Existence, Essence, and Time The traditional view was that essence precedes existence: things have essences before they come to exist. This makes sense if the thing in question is designed: the designer has its essence in mind before he makes it, e.g., a carpenter making a table. It also makes sense if there is no […]
Thumb Fretting As dedicated readers know, I am all about the hand. Lately, my left hand has been impressing me mightily: it has been throwing knives with confidence and panache; it has really come into its own on the tennis backhand; and its fingers have been performing nimbly on the guitar. Even my left baby […]
Psychology of Philosophy Probably every field of study has its own distinctive type of psychology. A certain type of mind will be drawn to a particular subject. It is not difficult to see how this pairing proceeds. If you are interested in people, you will naturally be drawn to psychology; not so if you are […]
Elvis, Paul, and Mick Some bands achieve considerable success but without mega-success. Elvis and the Beatles created worldwide mania (and hysteria); the Who and the Troggs did not. True, Elvis and the Beatles were supremely talented and enormously productive, but their success exceeds such attributes. Why? The Stones are an intermediate case: large success but […]
The Part Problem People talk about the mind-brain problem, but that is strictly inaccurate. The problem isn’t about how the brain as a whole produces consciousness; it’s about how some of it does. It isn’t about how the brain differs from other bodily organs; it’s about how certain parts of it do. The various parts […]
Searle on Mind and Brain Searle maintained that the mind is a higher-level property of the brain, not a separate substance. There is only the physical world with higher- and lower-level descriptions. This is his solution to the mind-body problem. He liked to compare the mental to the liquid: there is only a world of […]
Animal Induction Hume argued that induction is based on custom not reason. We believe in induction because we are psychologically built that way by nature not by ratiocination. He could have cited the case of animals: they act according to induction by instinct; they were not taught to do so or employ a priori reflection. […]
Etc. The hostages were released and President Trump may have had something to do with it. Pam Bondi went full Mr. Hyde. RFK talked more twaddle. I detest and despise X, Y and Z. I managed to play Wipe Out using only my little finger. After 12 hours of interviews, I have reached my time […]
Allegations and Obituaries Anybody can make any allegation against anyone. It means nothing. Allegations are not evidence. This is obvious, though often forgotten. The OUP gives us: “a claim that someone has done something wrong, typically an unfounded one”. An allegation is a claim not a report, an assertion not a fact. It is as […]
Competitive Philosophy There are two kinds of philosophy: competitive and excellent. These are quite different. In the former kind, people are rewarded for being better than other people (by some standard); in the latter kind, they are rewarded for doing excellent work. Clearly, it is possible to succeed at the former while being lousy at […]