Entries by Colin McGinn
Experimental Atomic Psychology
Experimental Atomic Psychology Is there any evidence for the atomic hypothesis in psychology, however slender? It certainly doesn’t seem to us that our consciousness is composed of little psychic particles separated in space—the analogue of physical particles. But there is one area in which the hypothesis enjoys some phenomenological support—I mean, the experience we have […]
Atomic Psychology
Atomic Psychology Atomic physics has achieved the status of common sense. It is hard now to understand why it took so long to arrive at it. Despite the efforts of a couple of pre-Socratics, it took till the nineteenth and twentieth century till atomic physics came into its own, driven by technology. People just didn’t […]
Pain and Unintelligent Design
This is an earlier paper that I am re-posting because of the interest shown in “Evolution of Pain”. Pain and Unintelligent Design Pain is a very widespread biological adaptation. Pain receptors are everywhere in the animal world. Evidently pain serves the purposes of the genes—it enables survival. It is not just a by-product or holdover; […]
Can There Be a Theory of Meaning?
Can There Be a Theory of Meaning? I will do what is never done: list all the important properties of meaning, in no particular order. First, meaning is combinatorial: meanings combine to form phrase-like and sentence-like structures. Second, meanings are world-correlated: they refer, link to reality, represent how things are. Third, they are use-determining: what […]
Performance Philosophy
Performance Philosophy There is one aspect of being a philosophy professor that I don’t miss: the performance aspect. I mean the giving of lectures and conference presentations. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t much like it either. It doesn’t mesh with the essential work of being a philosopher, i.e., thinking, reading, and writing. You […]