Until recent years, I read only “fundamental” books, that is, key books on key subjects, such as War and Peace, the novel of novels; A Study of History, the solution of the problem of time; Schroedinger’s What is Life?, Einstein’s The Universe as I See It, and such. During those years I stood outside the…
Ted Honderich discusses his brand of externalism in support of his latest book. actual consciousnessCognitionCognitive neuroscienceconsciousnessExtended MindExternalismphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindted honderich
ancient philosophyMarcus AureliusStoicstoicism
Elizabeth Corey’s recent discussion in Academic Questions. An extract below: Oakeshott’s Critique In his most famous essay, “Rationalism in Politics,” published in a book of the same name, Oakeshott calls the American Founding a “Rationalist” project. In Oakeshott’s lexicon, Rationalism is not something to be praised but a pathological condition, a cast of mind exhibited by…
According to an email circulated to the PSA British Idealism Specialist Group, Leslie Armour died yesterday. Here is an interview with him. Here is his Wiki entry. British IdealismIdealismLeslie Armour
Here’s a very good article by Rob Chodat It is the scientist’s “being-in-the-world” that allows her to describe planets and bacteria, “things and subhuman organisms,” but the “being-in-the-world” of the layman occupies what Percy calls a “different sort of reality,” resting upon the linguistic and social ties that constitute a “non-material, non-measurable entity.” And what holds…
“Whoa! Levy Pant kick your ass out for tryina get all them po color people throwed in jail, huh?” “How do you know about that?” Ignatius asked guardedly. “Were you involved in that particularly abortive coup?” “No. I hear peoples talkin aroun.” “You did?” Ignatius asked interestedly. “No doubt they made some mention of my…
Here’s an interesting paper co-authored by Jonathan Haidt. Also, here is a good accompanying article in The New Yorker. The problem though with all the discussion is that the terms “conservative” and “liberal” and their supposed practical politics correlates “Republican” and “Democrat” are meaningless. When push comes to shove, self-ascribed or pejorative usage of these terms,…
A few months ago I made a posting concerning Wim Wenders, Peter Handke and Walker Percy. In conversation/correspondence with a filmmaker chum I mentioned that of all Percy’s novels The Thanatos Syndrome would be the most translatable into the modality that is film since it works brilliantly and disturbingly as a thriller on a purely surface level. My…
This still rates as one of my favorite pieces of secondary literature on Oakeshott using it to critical effect in the essay “Constructivism and Relativism in Oakeshott“. Robert Orr, by the way, also wrote a memorable article on Machiavelli. When I asked him why the only books he had in his LSE office (pretty much the complete set of…
manwithoutqualities 