Blind Sight I am not concerned with the empirical facts about so-called blindsight; I shall take them as given. I am interested in the question of description—how should these cases be described? My question is conceptual. The first thing I want to say is that “blindsight” is a contradictory expression: it is not possible to […]
Can I Prove that I Exist? The Cogito purports to be a proof that I exist. It is supposed to establish the proposition that I exist. But this is a funny kind of proof for a simple reason: it only proves my existence to me. I cannot use it to prove my existence to you, […]
Paradoxical Paradoxes Paradoxes exist. Paradoxes belong either to the world or to our thought about the world. They cannot belong to the world, because reality cannot be intrinsically paradoxical. They cannot belong to our thought about the world, because then we would be able to alter our thought to avoid them (they cannot be intrinsic […]
Black Genocide The president was on a roll. He had this immigration thing down. He was righting wrongs. He had been doing some research, i.e., talking to cronies and hangers-on (“great people”). He had never heard of apartheid before and the word baffled him (something to do with not letting blacks live in your neighborhood, […]
Faults of the Philosophers I am going to do something I have never seen attempted. I am going to enumerate the intellectual faults of the main philosophers of the twentieth century—their erroneous assumptions, intellectual biases, ideological commitments, areas of ignorance, and cognitive weaknesses. It is going to get ugly, I’m afraid, though not cruel; we […]
On Not Knowing What It’s Like How much do I not know about what it’s like? How extensive is my ignorance of the different forms of consciousness? I do know what it’s like to be me now—about my current conscious states. They act as input to my knowledge faculty and that faculty produces knowledge of […]
Diary of a Zoolatrist Looking back, I see why I am a born animal worshipper: I had a childhood fondness for lizards and butterflies, in particular, but also other animals. I also liked reading Dr Dolittle books. I found nature charming. I imagine many other children feel the same way. It is probably inherited from […]
Animal Worship If you google “animal worship” you will get some surprising results (I did). It turns out that animal worship (“zoolatry”) was much more widespread than might be supposed. It is present in nearly all ancient religions and extends right across the animal kingdom. I made a list: bears, whales, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, […]
Groceries The president was explaining the word “groceries” to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He fancied himself a bit of a linguist in his spare time, because he was an expert in everything to do with word. In fact, he was an all-round expert on many subjects, including windmill and shower head (not to […]
Assertion and Command There is such a thing as speech act theory, but ought there to be? Philosophers and linguists usually distinguish assertion, command, and question: these are the three main types of speech act. Questions are often assimilated to commands (requests) because they can be construed as requests for information (“Please tell me whether […]