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What Is Philosophy?
There are many definitions of philosophy: the love of wisdom, a system of ideas that explain the universe, thinking about thinking, etc. None of these explanations really get to the essence of what philosophy is and why people devote their … Continue reading
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Symbolic Thinking
Interesting story from National Public Radio that argues that our ability to engage in symbolic thinking is what truly makes us human. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129082962. I agree with the basic premise that our ability to intellectually create and manipulate symbols is crucial … Continue reading
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Double Positive
During a lecture the Oxford linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin made the claim that although a double negative in English implies a positive meaning, there is no language in which a double positive implies a negative. To which Columbia University … Continue reading
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On Religion and Ethics
Blame religion? That’s too easy and too wrong. Just as people don’t need religion to be ethical, they don’t need religion to be unethical. Religion never created any saints or monsters – the saints and monsters created themselves.
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BP and Academic Freedom
The editorial by Cary Nelson of AAUP in Inside Higher Ed is pretty much the same old talking points (“as we said back in 1915″) but as archaic as AAUP is, at least someone is talking about Corporate infringements on … Continue reading