philosophy – Page 5 – manwithoutqualities

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May 16, 2010leiter, monty python, new york times, philosophical literature, philosophy, plato, russell, simon critchley, socrates, whitehead

What is a philosopher?

Simon Critchley in The New York Times. See Leiter’s critical take on Critchley.

May 10, 2010anarchism, chomsky, cognitive science, humor, libertarian socialist, linguistics, philosophers, philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, satire, the onion, universal grammar

Exhausted Noam Chomsky

Once again, this bit of Onion satire was brought to my attention by my chum David Livingtone Smith.

May 7, 2010culture wars, epistemology, literature, philosophy, postmodern, Rebecca Goldstein, social constructivism, sokal hoax

We love stories as much as we need them, but a funny thing has happened to departments of literature. The study of literature as an art form, of its techniques for delighting and instructing, has been replaced by an amalgam of bad epistemology and worse prose that goes by many names but can be summed…

April 20, 2010craig ferguson, jonathan dancy, journal of mind and behavior, moral particularism, moral philosophy, philosophy

Jonathan Dancy on Craig Ferguson

How unusual is this? A mainstream analytical philosopher on a talk show. Dancy seems more at ease than I remember him in Reading but is still somewhat flummoxed by the inherent flippancy generated for entertainment context. A tough gig I suppose. His early work concerned epistemology but is now best known for his ethical particularism.

March 23, 2010kenneth minogue, oakeshott, Peregrine Worsthorne, phantom, philosophy, special forces

Phantom Philosopher

Oakeshott has been added to the Special Forces Roll of Honour listing. Off course, many will have heard the Worsthorne story: I remember Perry Worsthorne’s story about spending a year or two with Oakeshott when he was an officer in the special intelligence unit called “Phantom” during the war, and then coming back to Cambridge, finding to his…

March 11, 2010Andy Clark, Bounds of Cognition, brain, Chalmers, cognition, cognitive science, complexity, consciousness, david chalmers, Dennett, emergence, epistemology, extended mind, folk psychology, frank Jackson, functionalism, mind body, neuron, neurophilosophy, neuroscience, phenomenology, philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, psychology, qualia, representationalism, Supersizing the Mind, the "hard" problem, tim bayne

The Character of Consciousness

Surely the biggest publishing event in mind – well since this one.

February 28, 2010metaphysics, philosophical humor, philosophy, soul, woody allen

Metaphysics

When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam; I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me. Woody Allen (armchair philosopher) Thanks to Joel Parthemore for this gem.

February 19, 2010bradley, collingwood, epistemology, experience and its modes, hegel, idealism, metaphysics, oakeshott, philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophy of mind, qualia, sellars, sensation

Old Reviews of Experience and its Modes

Here are two reviews of Experience and its Modes that I’ve only recently come across. The former is exceedingly warm; the latter, not surprisingly, very dismissive since it is reviewed in North America’s premier philosophy journal. I don’t mean to imply that The Journal of Philosophy is unduly critical – merely, that philosophy journals are,…

January 23, 2010embodiment, empty mind, martial arts, philosophy

Philosophy and the Martial Arts

I want to plug the call for papers and the conference being put on by Damon Young and Graham Priest. Of all the recent popular philosophy themes that have been floated, this is the one, that in my view, has the most plausibility. Of course I would say that as someone with a foot in…

January 18, 2010philosophy, philosophy of mind, qualia, roger scruton, wine

I Drink Therefore I Am

Here is a review of Roger Scruton’s recent offering. Also a review from The Guardian. I recently heard him on Radio 4 plugging the book – he’s a terrific and highly cultured writer but more often than not, a poor public performer – odd for someone one might consider a public intellectual. Had I known…