Philosophy Sexualized The basic fact of biology is reproduction; everything is centered around it. Animals live to reproduce. Reproduction is brought about by means of sex, in nearly all cases. The urge to reproduce is probably the strongest force in biology; it is the gravity of life, only a lot stronger. Prior to reproductive age, […]
The Sexual Gene We know the gene is a selfish little thing, but it is also a sexual little thing. Gene survival depends on a gene’s ability to navigate sexual reproduction: the better it is at having sex (conducing to it), the more likely it is to survive into the future, possibly for millions of […]
Sex and Philosophy Is philosophy a sexy subject? That is my question, but I won’t get to it for a while. First, we must talk about biology and psychology. It is a little-known fact that Charles Darwin put sex at the heart of biology. I don’t mean people didn’t know sex existed before Darwin, in […]
Common Knowledge and Sex There is knowledge and there is common knowledge. Common knowledge is the situation in which A knows that B knows and B knows that A knows that B knows, etc. It is a fairly complex form of knowledge. Where does it come from? In what circumstances did it first arise? What […]
Susan Haack Etc. I recently learned that Susan Haack has just died. During my six years in the University of Miami philosophy department I never once set eyes on her. Nor did I have any communication with her. I did email her when I arrived to suggest a meeting, but got no reply. I was […]
Four Strong Women We have recently heard four strong women speaking their truth: Kristi Noem, Karoline Leavitt, Pam Bondi, and Jeanine Pirro. And it has been quite a spectacle: angry, self-righteous, denunciatory, and defamatory. They have confidently proclaimed what they evidently believe—the trouble is that it has been false, illogical, unjust, and vicious. Yet they […]
Amatory Knowledge We have heard a lot about different kinds of knowledge in epistemology courses; I want to add a new kind of knowledge and explore its contours and characteristics. I call it “amatory knowledge”, which belongs to the family including carnal knowledge, erotic knowledge, sexual knowledge, sensual knowledge, libidinal knowledge, romantic knowledge, and marital […]
Consciousness and Mental Representation There is a language of thought, or so they say (and think).[1] When you think you are speaking inwardly (or perhaps hearing inwardly): there is a code with symbols, a syntax, a semantics. The words in this code combine like words in spoken languages. To think is to say in the […]
Edward St Aubyn and Me I met Edward St Aubyn, author of the Patrick Melrose Trilogy, at a conference on consciousness in Tucson about twenty years ago. He was writing a book centering on the problem of consciousness. Tall, handsome, witty, refined—I took to him immediately. We became friends. I came to know him as […]
Astronomical Perception I don’t think anyone would seriously argue that we see stars just as they are. They look to us like small pinpoints of light not massive physical bodies, and they were conceived as such in earlier times. If there were a dome over the earth with apertures in it and a conflagration behind, […]