Lost and Found Here's an interesting story on the use of new technology to recover new text from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. The Villa appears to have been the home of a philosopher in the Southern Italian city on the Bay of Naples. On August 24, 79 AD, the dormant Mt. Vesuvius … Continue reading Lost and Found
Tag: philosophy
The Art of Philosophy
This is going to be a pile of digressions on digressions, but I hope it'll make for a good read. So, in a recent post on Newapps, Catarina Dutilh Novaes draws our attention to a painting by Roy Lichtenstein called 'Philosopher in Landscape' (I've posted a large copy, so that you can see the philosopher.) … Continue reading The Art of Philosophy
How Weird is Quantum Mechanics?
If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet" (Niels Bohr) Last week on the way to a baseball game, Nates, David and I began arguing about science and philosophy. This argument spilled over from brunch to a cab ride (with a surprisingly well informed cab driver, who recognized that we were … Continue reading How Weird is Quantum Mechanics?
Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day 1 Recap
Day one of the Big Thinkers Tournament is over, with half of the Round of 64 games in the books. In the South region, early modern scientists dominated, with Galileo rolling over Emerson 88-42 and Newton out-calculating Epicurus 71-56. In the East, Chomsky topped the higher ranked Locke 64-61, employing tight linguistic structures and surprisingly … Continue reading Society of Fellows Big Thinkers — Day 1 Recap
A Question and Kant, Durkheim and Causality
So for my current MLA course entitled "Meaning and Motive in the Social Sciences," we're reading Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Upon reading the opening pages of the book, I was extremely skeptical almost immediately, mostly I think because of the following claim made in the introduction: "At the root of our judgments, there are … Continue reading A Question and Kant, Durkheim and Causality
The Original Original Position?
Check out this passage from William Godwin's Political Justice, from 1793: The two great questions upon which the theory of government depends are: Upon what foundation can political authority with the greatest propriety rest? and, What are the considerations which bind us to political obedience? Having entered at length into the first of these questions, … Continue reading The Original Original Position?
All Things Shining, part one
So, I was looking for something to read on the beach last week (other than student papers), and I decided to go with All Things Shining, by Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly. Many things were shining that day, so it seemed like a good choice. Actually, with its mix of history, philosophy and literature, … Continue reading All Things Shining, part one
A Rationality Pill?
Suppose that you are a person who suffers from what an economist would call a "high discount rate." You tend to attach very little importance to the long-term consequences of your actions. As a result, you smoke and drink a lot, eat a lot of bacon, are massively in debt, and so on. Then, someone … Continue reading A Rationality Pill?
On the Idea of Public Justification
Given our preceding discussion of Rawls’ intended scope for his theory of justice as fairness, I thought it might be useful to say a bit more about his idea of public justification. First, a bit of groundwork. Rawls writes at the beginning of Political Liberalism, “Justice as fairness starts from within a certain political tradition … Continue reading On the Idea of Public Justification
On getting into position
OK, I finally got my hands on a copy of Theory of Justice. Sorry for the delay. Our previous discussion of Rawls has been fascinating and has gone in a lot of different directions. I have a better sense now of the rational/reasonable distinction that Rawls is employing, and I now recognize that Rawls doesn't … Continue reading On getting into position
Original Positions 