by Kevin Currie-Knight __ Does postmodernism spell the death of reason? If you have been caught up in some recent online discussions of it, you’d think so. Postmodernism, its critics (often of the so-called Intellectual Dark Web) say, poses an existential threat to reason, a bedrock value of “the West.” An article on how French postmodernist intellectuals “ruined the West,” […]
by Nathan Eckstrand The “climate kids” strike is inspiring. At an age when students are traditionally focused on studies, relationships, and hobbies, these teenagers are advocating for a solution to perhaps our most intransigent problem. Their words are equally encouraging. 16-year old Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg describes the situation by saying, “There is a crisis in front of us […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ After bearing witness to the train wreck that was the “White Paper on Publication Ethics,” I was convinced that woke philosophy couldn’t possibly get any worse. I was wrong, of course, and in hindsight, it was foolish of me even to have imagined such a thing. After all, I had similar thoughts after reporting on […]
by Mark English Lee Smolin is a respected physicist who has always had strong philosophical interests and convictions. He recently articulated his realist views in a public lecture. What follows are my notes on his lecture mixed in with a few comments and observations. Smolin is strongly opposed to postmodernists who reject the notion of objective truth and who see […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman My dialogue with Robert Gressis, on his essay, “Is Philosophy OK?” and on the recent “white paper” on publication ethics. First aired on Sophia, MeaningofLife.TV, May 30 2019.
by Paul Austin Murphy ___ There certainly is a specific prose style when it comes to much analytic philosophy. Of course there’s a general academic prose style (or prose styles) too. The analytic philosophy prose style can therefore be taken to be a variation on that. Academics will of course say – and justifiably so – that this style is […]
by Robert Gressis Lately, I’ve been wondering whether it’s OK for me to be a philosophy professor. You might wonder, “Why on earth should anyone wonder whether it’s OK to be a philosophy professor?” I have a simple argument. It goes like this: The Conceptual Claim: Professors do three things as part of their jobs: produce research, teach, and provide […]
by E. John Winner ____ Coup d’état In April 1653, Oliver Cromwell led some twenty of his troops into the House of Commons. Berating the Parliamentarians with the strongest invective yet heard in that House, he had the soldiers boot them out without ceremony. The Rump Parliament had reached an inglorious end, and Cromwell had led what amounts to one […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ On a number of occasions, I have defended what I’ve been calling “procedural liberalism” on the grounds that in large pluralistic societies (a) one cannot expect one’s fellow citizens to share a common, substantive conception of the good, and (b) one cannot expect that one’s “community,” in the sense of the word that implies a […]
by Mark English ___ My intention here is to recapitulate a couple of points arising from recent discussions with a view to clarifying my own position on the nature of the past, before briefly addressing some broader questions relating to realism and culture. Is it acceptable to distinguish between, on the one hand, an account of the past (whatever kind […]
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