area of concern in millions of people’s lives, but rarely discussed in the world of academic philosophy. “It’s all going to be over, because here I am talking about babies.”
In fact, the opposite happened. Paul won the 2020 Lebowitz Prize for philosophical achievement, and “Transformative Experience” has been translated into several languages and is widely read outside academic circles. It is an investigation of personal change, those “special types of situations that change not only what we know but also who we are,” Alice Gregory writes, in a Profile of the philosopher for this week’s issue. Childbirth, or going to war, or taking LSD, could be considered a transformative experience. So could divorce, Paul realizes, in the wake of her breakup after twenty-two years with her husband. Paul is now at Yale, and her work has been used by others to examine issues such as gender transitioning, whistle-blowing, treating Alzheimer’s—and it provides a framework for Gregory to reflect on aspects of her own pregnancy. “Choosing to undergo such an experience, on the occasions when choice is even possible,” Gregory notes, “requires us to violate who we take our current self to be.” Read or listen to the story »
The Lede
The Afterlife of Donald Trump’s Criminal Cases
The President-elect is on the verge of beating most, if not all, of the criminal charges against him. In general, “Presidents have become less, not more, subject to criminal law,” Jeannie Suk Gersen writes, “and have become more, not less, likely to view criminal law as an option for use against political opponents.” What will be the long-term consequences? Read the story »
- The Scandal of Trump’s Cabinet Picks Isn’t Just Their Personal Failings
- Instagram’s Favorite New Yorker Cartoons in 2024
- Great Books Don’t Make Great Films, but “Nickel Boys” Is a Glorious Exception
Daily Cartoon
- Play today’s bite-size. A clue: 2024 W.N.B.A. Rookie of the Year Caitlin. Five letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: My Kids Think I’m a Boomer
P.S. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook California yesterday, prompting a tsunami warning. It wasn’t quite “the really big one,” a long-predicted quake that would be somewhere between 8.7 and 9.2 on the Richter scale and would leave the region unrecognizable. Read Kathryn Schulz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the next full-margin rupture, and follow up with her piece on how to stay safe when it comes.
