Nothing is Sacred Here

I refuse to walk on eggshells when doing philosophy.

If I say something that offends you, or hurts your feelings, well...

that's just too damn bad.

Imagine That

Nothing is more rewarding than worshiping

a figment of your own imagination.

Christians Need a History Lesson

I'm getting really tired of hearing the following:

"Jesus is the reason for the season."

"Our nation was founded on Christian principles."

"Evolution is just a theory."

etc, etc...

What these Christians need is a real history book.

Of course, I know some Christians are smarter than that. But then the question is — why do you believe in a myth?

Philosophical Styles - The Tree Analogy

{This may be updated from time to time}

Analytic: We can't see the forest for the trees.

Post-Analytic: Here, let me show you how to see the forest...

Continental: OOOHHH...Look at the pretty forest!

Constructionist: 'Tree' and 'Forest' are just social constructs.

Deconstructionist: There is no forest without the trees, and there are no trees without the nuts...

Feminist: A tree is a phallic symbol, and a forest is a sign of male domination.

Supervenist: The forest is real but will disappear if we cut down the trees.

Reductionist: The forest is nothing over and above the sum of the trees.

Eliminativist: What forest?

Dualist: There are two things; the forest, and the trees.

Panpsychist: The forest is a living entity!

Neutral Monist: No, not trees, not a forest, but something else entirely different.

Relativist: You are all correct, but speaking past each other.

The Law

The law is a crude instrument; you can't draw boundaries around life.

A Sure Sign of a Trivial Objection

When I can make a slight modification to my example that completely eliminates your objection without affecting the point I am trying to make in the slightest.

The lesson to be learned: think before you speak (didn't your mother teach you that?)

Skepticism

We have gone too far, and now cannot find our way back.

Virtual Conspiracies

Tales of dark conspiracies abound, but most people (myself included) do not lend them much credence. Nevertheless, in some cases it does seem as if there were a conspiracy. Now this got me thinking, and I realized that the actions of a multitude of individuals, even though they are not coordinating their actions with one another, can result in a situation where it is as if there were a conspiracy.

And these virtual conspiracies can be every bit as dark and dangerous as real conspiracies. Even more so, when you consider that there is no one in charge - they are something mindless that emerges from the chaos of normal human activity.

Coinage

Non-Descriptive Realism: realism about the mind-independent world as a whole (there is one way the world is in-itself), combined with conceptual relativism (there are multiple empirically equivalent descriptions that can be given of it).

Coinage

Knowle: an individual belief that counts as knowledge.

What contract?

I renounced my social contract a long time ago ... funny how nothing changed.

Another Stupid Philosophical Question:

"Do mental events cause physical events?"
(and vice versa)

This illustrates a fundamental confusion faced by those who want to naturalize the mind, as if it weren't something already quite natural. Doesn't phenomenal consciousness provide us with a very good understanding of how reality operates?

This is why I am a neutral monist and panpsychist.

My Website

I have a website where I post some of my writings. I haven't updated it for a while now, so it mostly consists of papers I wrote as an undergraduate. And most of those papers are somewhat sophomoric (I detest that word).

So why do I have the website, and why do I post my writings there?

It is more of a record or expression of my philosophical development than anything else. And the papers do contain some very good ideas, or seeds thereof. And a few of the papers are actually quite good.

http://www.modalrealism.com/

A Stupid Philosophical Question:

"Are indexical properties causally efficacious?"

Titles are Everything

I despise the title "Professional Philosopher" - I will never call myself that.

There is no such thing as a "professional philosopher". There are, to be sure, "philosophy professors", i.e. those who teach philosophy professionally. But no one does philosophy professionally. Philosophy just isn't something that one can be paid to do.

Or, in other words, if you're getting paid to do it, it ain't philosophy.

Addendum:

It should be obvious that, in order to be good at teaching philosophy, one must be good at doing philosophy (although the converse doesn't hold).

...just keep it quiet

Court nixes man’s suit claiming torture by CIA

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday terminated a lawsuit from a man who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if the case were allowed to proceed.

So it's OK for the Executive office to do whatever they want, just so long as they keep it secret?

What the fuck happened to checks and balances?

God?

The idea of God is a manifest contradiction, and we all know that anything follows from a contradiction. Perhaps this is the origin of the saying, "With God, all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

Reset

Begin again.