Is Logic Gibberish? We are familiar with the standard notation of predicate logic in which we have what is called variable binding. Thus we have a symbol for (say) existence followed by an “x” and then a formula in which a predicate and bound variable occur (“Ex(Fx)”). How should we read this? It is common […]
I went to see the film the other day. It is commendable in many ways. I liked the moment, surely lost on most viewers, when Einstein says to someone visiting the Institute in Princeton, “Have you met Dr Godel?”–who then disappears for the rest of the movie. But it irritated me that Oppenheimer was depicted […]
I’m reading Goethe’s “Italian Journey”. He remarks during his visit to Rome: “The past year has been the most important one in my life; it does not matter whether I die now or last a while longer, in either case I am content.” People used to ask me whether there was anything about England I […]
I Feel So Weak Well, I feel so weak There’s nothing I can do I can’t even speak Or come right over to you I’m a-laying in my bed Can’t stand on my own two feet I feel half dead It’s hard for me to breathe Coz I’m weak In my physique […]
Why Did You Die? You were my dear old friend That word is too short for you Now you’ve gone and left me And I don’t know what to do I’d walk with you by my side On summer days and winter nights I thought you’d always be around Like the clear blue […]
Higher-Order Desire As we know from the work of Frankfurt, it is possible to have second-order desires directed at first-order desires. For example, the prudent alcoholic may decide, upon reflection, to reject or moderate his desire for alcohol: he desires not to desire alcohol, or to act on that desire. He thinks about his first-order […]
I just finished reading Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song. There is no philosophy in it but plenty about song. He clearly has never read any philosophy of music, or perhaps any philosophy at all (bit of Nietzsche maybe). I don’t know what he means by “Modern Song”: certainly there is nothing classical in it, though […]
Ordering Philosophy Does philosophy consist of a bunch of more or less unconnected problems or is there a pattern to its problems? Is it possible to order philosophy in a natural and illuminating way, with some areas leading naturally to others, or is it that there is just a loose association of problems that historically […]
Gravity and Consciousness It is tempting to see an analogy between the mystery of consciousness and the mystery of gravity. Both arose at around the same time (with Descartes and Newton) as the Scientific Revolution was getting underway. Gravity and consciousness seem “occult” to a mechanistic worldview: the brain and the earth are extended objects […]
I’m curious about the demographics of my readership. I have the impression that no one from a North American philosophy department ever comments on this blog. I wonder whether readers would care to tell me whether I am wrong about this. Perhaps readers would like to share their affiliation.