Can the Body be in the Mind? The classic mind-body problem can be stated as follows: How can attributes of the mind be attributes of the body? Attributes of the mind have been taken to include consciousness, subjectivity, intentionality, rationality, privacy, incorrigibility, and unity. How can these attributes exist side by side with bodily or […]
Dichotomous Knowledge There is a long tradition of recognizing two distinct categories of knowledge: knowledge of logic, meaning, and mathematics, on the one hand, and knowledge of geography, history, and chemistry, on the other (these lists are not exhaustive). We might name these “A-type knowledge” and “B-type Knowledge”, so as to be neutral about the […]
The Survival of the Fittest? Herbert Spencer’s phrase “the survival of the fittest” has done a lot of mischief, not only in biology, but also in politics, economics, ethics, history, and education. The phrase is riddled with confusion, ambiguity, and tendentious error. I will indict the phrase, first its use in biology and then in […]
Is Consciousness Shrinking? What is the ratio of the conscious mind to the unconscious mind? Is the human unconscious half the size of the conscious or twice the size? What percentage of mental activity is carried out unconsciously and what consciously? Does this proportion vary between species? Which species has the largest unconscious mind relative […]
Reality and Appearance Appearances are part of reality, even when they are illusions; they are real things, no less so when not representing reality correctly. But is reality part of appearance? Certainly, not all reality is presented in appearances, since some parts of reality have appeared to no one (unless we include God). But is […]
Emotional Logic The idea that emotions are exempt from logic is widely received. Emotion is supposed to be where logic breaks down, where the mind eludes logic’s inexorable grip. It is the domain of the unruly, the irrational, the unprincipled—a kind of mental anarchy. This is wrong on several levels. Of course, emotions are subject […]
Emotion and Logic Are they compatible? Is it possible to be an emotional being and a logical being? More exactly, is it possible to be perfectly logical but also emotional? Is emotion always the enemy of logic? In Star Trek we find a defense of the thesis that emotion and logic are incompatible, or an […]
My Secret Garden I live in South Miami, just outside Coral Gables. I have an extensive garden, with much tropical vegetation. My study has a door onto this garden; I go out there a fair amount. It has a jungle feel. In this garden I have a full-size competition-level trampoline shaded by trees. I also […]
Four Ways of Studying Language What is the linguist or philosopher of language studying? It will be useful to distinguish four different (but overlapping) areas of study: ontological, epistemological, behavioral, and phenomenological. By “ontological” I mean the study of language as a formal object: its nature, structure, and inner workings. What is it composed of? […]
Phenomenology of Language Suppose we undertake a phenomenological investigation of human speech (we leave Vulcan speech to the Vulcans). What distinctions will we need to make? What categories must we adopt? What methods should we use? What precedents should we cite? Obviously, we will need a speaker-hearer distinction, as well as distinctions between inner speech […]