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 […]
Analysis of Perceptual Knowledge Suppose I see a bird in the sky, thereby coming to know there is a bird in the sky (of a certain shape and color). I don’t form the belief that there is a bird in the sky; I simply know by perceiving. I might not be a believer at all, […]
Beatle-Philia Why were the Beatles so good, so beloved? Why do they stand out from everyone else? You might think it was because they were super-talented: each of them was really good at what they did. I think the opposite is true: they were that good because they were not all that talented or accomplished. […]
Dinosaur Evolution I saw my first dinosaur skeleton in the late 1950s at the Natural History Museum in London on a family trip. I remember it as huge, alien, and dead; but undeniably impressive. I have seen many more such skeletons since. It has always seemed to me that a lot of evolution separates us […]
Sent from my iPhone It’s like a sculpture you can use.
This Boy I have a personal relationship, a history, with the song “This Boy” by the Beatles. It was released in November 1963, when I was thirteen, as the B-side of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. I heard it then. I recall the Beatles being interviewed on the BBC’s Tonight by Cliff Mitchelmore in […]
Seeing as Knowing Knowing may or may not be a type of seeing, but seeing is a type of knowing.[1] I mean this as an identity theory: seeing is knowing. Necessarily, if you see, you know, because seeing is in itself a type of knowing. The knowing isn’t something added to the seeing; it is […]
Sent from my iPhone