Faults of the Philosophers I am going to do something I have never seen attempted. I am going to enumerate the intellectual faults of the main philosophers of the twentieth century—their erroneous assumptions, intellectual biases, ideological commitments, areas of ignorance, and cognitive weaknesses. It is going to get ugly, I’m afraid, though not cruel; we […]
On Not Knowing What It’s Like How much do I not know about what it’s like? How extensive is my ignorance of the different forms of consciousness? I do know what it’s like to be me now—about my current conscious states. They act as input to my knowledge faculty and that faculty produces knowledge of […]
Diary of a Zoolatrist Looking back, I see why I am a born animal worshipper: I had a childhood fondness for lizards and butterflies, in particular, but also other animals. I also liked reading Dr Dolittle books. I found nature charming. I imagine many other children feel the same way. It is probably inherited from […]
Animal Worship If you google “animal worship” you will get some surprising results (I did). It turns out that animal worship (“zoolatry”) was much more widespread than might be supposed. It is present in nearly all ancient religions and extends right across the animal kingdom. I made a list: bears, whales, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, […]
Groceries The president was explaining the word “groceries” to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He fancied himself a bit of a linguist in his spare time, because he was an expert in everything to do with word. In fact, he was an all-round expert on many subjects, including windmill and shower head (not to […]
Assertion and Command There is such a thing as speech act theory, but ought there to be? Philosophers and linguists usually distinguish assertion, command, and question: these are the three main types of speech act. Questions are often assimilated to commands (requests) because they can be construed as requests for information (“Please tell me whether […]
Ode to a Wall I live near a tennis wall. It is about 40 feet wide and 15 feet high, green with a white line at net height. It is said that Federer once played at it. It is fronted by two tennis court halves, blue and white, so as to simulate real play. The […]
Bathroom Blues The president was loitering in one of the many bathrooms of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. As a construction person, he was much interested in the décor of this palatial retreat. So much fine marble! So much ornate gold! It made Mara Lago look paltry and poor in comparison. He was having […]
A Bit of History When I arrived in Oxford in 1972, after having studied psychology for the previous four years in Manchester, I was in need of a philosophy supervisor. At that time, I was enrolled in the B.Litt. program, having been deemed by R.M. Hare not qualified to undertake the B.Phil. degree. I had […]
Certainty As a topic in the philosophy of mind, as opposed to epistemology, certainty has not received much attention. I intend to put that right. What kind of mental state is certainty? What is its analysis? I will be asking a series of questions, this being a new field—certainty studies. First, what is the relation […]