Agency and Imagination The topics of agency and imagination are generally treated separately in contemporary philosophy, but they are closely connected. Imagination is implicated in agency and agency is part of imagination. This is not difficult to see: we often imagine what we intend to do, and imagining is an act in its own right. […]
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Sexual Enticement in Academia (a Fable) Let’s consider a hypothetical case (I emphasize hypothetical). Suppose we live in a society in which a certain problem is perceived to exist in the universities—the problem of sexual enticement. The problem arises when a student, male or female, entices a professor, male or female, into a sexual relationship […]
Minimalism and Maximalism in Philosophy There are two broad tendencies in philosophy, which I will label minimalism and maximalism. Minimalism tends to minimize the number of entities and kinds in the world; maximalism tends to maximize them. The few versus the many. Occam’s razor characterizes the former tendency; the latter has no established metaphor, so […]
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Levels of Philosophy Tennis players talk about their level. Some players play at a higher level than others: their abilities exceed those of others. In this vein we may speak of a player as at a different level from his potential rivals—a cut above, in a different class or league. We might even say that […]
Alien Mouth Science “How was your expedition to planet Earth?” “Oh, it was quite interesting. We gathered some fascinating specimens. One was a strange species that talks with the same organ it eats with”. “Wow. How is that possible? How do they talk while they are eating?” “They don’t. They have to alternate. It’s quite […]
PTSD I am 76 and I suffer from PTSD. In fact, I have two doses of it. One is medical: cancer and its treatment, dating from 2023. The other is psychological, dating from 2013, and concerns my departure from the University of Miami. I have no wish to discuss either situation and indeed generally avoid […]
Persuasion and Imagination in Philosophy Persuasion clearly plays a large role in philosophical practice. We do it by means of logical argument based upon generally accepted premises; we don’t tend to marshal new evidence. In consequence of this we encounter a good deal of refutation, or at least resistance and rejection. We try to persuade […]
Linguistic Structures We are familiar with the three levels of linguistic structure: semantic, syntactic, and phonetic. But what is the relation between them? What determines what? Take the semantic and syntactic levels: does semantics determine syntax or syntax determine semantics? Which came first? Which is basic? Did meaning exist first and then grammar supervene on […]