Becoming and Identity What is the relationship between the acorn and the tree it becomes? They look very different and one is much bigger than the other. An acorn isn’t a tree and a tree isn’t an acorn. Yet some maintain an identity between them: acorn and tree are literally one and the same (numerically). […]
From me to Jennifer Hudin: I feel I haven’t insulted American philosophers enough. Perhaps we should do a joint insult. Colin Her reply: Would love to insult American Philosophers. I was planning to do so at the memorial. And you are right. It is American philosophers who are the worst offenders. Jennifer I edited […]
Bread Philosophy What do fire, metamorphosis, and bread have on common? Transformation. One thing becomes another thing—a better thing. Potential is unlocked; the hidden is made manifest. Nature performs miracles. Water becomes wine. Bread is made from just water and flour aided by a transformative agent (yeast). Every culture has it, but it was a […]
Existence, Essence, and Time The traditional view was that essence precedes existence: things have essences before they come to exist. This makes sense if the thing in question is designed: the designer has its essence in mind before he makes it, e.g., a carpenter making a table. It also makes sense if there is no […]
Thumb Fretting As dedicated readers know, I am all about the hand. Lately, my left hand has been impressing me mightily: it has been throwing knives with confidence and panache; it has really come into its own on the tennis backhand; and its fingers have been performing nimbly on the guitar. Even my left baby […]
Psychology of Philosophy Probably every field of study has its own distinctive type of psychology. A certain type of mind will be drawn to a particular subject. It is not difficult to see how this pairing proceeds. If you are interested in people, you will naturally be drawn to psychology; not so if you are […]
Elvis, Paul, and Mick Some bands achieve considerable success but without mega-success. Elvis and the Beatles created worldwide mania (and hysteria); the Who and the Troggs did not. True, Elvis and the Beatles were supremely talented and enormously productive, but their success exceeds such attributes. Why? The Stones are an intermediate case: large success but […]
The Part Problem People talk about the mind-brain problem, but that is strictly inaccurate. The problem isn’t about how the brain as a whole produces consciousness; it’s about how some of it does. It isn’t about how the brain differs from other bodily organs; it’s about how certain parts of it do. The various parts […]
Searle on Mind and Brain Searle maintained that the mind is a higher-level property of the brain, not a separate substance. There is only the physical world with higher- and lower-level descriptions. This is his solution to the mind-body problem. He liked to compare the mental to the liquid: there is only a world of […]
Animal Induction Hume argued that induction is based on custom not reason. We believe in induction because we are psychologically built that way by nature not by ratiocination. He could have cited the case of animals: they act according to induction by instinct; they were not taught to do so or employ a priori reflection. […]