Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category
Monday, May 8th, 2017
A: Imagine this
B: Look at this
Something big wrapped in plastic
Christo Javacheff (2000) Wrapped Reichstag Project for Berlin
A pickled cow
Damien Hirst (1995) Mother and Child, Divided
Some bricks
William Anastasi (1964) En Route (Stack of Bricks) Originally untitled
A toilet
Marcel Duchamp (1917) Fountain
A bike seat with handlebars arranged like a bull
Pablo Picasso (1943) Head ...
Posted in Art, Philosophy | No Comments »
Sunday, May 7th, 2017
The following is from an email I sent on 22/03/2007. I thought I might as well keep it here as anywhere.
Some people have pointed out that wikipedia articles often say true things. That may very well be so. In fact it might even be the case that, in general, it ...
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Sunday, May 7th, 2017
From Megan McArdle
A commenter claims:
Umm, you can make "corporations" (or engineers) give us more fuel-efficient cars simply by increasing fuel efficiency standards. If they passed a law tomorrow that said all cars sold by 2010 must get 45mpg, Detroit could do that pretty easily. They just don't, because they don't ...
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Sunday, May 7th, 2017
The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology has issued a report, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants," which declares that the ‘dignity’ of plants must be considered in our handling of them. Apparently "living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are ...
Posted in Philosophy, Politics | No Comments »
Friday, January 16th, 2015
The Thread in the Labyrinth
One fine July morning, under a pounding sun, I began to wonder where we had come from, where we were going, and what we were doing on this Earth.
Posted in Philosophy, Texts | No Comments »
Friday, January 16th, 2015
Recommended Reading
Shakespeare, Tragedies
Bible: (Ecclesiastes)
Nagel, T. (1971) “The Absurd.”The Journal of Philosophy 68, pp. 716-27.
Camus, A. (1942) Le Mythe de Sisyphe, Editions Gallimard:Paris
Introduction
The question of the Meaning of Life is one of those questions that the layman thinks should be at the very heart of the philosophical ...
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Monday, November 10th, 2014
At Harry’s Place Gene is seeking suggestions for a list of books that are appropriate for the ‘Decent Left’. His readers are an erudite bunch and have come up with a vast number of suggestions. I’ve collected the good suggestions from that post and its comments here.
Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: ...
Posted in Philosophy | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 24th, 2014
There is a question whether Yoga is necessarily a religion or whether it is possible to be a practitioner and remain, for example, a good Christian. Now, ‘Yoga’ is the name of a wide variety of beliefs and practices – we might compare it to the Dao of the classical ...
Posted in Philosophy, Religion, Yoga | No Comments »
Friday, August 29th, 2014
HAMAS vs Israel
In the recent ‘war’ between the HAMAS government of the Gaza Strip and Israel, there have been a lot of accusations that the Israeli action is ‘disproportionate’. The principal fact that seems to be motivating this accusation is that the death and injury toll of Gazans claimed by ...
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Monday, February 10th, 2014
An article by Peter at Conscious Entities considers the question of whether philosophical zombies have rights. It seems to me that under most forms of ethical theory that have been attractive to philosophers they would do. Let’s consider them systematically:
(a) Teleological theories
a.1 – Consequences are Utilities
A consequentialist theory – if ...
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