Dive into the thoughts of a philosophical old fart.
'Ex nihilo nihil fit'-Parmenides of Elea My topic for this month is panpsychism. This is the concept that the mind or some corresponding entity is a universal aspect of reality, not just of humans and certain animals. This was the topic of my dissertation for my BA...
'You have funny looking knees'-My cousin's friend Lee This month isn't really a philosophy essay, but it does touch on an ethical subject. Many of the things we do in life have unexpected consequences. A commonly cited example is the concept of 'double effect' where a...
Here we're confronting a condition I think of as Moral Exhaustion.Trying to do the right thing all the time is...a huge pain in the ass.-Michael SchurHow to Be Perfect This month I will be doing something a bit different. Most of my post will be a book review. Some...
It is the greatest good to the greatest number of people whichis the nature of right and wrong.-Jeremy BenthamChildren have never been very good at listening to their elders,but they have never failed to imitate them.-James BaldwinPlay by the rules, but be...
What most people think of as a philosophical system is a collection of doctrines deliberately invented by an individual philosopher in the attempt to reduce the whole of his experience to private formulae. I do not believe that such things exist. What I find in the...
What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. Homer Simpson I have always approached any kind of academic/intellectual endeavour by trying to be organized. Instead of memorizing a bunch of facts that I will probably forget or mix up, I try to look for...
The unexamined life is not worth living.Plato: Socrates' Apology Just to be different, I thought that I would wait until my second entry to discuss why I decided to start a blog. The simple reason is that I spend a lot of time thinking and I want to share some of...
Freight train, freight train, run so fastFreight train, freight train, run so fastPlease don't tell what train I'm onThey won't know what route I'm going Elizabeth Cotten: Freight Train I was lucky enough to hear Elizabeth Cotten sing...
Why in the world would I want to create a blog? I have been asking myself that question a lot ever since my good friend Neil started putting together this web site for me. Maybe I should step back a bit. A few years ago it became possible to register .ca domain names...
'Ex nihilo nihil fit'-Parmenides of Elea My topic for this month is panpsychism. This is the concept that the mind or some corresponding entity is a universal aspect of reality, not just of humans and certain animals. This was the topic of my dissertation for my BA...
'You have funny looking knees'-My cousin's friend Lee This month isn't really a philosophy essay, but it does touch on an ethical subject. Many of the things we do in life have unexpected consequences. A commonly cited example is the concept of 'double effect' where a...
Here we're confronting a condition I think of as Moral Exhaustion.Trying to do the right thing all the time is...a huge pain in the ass.-Michael SchurHow to Be Perfect This month I will be doing something a bit different. Most of my post will be a book review. Some...