Excerpt from The Sense of the Past: Essays in the History of Philosophy (2007) Plato invented the subject of philosophy as we know it. He lived from 427 to 347 bc, and he is the first philosopher whose works have come down to us complete. He is also the first to have written on the full…
I knew that Parfit was a keen photographer with a great eye at least from the cover of Reasons and Persons, but here are many that have remained unseen by most until now. Luchino Visconti would have approved. Derek ParfitethicsLuchino Viscontipersonal identityphotography
The always interesting and readable Andy Clark at The Neuroethics Blog. Andy ClarkEmbodied cognitive scienceethicsExternalismNeural Networksphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindpredictive brainsurfing uncertainty
Looking forward to Tamler Sommers’ latest endorsed by no less than Paul Bloom. ethicspaul bloomphilosophy of lawPolitical philosophytamler sommersvery bad wizards
Someone has uploaded a reissue of Bernard Williams’ classic book. [m]y conclusion is that the demands of the modern world on ethical thought are unprecedented, and the ideas of rationality embodied in most contemporary moral philosophy cannot meet them; but some extension of ancient thought, greatly modified, might be able to do so. Wanting philosophy…
I chanced upon the piece below published in Religious Studies 19 (2):175 – 183. F. H. Bradley, An Unpublished Note on Christian Morality, Introduced and edited by Gordon Kendal. At some time between 1907 and 1912, probably very much nearer the earlier date, [1] Bradley produced the first draft of an article on Christian morality. He did this in…
Here’s an obit in Vox but will compile and post other obituaries as they come out. New York Times Derek Parfit and Janet Radcliffe-Richards (not an obit) “With no other philosopher have I had such a clear sense of someone who had already thought of every objection I could make, of the best replies to them, of further…
Nick Spencer’s The Evolution of the West: How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values warmly reviewed in The Economist. This theme was one that Walker Percy repeatedly returned to. Lurking everywhere in the secularised West is what he calls a “disenchantment with disenchantment”. People still want more than just freedom and choice. They want to belong, they want community rooted in…
Sam Harris chats with David Krakauer head of the complexity mecca — Santa Fe Institute. SFI offers some free programmes of real substance and difficulty well worth signing up for in an attempt to offset the illiteracy of philosophers on unavoidable matters of complexity. complexitycomputational intelligencecomputational modelingDavid KrakauerethicsneurosciencePhilosophyPhilosophy of mindPhysicssam harrissanta fe institutescience
The Lesser Evil podcast. Well-worth listening to the whole podcast. (Oakeshott is briefly mentioned by Andrew at 17 minutes in). Classic Sam — “Balkanized epistemology!” andrew sullivanConservatismethicsexpertiseLiberalismMichael OakeshottPoliticsReligionsam harris
manwithoutqualities 