Airport Anecdote On the way to Barbados, at the Miami airport, I joined a long shuffling line at 7 in the morning. After about an hour, we were close to security; an official instructed the person behind me to stand by my side so that we could walk a short distance together, as if a […]
Blog Facts Readers may be interested to hear some blog facts. The top ten countries to read this blog are in descending order: the USA, the UK, China, France, Mexico, Canada, Sweden, India, Germany, Australia. It varies from week to week but the USA and the UK are always in the top two positions. The […]
On Being the Best A few years ago, I came to the conclusion that I am the best philosopher who ever lived. It was hard to take in at first. But I had to accept it; I could no longer deny it. It was true. Facts are facts. I kept it to myself for a […]
Knowing Other Minds We are only too familiar with the other minds problem: from liars to bats, the inverted spectrum to total zombies. But all is not dark—we do sometimes know what is on, or in, another mind. In fact, we have a great deal of knowledge of this type, generally taken for granted. But […]
Material Selves The self and the mind: what are they? Are they material or immaterial? These questions are usually discussed separately: one under the heading “personal identity”, the other under the heading “the mind-body problem”. Thus, we discuss whether the self is the body and whether mental states are physical states. But these questions are […]
Paleolithic Philosophy I wish to introduce a new academic discipline to be named “paleolithic philosophy” (aka “caveman philosophy”). This subject investigates the original causes of philosophically interesting concepts. The central tenet of paleolithic philosophy is what I will call “evolutionary empiricism”, the doctrine that our basic concepts derive from the primitive environment of our distant […]
I couldn’t agree more, Colin (and thanks for the shout-out). As we know, academic fields have their own cultural mores, and the norm that real psychology = experiments (or occasionally computer simulations) is strong. I think it’s gotten worse: when I was an undergrad, every department had a course in history of psychology and a […]
Rhyme Song I was alone and writing I was up midnighting I wasn’t fighting I wasn’t gaslighting I called your name I wanted fame I fanned the flame I staked my claim Did you hear my voice? Did I make the right choice? Did I make you rejoice? Or was it all […]
How To Be a Psychologist In my years as a psychology student no one ever suggested I read William James’s The Principles of Psychology. No doubt this was because it was deemed old-fashioned and far too philosophical. In those days great emphasis was placed on doing experiments. You couldn’t be a serious psychologist unless you […]
On Naming According to the classic description theory, names are synonymous with definite descriptions; they are said to abbreviate such descriptions, to be “short for” them. The two are therefore intersubstitutable. The description is said to “analyze” the name—spell out its meaning. Thus, there can’t be a language with names but no descriptions, and names […]