Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Materialism

  • on authority [and rousseau’s fork]

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Hannah Arendt maintained that one has authority, when one commands obedience from others, not by exercising power over them, but because they recognize and respect one’s right to do so. [1] To accept authority, then, is to accept hierarchy, which, in turn, is to accept a substantial if not formal…

  • Crispin sartwell: humans are animals. get over it.

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ On the latest episode of Sophia, Crispin Sartwell and I talk about Crispin’s article for the New York Times, “Humans are Animals: Let’s Get Over It” (2/23/2021).  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/opinion/humans-animals-philosophy.html Topics include: Humanism and its roots; Racism; Hume’s Naturalism; and Normativity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnvzCH1PqGM&t=26s&ab_channel=ElectricAgora 0:00​ Crispin and Dan catch up after a hiatus 7:50​…

  • Prolegomena for a Pluralist Metaphysics: Initial Impressions

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ A number of recent – and not so recent – essays and shorter pieces, plus several dialogues with Massimo Pigliucci and discussions on Twitter have begun to converge in my mind around several points, all of which suggest (a) a fundamentally pluralist metaphysics and (b) a central role for Wilfrid…

  • Bits and Pieces – Consciousness and “Wittgenstein/Ryle-Style” (Dis)solutions

    By Daniel A. Kaufman ___ The philosophical problem of consciousness is a problem concerning subjectivity. To be conscious is to be conscious of something: a color; a smell; a feeling or emotion; etc.  This is why it is alternatively described as “conscious experience,” “self-consciousness,” etc. Consciousness, therefore, is a kind of point of view. Specifically,…

  • Bits and Pieces – ‘Physical’; ‘Material’; ‘Exists’; ‘Real’

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Lately, I’ve been doing some work on Physicalism and social reality (1), suggesting that taking the latter seriously means that the former has to be false, and it seems to me that much of the reluctance people have expressed – and which pushes so many philosophers to insist on Physicalism…

  • Selves and Social Ontology

    by Daniel A. Kaufman The ongoing philosophical (and to a good extent, the scientific) discussion of selves is in very poor shape, much like the discussion concerning minds and for much the same reason. We talk as if selves are things, and of course, they are, but the sense of ‘thing’ that most seem to…