By Daniel A. Kaufman The older I get, the more I find myself listening to Punk rock and the less I seem to be able to tolerate much of anything else. It’s weird, the idea of a middle-aged Punk. My parents, who belong to the Silent Generation, listened to classical, Big Band, and Sinatra-style lounge music, and I remember, as […]
By Steve Snyder “Field philosophy” is becoming a trend in the world of philosophy, but what exactly is it? The book “A Field Philosopher’s Guide to Fracking,” by Adam Briggle, helps to characterize field philosophy, with regard to one subject in particular, that of fracking. But before giving you a review of Briggle’s book, let’s get a general sense […]
by Mark English Though we all obviously share a physical environment – a bluish, dirty-watery, middling sort of planet orbiting a medium-sized, middle-aged star – we live in very different worlds in terms of culture and so in terms of group-based and individual values. But what exactly does the existence of these multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives and value systems […]
By Daniel A. Kaufman I want to sketch some ideas on explanations in the social sciences and how they differ from their counterparts in the physical sciences. The point is to start a discussion, which I hope will further sharpen my own views on the subject and pave the way for a subsequent, academic paper, as well as a dialogue, […]
By Paul So Philosophy of Religion is not my cup of tea, but still I have noticed that there is a tendency among many atheists to define their view as either (1) lacking belief in the existence of God or (2) believing that the existence of God is improbable. As an atheist, I can understand where they are coming from; […]
By David Ottlinger What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around. -George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” *** The invention of new concepts on the internet has become something of a cottage industry. Certain terms of art like “privilege” and “punching up” have long been familiar in the […]
By Daniel Tippens If I had to capture the way I viewed my life as a kid it would be with the question, “Who’s in charge, here?” My first thought was always that I couldn’t be the one who’s in charge of my life right now, it had to be someone else. For me, my parents were in charge […]
by E. John Winner The basic claim of this essay is that jokes and lies share similar semiotic structures, both originating in play, and both playing upon audience expectations, by effectively creating a fictitious ‘model world’ of signs that reassure the audience that their expectations will be met (or, in a situation of openly comedic performance, that they will be […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman The experimental psychologist, Steven Pinker, says that we are getting nicer. Way nicer. We kill and rape each other much less than we used to. (The “rape culture” folks apparently didn’t get the memo.) We’re less racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, sizeist, ageist, and ableist. (We’re just less -ist in general.) We don’t have comedians like Sam Kinison […]
by Mark English I want to say something about political and social commitments. In order to make the points I want to make, I will sketch out my own political and social views (and how they have changed) and refer to the views of Isaiah Berlin. But I am also making some general claims about human values and critical thinking. […]
RSS feed
Recent Comments