by Mark English From time to time over the past couple of years, I have expressed reservations about certain forms of history as constituting knowledge. My view can, I think, be very simply stated and defended. It involves distinguishing different kinds of narrative from one another. The boundary lines in question are necessarily fuzzy. All the key concepts here – […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman My discussion with Crispin Sartwell on the Analytic/Continental divide. Originally aired on the Sophia program, MeaningofLife.TV., April 10, 2019.
by Bharath Vallabha I believe in the miracle that is at the heart of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe Christ died on the cross, came back to life three days later and ascended to heaven. What does it mean to believe in a miracle such as the resurrection? When I entertain the belief, some images often pass […]
by Mark English A number of factors are pushing me to do a bit of intellectual stocktaking; to review and assess what I have been saying over the last few years. One trigger for this process is the closing down of Google+ where I had, since 2016, posted quite a lot of material. I recently had to go through my […]
by Daniel A. Kaufman My article on Philosophy’s past and future in the current issue of Philosophy Now. https://philosophynow.org/issues/130/The_Decline_and_Rebirth_of_Philosophy
by Mark English Attempts to express a comprehensive personal view of the world are doomed to failure. Each of us has a view of the world; some such views are more developed and plausible than others. But language (even supplemented with other modes of expression) is simply not equipped to articulate the complex and shifting set of values and beliefs […]
by Mark English Maybe I have read just one too many articles promoting the so-called simulation hypothesis. Maybe I have seen just one too many populist videos purportedly dealing with scientific topics but which, in order to maximize audience numbers, manage to leave all the hard and interesting stuff out and focus instead on presentational style (including colorful and virtually […]
by Mark English I have been engaged in some private and public discussions recently about the extent to which a scientific worldview relates to our ordinary non-scientific view of the world, and I want to pull together some provisional thoughts on the matter, especially as it relates to language. Science and ordinary thinking As I see it, there is no […]
by Mark English Writer’s block it is not. The problem – if it is a problem – is more along the lines that the sorts of topics and themes I know best are not (for various reasons) all that interesting to me, or only in a negative way. And most of the topics that I am interested in exploring I […]
by Mark English Areas of the brain used in mathematics have been identified. These areas, which are associated with our sense of number and with spacial reasoning, are used not only for basic arithmetic and to process our ordinary perceptions and intuitions about shape and form and space but also, it now appears, for advanced math. (1) High levels of […]
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