Tag: Wittgenstein
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The Philosophers Behind the Texts
by Bharath Vallabha ____ For sixteen years I studied and taught philosophy. As a professor I taught Plato, Descartes, Kant, Wittgenstein and Heidegger. I thought I knew Western philosophy. Boy, was I wrong. Though I taught the great texts, in an important sense I didn’t understand them or the thinkers who wrote them. For —…
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Wittgenstein and Woke Philosophy
by Bharath Vallabha ___ Since I was a philosophy undergrad 25 years ago, I wanted academic philosophy to be more diverse. Back then, at least in the departments I was in, most philosophy professors and students were white males, and the curriculum was almost entirely European. What most bugged me was this was so taken…
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Beyond Polarization
by Bharath Vallabha___ Our society is becoming more polarized. Nuance and subtlety are marginalized as things are reduced to all-encompassing binaries such as red vs. blue. This is as absurd as sorting items in a house in terms of their color instead of their function. Who in their right mind would give up categories such…
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‘Identify’
by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ Until about five minutes ago, if you’d asked me what some customary uses of ‘identify’ are, I would have given three: [A] Where one expresses sympathy for and solidarity with a group to which one does not belong, as in, “I identify with the plight of Afghan women, in the…
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Three Constraints on the Philosophy of Art
by Daniel A. Kaufman _____ Preliminary Remarks After a brief hiatus in the last century, the search for a definition of ‘art’ has resumed with great vigour. Wittgensteinians may bemoan this as intellectual atavism, an anachronistic longing for “essences,” but I am inclined to think that the revival of the question of ‘art’ ’s definition…
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three lectures on ethics and animals
by Daniel A. Kaufman ____ Three lectures from my Ethics and Contemporary Issues course on the subject of animals and ethics. I cover material from Peter Singer, Cora Diamond, and Bernard Williams. First Lecture: Peter Singer on Our Ethical Obligations to Animals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYe6z7EUXaQ&list=PLYpFt8HxKBGvo2CSBGfHUx2_sm6zcZMvg&index=8&ab_channel=AravisTarkheena Peter Singer, a contemporary philosopher at Princeton University, is most famous for…
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Foundationalism, Gettier Cases and Wittgenstein — A Conversation with Joshua Rasmussen
A dialogue with Joshua Rasmussen of Azusa Pacific University, in which we discuss a number of topics in Epistemology, including: Foundationalism and criticisms; Gettier Cases; Internalism and Externalism; Transcendental Arguments; and Wittgenstein’s “On Certainty.” This dialogue will also appear as part of the Sophia program at MeaningofLife.TV. https://youtu.be/5EZeUqm3iUI