Perception and Propositions In order to have a theory of the origins of knowledge one needs an account of the origins of the proposition, i.e., propositional thought. How do we come to grasp propositions? It is notable that empiricists don’t venture an answer; they stick to the origins of concepts (“ideas”). They vaguely suppose that […]
Third Best Philosopher Ever I have suggested, tentatively, that Bertrand Russell is the second-best philosopher ever, but it would be nice to say who gets the bronze medal. Reflecting more on my admiration of Russell, I came to a melancholy conclusion: the only philosophical work of his that I really like is The Problems of […]
American Shrinkage The American shield is down, Europe is on its own, isolationism is back, protectionism is preferred, xenophobia is rampant, paranoia prevails. This is the new world order under Trump. Europe will have to save Ukraine, if anything can. Canada hates America. France, Germany, and Great Britain have had it with the American government. […]
Quitting Ken Levy’s case reminds me of my own case of twelve years ago. I resigned from the university I worked at because I did not want to spend thousands of dollars and a lot of time engaged in a legal action to keep my job in a place I no longer wanted to work. […]
Intelligence and Politics Have you noticed how bad people are at talking about politics? Of course you have. Why? Is it because they are riddled with prejudice, brainwashed, of low IQ, uneducated, mentally lazy? I don’t think so; I think it’s because politics is hard. It’s just so complicated, so all-encompassing, so full of uncertainty. […]
Empathy and Racism I want to discuss a sensitive topic: the cause(s) of racism. I will not discuss all aspects of what is doubtless a complex phenomenon, especially virulent, violent, institutional racism; I will discuss a specific universal non-malicious cause of racism. And by racism I will mean lack of empathy for people of races […]
How Many Mind-Body Problems? We tend to speak in the singular about the mind-body problem: the mind-body problem. But is that realistic? Couldn’t there be many mind-body problems depending on what aspect of the mind we are considering? They may not present the same problem or have the same solution. How many life-matter problems are […]
A Trump Ukraine I have come to a disturbing conclusion: Trump actively wants Ukraine to lose the war with Russia. What triggered this realization was the cessation of intelligence-sharing with Ukraine. This cannot be justified in terms of expense, as the cessation of arms can. It seems gratuitous—the kind of thing you would do if […]
Cult Politics Last night’s State of the Union was pure cult: Trump spouted a stream of lies, crazy fantasies, and groundless grievances while his Republican supporters cheered, chanted, and became teary-eyed. They would have wildly applauded anything he said no matter how ludicrous. They seemed happy in their delusions. Vance and Johnson gave whole-body Nazi […]
Cold War Over The Cold War went on for, oh, 75 years, give or take. Now it’s over. How did this miracle happen? Trump brought Putin to the negotiating table—he used diplomacy. He achieved this feat by not criticizing Putin. Yes, there were territorial concessions: Trump gave him Ukraine and any other chunk of Europe […]