John Gray reviews Dominic Johnson’s God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human. Though I haven’t read this book, based upon this review the title and the subtitle “How the Fear of God Makes Us Human” seem to be the wrong way round. Indeed, the main title seems superfluous. But first,…
Michael Ruse in the latest issue of ZYGON The implication is that those of us who think that science and religion can coexist harmoniously are in some sense selling out. The New Atheists have appeared on the scene,and in a classic example of what Freud called the “narcissism of small differences,” while they may hate…
Nice paper from Galen Strawson. Hayek’s The Sensory Order (1952) is missing though (salient extract below). See also Hayek in Mind: Hayek’s Philosophical Psychology. Hayek’s discussion of the mind–body problem speaks directly to a topic that has dominated philosophy of mind for the past 35 years – qualia (quale for singular), a term of art that…
Old review. Dennett wrote me that he thought it the best written review he’d gotten in yonks. It’s been reprinted along the my other Dennett review in Daniel Dennett, Edited by John Symons, Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers. brain scienceCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessDaniel Dennettjohn symonsneurosciencephilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mind
Review CognitionDaniel Dennettdarwinmemeticsnaturalismphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindReligionReligion & Spiritualityreligion and science
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…
This was supposedly published on the 12th . . . now the 14th. I have two long reviews in this collection, items 48 and 104. a companion to michael oakeshottCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessDaniel DennettEvolutionary Psychologyphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindreligion and science
This summary from the very excellent The Splintered Mind. BrainCognitive neuroscienceCognitive sciencecomplexityconsciousnessDaniel DennettDavid ChalmersEric Schwitzgebelphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindqualia
Two of my pieces are appearing in this volume. I’m very pleased to be in such august company and John has done a terrific job of marshaling a veritable tsunami of Dennettalia. But speaking of exorbitant cover prices the listed price here really is steep, despite factoring in the chunky page count. And even if aimed at libraries, they too…
An argument presented by Alvin Plantinga yesterday at UBC. I’ll argue (1) that contemporary evolutionary theory is not incompatible with theistic belief, (2) that the main antitheistic arguments involving evolution together with other premises also fail, and (3) that naturalism, the thought that there is no such thing as the God of theistic religion or…
manwithoutqualities 