The Selfish Molecule We have got used to speaking of the selfish gene, a unit much smaller than the individual organism (or the group or species). The genes create bodies that ensure their survival down the generations: the more effective a gene is at producing bodies that survive to reproduction the […]
Word and Subject The advent of language on our planet changed the natural history of consciousness. Before language existed animal consciousness was confined to sensation, perception, memory, emotion, and will—extensive but not exhaustive features of mind. What went through an animal’s mind was limited by these forms of basic consciousness—sights […]
Whence Particularity? Imagine a world consisting only of general properties: what would it take for particulars to be added to this world? How could you convert a general world stocked with universals into a world containing particular things—things that instantiate universals? What is the metaphysical basis of particularity? Plato invited us […]
Why Did Sex Evolve? Some reproduction is sexual and some is asexual. There is no biological necessity about sexual reproduction, despite its prevalence. How could there be any such necessity, given that the basic principle of evolutionary biology is just that organisms are designed to maximize the presence of their genes […]
Therapy and Theory In section 255 of Philosophical Investigations Wittgenstein remarks: “The philosopher’s treatment of a question is like the treatment of an illness.” In section 593 he says: “A main cause of philosophical disease—a one-sided diet: one nourishes one’s thinking with only one kind of example.” In section 133 […]
The Language of Emotion Proponents of the language of thought typically don’t have much to say about emotion. We are said to deploy an internal language when we think, but it is not suggested that we do so when we feel. Internal speech is characteristic of thought but not of emotion—we […]
Symmetry and the Mind Symmetry is a pervasive feature of nature. We find it in atoms, molecules, crystals, planets and stars, as well as in the entire biological world, and also in human artifacts. Some things show no symmetry, such as rocks or puddles of water or sponges; but these are […]
Science and Philosophy What does the value of science consist in? There are two possible answers: its usefulness and its interest. Nothing needs to be said about the first, but the second raises the question of what kind of interest science has. Let me distinguish specialist interest and general […]
Proving the Self Is it possible to prove that the self exists? First let’s consider the existence of material objects, particularly the relationship between property instantiation and object-hood. An ordinary material object, such as a table or a bee, does not instantiate a single property but a collection of properties—a cluster of […]
Principles of Radical Interpretation How should we set about interpreting an alien language and the people who speak it? Specifically, how should we ascribe beliefs to others? One idea is that we should use a principle of charity: ascribe to others the beliefs that we have, so that interpreter and interpreted […]