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Normism: The Philosophy of Norm Macdonald, a short book I wrote about the late great comedian, is available on Amazon.
Category Archives: Philosophy
LSD Brain Imaging
There’s a fascinating new study on involving LSD brain imaging, offering potential insights into consciousness: MRI scans showed that LSD caused brain activity to become less coordinated in regions that make up what is called the default mode network. The … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy of Mind, Science
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RIP: Hilary Putnam
A giant of late 20th century analytic philosophy has passed away: The American philosopher Hilary Putnam, who has died aged 89, transformed the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of language, metaphysics and epistemology. By focusing on the role, rather than … Continue reading
Posted in Jewish, Philosophy
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To Worship or Not To Worship?
In “Paper Worship“, Nathan Damigo discusses the ‘procedural suicide’ of Constitutional Conservatives (or what I call ‘Checklist Conservatism’) like Ted Cruz and his supporter Glenn Beck: I am talking about the Constitution. You know, that quaint document that has been … Continue reading
Posted in Death of the West, Political Theory
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The Influence of Heidegger Today
Alexander Duff has a lengthy piece on the relevance of Heidegger to the current flush of nationalisms rumbling (if not yet sweeping) both the Western world and parts of the non-Western world (“Heidegger’s Ghosts”): A specter haunts the post-Cold War … Continue reading
Posted in Existentialism, Philosophy
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Social Media as a Model for the Collapse of Liberal Democracy
Brett Stevens has a very intriguing and thought provoking post titled “Social media as a model for the collapse of liberal democracy“. We are now familiar with the social media cycle: 1)New site appears and the movers and shakers — … Continue reading
Posted in Death of the West, Political Theory, Sociology
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Consciousness Is Not Mysterious?
Michael Graziano, who is very much in Camp Dennett, writes that “Consciousness Is Not Mysterious“. Of the Hard Problem of consciousness, Graziano writes: The brain constructs inaccurate models of the world. To understand consciousness scientifically, once again it’s necessary for … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy of Mind
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Reflections on Bernard Williams
Nakul Krishna has a well written piece on the late, great, moral philosopher Bernard Williams, one of the giants of 20th century moral philosophy, as told through the lens of his (Krishna’s) own experience as a philosophy grad student: [Morality: … Continue reading
Posted in Ethics
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Anomalisa (2015)
Written and co-directed by Charlie Kaufman, Anomalisa is a stop-motion play on the horrifying banality of existence. Overall, I don’t think the film garners it’s hype and 90+ RT rating, and I generally agree with David Edelstein, who writes: [T]he … Continue reading
Posted in Existentialism, Film
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A Fight for the Soul of Science
In “A Fight for the Soul of Science“, Natalie Wolchover provides an overview of contemporary debates in modern physics (aka cosmology): Nowadays, as several philosophers at the workshop said, Popperian falsificationism has been supplanted by Bayesian confirmation theory, or Bayesianism, … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Physics
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Gaps in the Grammar of the Universe
Jag Bhalla has an excellent, brief, Tractatus-outlined piece on the limits of scientism, the indeterminateness of language and its metaphysical inscrutability. (“Gaps in the Grammar of the Universe?“) Does our grasp of the grammar of the universe have gaps? Is … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Scientism
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