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Brian Duignan
Encyclopædia Britannica Editor
BIOGRAPHY

Brian Duignan is a senior editor at Encyclopædia Britannica. His subject areas include philosophy, law, social science, politics, political theory, and religion.

 

Primary Contributions (219)
A vintage encyclopedia page shows small type and scientific illustrations. The question What was Enlightenment? is written in old-fashioned blue lettering.
Enlightenment
Enlightenment, a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which ideas concerning God, reason, nature, and humanity were synthesized into a worldview that gained wide assent in the West and that instigated revolutionary developments in art, philosophy, and politics. Central…
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Donald Trump
McDonald v. City of Chicago
Longest-serving U.S. Supreme Court justices
Major shadow docket rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court during the second Trump administration (2025– )
Child pornography
What’s the difference between Trumpism and MAGA?
Do cows pollute as much as cars?
What is a visa, and how does it differ from a passport?
Waterboarding
Voter ID law
Utterance
Utilitarianism
Gerrymandering
Major Supreme Court cases from the 2024–25 term
Speciesism
Social justice
Sexual abuse
Qualia
Postmodernism
Originalism
Objectivism
Judith Jarvis Thomson
William Nordhaus
When has the Insurrection Act been invoked?
Insurrection
Problem of induction
LGBTQ community
Empiricism
identity politics
Loving v. Virginia
John Rawls
How does a grand jury work?
Lina Khan
What’s the difference between a war crime, a crime against humanity, and genocide?
Can a U.S. President serve a third term?
Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution
Charles Koch and David Koch
Abhijit Banerjee
A Theory of Justice
Democritus
Peter Singer
Gender continuum
Major Executive Orders Issued by U.S. Pres. Donald Trump During His Second Term of Office (2025– )
Plessy v. Ferguson
Judith Butler
Great Recession
Jeremy Bentham
Venn diagram
Cornel West
Trolley problem
Navi Pillay
Eudaimonia
Critical race theory
No Child Left Behind
Major Supreme Court cases from the 2026–27 term
United States presidential election of 2024
Occam’s razor
Immanuel Kant
District of Columbia v. Heller
Dunning-Kruger effect
gaslighting
Paul Grice
Today in History—September 26: TV Transformed Presidential Campaigns
dot-com bubble
venture capital
Great Vowel Shift
Joe Biden
USA PATRIOT Act
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Textualism
Shadow docket
Pragmatics
Bisexual flag
racial profiling
lesbian flag
transgender flag
Neil Gorsuch
Epicureanism
Today in History—July 30: The Day We Officially Put Our Trust in God
January 6 U.S. Capitol attack
Major Supreme Court Cases from the 2025–26 Term
Brown v. Board of Education
initial public offering
Brain Games: 8 Philosophical Puzzles and Paradoxes
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
George W. Bush
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Esther Duflo
voting rights
Shelby County v. Holder
King v. Burwell
Ayn Rand
Jack Smith
Philip Dybvig
Rudolf Carnap
Robert B. Wilson
Claudia Goldin
Richard Thaler
Martha Nussbaum
Seventeenth Amendment
Today in History—April 27: Beethoven’s most popular song
Paul Milgrom
Bengt Holmström
United States v. Stevens
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition
government shutdown
John Venn
McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission
Robert J. Shiller
What is Holy Week?
Christopher A. Sims
Ghislaine Maxwell
George Berkeley
Donald Davidson
International Emergency Economic Powers Act
Western Philosophers: Timeline, History, and Movements
Anders Rasmussen
Robert Nozick
Irving Kristol
Insurrection Act
Simon Johnson
Johannes Althusius
Tucker Carlson
Jacques Rancière
Derek Parfit
David Card
Willard Van Orman Quine
Saul Kripke
Michael Kremer
Paul Romer
Federalist Society
Joel Mokyr
What If the President Is Impeached?
What Is Plenary Authority?
Oliver Hart
Richard Rorty
Douglas Diamond
Gill v. Whitford
Bernard Williams
Joshua Angrist
Anna Netrebko
William Mulholland
paleoconservatism
Guido Imbens
Daron Acemoglu
Sarah McBride
Project 2025
Thomas J. Sargent
How Does the U.S. Government Define the Difference Between a Protest and a Riot?
Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.
Harris v. Quinn
Affordable Care Act cases
Rasul v. Bush
Department of Commerce v. New York
United States v. Windsor
National Labor Relations Board v. Noel Canning
Hollingsworth v. Perry
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
What Are the Differences Between First-, Second-, and Third-Degree Murder?
How is the U.S. Unemployment Rate Calculated?
What Is a Cashless Society and How Does It Work?
How Oprah Got Sued for Dissing a Burger
What Is Jeremy Bentham’s “Auto-Icon”?
Rosa Parks, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement
What is the Difference Between Daoism and Confucianism?
What State Is Washington, D.C. In?
5 Fast Facts About the East India Company
Causes of the Great Depression
The Social Contract and Philosophy
Plato and Aristotle: How Do They Differ?
What’s the Difference Between a Psychopath and a Sociopath? And How Do Both Differ from Narcissists?
What Is the Emoluments Clause?
What Is an Injunction?
What Is Gaslighting?
What Is the Difference Between Criminal Law and Civil Law?
Philosophers to Know, Part I
Philosophers to Know, Part II
9 Modern Corporate Criminals
Economic Inequality
Aristotle at 2,400
Fish in a Barrel, Lions in a Cage: Canned Hunting in the U.S. and South Africa
Libertarianism
Trigger Warnings on Campus
Gun Control in the U.S.
Mapp v. Ohio
Raj Rajaratnam
Major Supreme Court Cases from the 2023–24 Term
recess appointment
James A. Robinson
replacement theory
financial crisis of 2007–08
chief executive officer
Trump v. Anderson
militia movement
Bollinger decisions
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
Roe v. Wade: At a Glance
debt ceiling
major Supreme Court cases from the end of the 2022–23 term
Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College
Moore v. Harper
Respect for Marriage Act
protofascism
Defense Production Act
American Legislative Exchange Council
Ukraine scandal
partisanship
consumerism
voter suppression
total cost