Chemistry I used to love chemistry. It was my first intellectual interest. I was ten. It was my gateway science. Why, I don’t remember; it might have had to do with Dr. Dolittle. I persuaded my parents to equip me with a chemistry laboratory one Christmas. I selected the apparatus and chemical samples from a […]
Limits of Intelligence Does intelligence have limits? What might these be? Where do we humans stand on the intelligence scale? I will discuss these questions by reference to a Star Trek episode and a well-known philosophical contention involving bats. Don’t expect anything too definitive; these questions are very difficult (we may not have the intelligence […]
A Puzzle in Zoology Isn’t it strange how animals vary in their natural defenses? Some are poisonous, some have armor, some have horns, some have thick skin, some have spikes, some have tough scales, some live in shells, some just taste bad; but some—many—have none of the above. Some can only run and hide. The […]
Beatlemania Beatlemania has always been something of a mystery. True, these were four handsome young men, stylishly dressed, who made great records; but why the hysteria, the extreme adulation? No other band or individual has ever come close, before or since. It seems hard to believe, a kind of collective madness. I think the answer […]
Knowing Minds What is the main thing that minds do? A survey of psychological (and philosophical) theories through the centuries suggests a variety of answers: copy, interpret, react, introspect, sense, repress, think, remember, reason, imagine, learn, believe, create, compute, process information, and no doubt others. Each of these might be proposed as the central operation […]
Skateboard Encounter The other day I was practicing skateboarding at my usual location—round the corner on a slight incline, around 5pm. Suddenly a red car drew up next to me and the driver opened the passenger side window. She said: “I see you every day as I’m driving home from work and I just want […]
Christmas With You I don’t care for jingle bells I’m not fond of the Christmas tree Santa Claus can go to hell I’d like to set his reindeer free I’m not one for turkey and stuffing I don’t love all that Christmas cheer Don’t give me carol huffing and puffing I don’t even […]
Is Belief Necessary for Knowledge? It has always seemed that the stipulation that belief is a necessary condition for knowledge is a touch unrealistic. One wants to say, “I don’t just believe it, I know it”. Belief goes with opinion, uncertainty, faith—but knowledge is a matter of being indisputably right, in the know (as we […]
Analyzing Knowledge We are familiar with Gettier problems, which bring out the insufficiency of the classic analysis of knowledge as true justified belief. But there are other problems with that analysis, centering on circularity. They question the pretensions of such an analysis to provide conditions that don’t presuppose the concept of knowledge but together add […]
Philosophy as Science, Literature, and Religion What kind of subject is philosophy? Is it a type of science? Is it a form of literature? Is it a religious calling? Or is it all three? I think it is all three: philosophy is a literary science touching on religious themes (among other things). Once this is […]