Good False Theories In what does the goodness of false philosophical theories consist? How can a theory be good and yet false? To be good a theory must have certain attributes: clarity, simplicity, interestingness, the ability to solve problems, integration with other theories, and explanatory power. Generally, it avoids mystery and provides a reduction of […]
False Good Ideas There should be a category of false good ideas: ideas that are clever and appealing but clearly false. These ideas will tend to catch on despite their obvious falsity, because they appear to solve problems. Most of philosophy is made up of these ideas; they might be said to constitute the subject. […]
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, […]