Mathematical Philosophy In 1919 Bertrand Russell published a book titled Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, written while he was in jail; but the title is somewhat misleading, because the book isn’t about doing philosophy mathematically but about the philosophy of mathematics. Still, Russell did do a fair amount of mathematical philosophy: the theory of descriptions, existence […]
God and Matter Berkeley was convinced that matter and God are incompatible. If matter exists, God doesn’t; and if God exists, matter doesn’t.[1] I want to spell this out a bit, because Berkeley is onto something important here. His basic point is that if you postulate matter, you open the way for skepticism, mystery, and […]
The Selfless Gene The logic of selfish gene theory is impeccable, but its usual formulation leaves something to be desired in point of strict and literal accuracy. I propose to remedy that. No harm will be done to the theory thereby; we will merely clarify its exact import. First, some terminology: by “gene” I will […]
Mathematical Knowledge We can all agree that human beings have mathematical knowledge. We understand mathematical concepts. But how extensive is mathematical knowledge—what subjects are mathematical? The OED defines mathematics as “the branch of science concerned with number, quantity, and space, either as abstract concepts or as applied to physics, engineering, and other subjects”. But the […]
Mathematical Logic It has always been felt that logic and mathematics have a lot in common. This led to the idea that mathematics reduces to logic. I am going to argue that the converse is true: logic is basically mathematical; logic “reduces” (expands) to mathematics. It’s more complex than it looks in the textbooks. The […]
A Puzzle about Pornography Sex and food are clearly powerful forces in the psychic life of human beings. The question may be raised as to which is more powerful (is there a power imbalance?). But there is a curious asymmetry between them: we like to watch pornography but not its culinary equivalent. We like sex […]
Laughter in the Dark I have just read Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark (1938), a spare and unsparing cinematic novel about a love affair between a rich middle-aged man, Albinus, and a young penniless usherette, Margot. Except that the love is one-sided. In it, Albinus leaves his wife and child for Margot who doesn’t love […]
