I was saddened to learn of the death of Susan Hurley today. Here is Alexander Bird’s announcement: I am very sorry to inform you of the death last night of Professor Susan Hurley. Susan had been suffering from cancer for some time and faced her illness with remarkable dignity. She continued to work until very…
I have always thought that the topic of personal identity (PI) was the most fascinating topic in metaphysics and perhaps in all of philosophy. Furthermore, this view was enhanced by the consistently high quality of the PI literature attracting the likes of historical thinkers such as Locke, Butler and Hume – and recent thinkers such as Strawson (Peter), Williams,…
Ignoratio elenchi is a classic argument-based fallacy. It is a fallacy to be found in traditional logic: it’s important to note that as a fallacy it doesn’t necessarily entail an invalid argument. Ignoratio elenchi literally means “ignorance of refutation” and is sometimes known as the “fallacy of irrelevance” or the “fallacy of missing the point”.…
I have been struck by the number of posts that are tagged in WordPress blogs as “philosophy.” Given that philosophy is a central interest of mine I naturally have tag surfed “philosophy” from time to time. It has been somewhat of a disappointment to find, even on the most charitable of interpretations, that much of what is classed as…
It’s been ten years since a snappy and provocative paper by Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998) audaciously burst upon the philosophical scene. Given that the paper had been rejected three years earlier by three major journals (Chalmers 2008, 42), it must surely have come as an enormous surprise to the authors that a veritable…
manwithoutqualities 