An Even Harder Problem People like to talk about “the hard problem”, meaning the problem of consciousness. The phrase itself invites scrutiny: it contains the definite article and thus implies uniqueness, unlike “a hard problem”; and “hard” is an attributive adjective associated with cognate words, i.e., “harder” and “hardest”. So, we must ask: is the […]
Ethics and Other Minds There is a close connection between ethics and the problem of other minds, which I have not seen remarked (though it is obvious). Belief in the latter supports commitment to the former; skepticism undermines it. If you don’t believe in other minds at all, you can have no morality worthy of […]
“Baby, I Love You” The first thing I did after waking up from a twelve-hour operation on my neck was to vomit into a plastic bag (a normal reaction to all the anesthetic, I was told). I was semi-delirious on a gurney. The next thing I did was feebly sing the chorus to the song […]
William James on Mind and Brain In chapter VI of The Principles of Psychology William James writes: “The ultimate of ultimate problems, of course, in the study of the relations of thought and brain, is to understand why and how such disparate things are connected at all. But before that problem is solved (if it […]
South Park South Park has thrown down the gauntlet: expect more of this or come after us. I don’t see that MAGA has any easy options, so this could be one of the most potent political moves so far. I don’t know what will happen, but it is a serious challenge in today’s world.
The Deep Problem of Consciousness In The Principles of Psychology, published in 1890, William James quotes from Charles Mercier’s The Nervous System and the Mind (1888): “But why the two occur together, or what the link is that connects them, we do not know, and most authorities believe that we never shall and never can […]
Against Identity Theories Would it shock you to learn that so-called identity theories are not identity theories? If so, prepare to be shocked (I was). Proponents of these theories called them identity theories, but they were mistaken about their true import. This puts them in a new light. Consider the following statements: “water is H2O”, […]
Composers, Singers, and Instrumentalists These three occupations are not commonly combined. Opera singers don’t compose and play an instrument as well as sing. Lead guitarists usually don’t sing as well as play. Composers are rarely performers of note. There are exceptions, but the demands of each occupation are liable to encroach on the other occupations. […]
How to Prove There is an External World Suppose you are doing metaphysics, working on which worlds are possible worlds. It occurs to you that no worlds can be immaterial; the idea makes no sense. Thus, you conclude that all worlds must be material. Your paradigms of the material are solid bounded objects in space. […]
A New Proof of the External World It would be nice to be able to prove the existence of the external world (it would also be nice if there were a heaven). I am going to consider an argument that purports to do just that, not because I think it is sound, but because I […]