MetaFilter posts tagged with philosophy

What philosophers believe

leibniz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:39:31 -0800

Want to know what philosophers, those people you pay to think on your behalf, actually believe? David Chalmers and David Bourget recently canvassed several thousand professional philosophers for their views on a range of central philosophical issues. The authors call this an exercise in the sociology of philosophy, rather than providing reason for anyone to change what they think. Some results are unsurprising (81.6% are non-skeptical realists about the external world) where others are more curious (41% think aesthetic value is objective). (Mostly) wikipedia pages on the philosophical problems surveyed: a priori knowledge; abstract objects; aesthetic value; analytic-synthetic distinction; epistemic justification; external world skepticism; free will; god; knowledge claims contextualism v relativism v invariantism; knowledge rationalism v empiricism; laws of nature Humean v non-Humean; logic classical v non-classical; mental content internalism v externalism; meta-ethical realism v antirealism; metaphilosophical naturalism v non-naturalism; mind physicalism v non-physicalism; moral judgement cognitivism v non-cognitivism; moral motivation internalism v externalism; Newcomb's problem; normative ethical positions; perceptual experience; personal identity; proper names; scientific realism; political positions; teletransporter thought experiment; time; trolley problem; truth; zombies.

36 Arguments

vronsky — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:33:37 -0800

36 Arguments for the Existence of God

Speculative Realism Breaks Out, Breaks Philosophy?

macross city flaneur — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:25:35 -0800

Since the Goldsmith's Conference of 2007 (which saw the formal embrace of the name), the movement known as Speculative Realism has, by some accounts, "revivified" philosophy. Led by the young philosophers Ray Brassier and Quentin Meillasoux, the movement is becoming known for its two-pronged critique of both the continental and analytic philosophical traditions. Speaking crudely, the goal is to fashion a "transcendental materialism" that puts the continental tradition in a better position to engage with the evolving insights of experimental science (particularly cognitive science, biology, and physics), while revising the analytical tradition's tendency to a "scientistic" and "naive" materialism. On the whole the philosophy tries to be less human-centric, acknowledging a world indifferent to human knowing and human being, while still acknowledging the problem of epistemic contingency. Brassier is also a leading proponent or investigator of nihilism, which will please Big Lebowski fans. A good place to start for those serious about understanding SR is Brassier's 2001 dissertation (PDF). Unfortunately, the two major books known to develop the ideas of SR, Meillasoux's After Finitude and Brassier's Nihil Unbound, are available only in hardback, the latter a 60 dollar behemoth. But the paperback of After Finitude will be released in December. A lecture by Brassier on Heidegger, Deleuze, and the "philosophy of access" is also available on Youtube (1 2 3 4 5 6). Graham Harman and Iain Hamilton Grant were also important figures at the Goldsmiths conference. Harman's Tool Being and Guerilla Metaphysics, as well as Grant's Philosophies of Nature After Schelling are another way into understanding what the Speculative Realists are after. Or, if you prefer a less conventional point of entry, try Reza Negarestani's Cyclonopedia, which is described by the publisher as "at once a horror fiction, a work of speculative theology, an atlas of demonology, a political samizdat and a philosophic grimoire..." The movement is also known for its embrace of blogs, including Speculative Heresy, Accursed Share, Planomenology, Naught Thought, and still other philosophy and science studies blogs are abuzz with posts about the movement (Larval Subjects, Anthem). The journal COLLAPSE (whose back issues are available online in PDF form) is something of an official organ of the movement, and it is remarkable for its openness to non-traditional and non-academic authors. People as varied as the mathematician Greg Chaitin and the "new weird" novelist China Mieville have had essays published there.

Environmental Discrimination?

mccarty.tim — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:29:01 -0800

Tim Nicholson, a UK former executive, believes he was fired for his environmental views. He has sued his former employer for discrimination on grounds of the Employment Equality act, which states that employees may not be discriminated against for religious or philosophical beliefs. His former employers argue that his views were political, and thus do not fall under the act. This would not be the first time religion and global warming were compared, but usually the comparison is unfavorable and used to either discredit the science or to imply religious people cannot be environmentalists, as that leads to distracting from their faith for worldly or heretical concerns. This raises a lot of interesting questions about discrimination in the workplace, and what should be considered a religion or philosophical view.

The revolution will not be [make your own joke here].

fiercecupcake — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:01:06 -0800

We think it’s normal to work all day every day at a dead-end job. It’s normal to fight with our spouses and our children. It’s normal to eat and drink and drug ourselves to escape, to veg out and stare at a screen for hours a day just to dull the pain. It’s normal to hate our lives and be miserable, it’s normal to be lonely, it’s normal to feel hollow. The Freak Revolution Manifesto.

I prefer to think of it as a 'trolley opportunity'

grobstein — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:46:36 -0800

Michael Sandel's "Justice" has long been one of the most popular courses at Harvard. Now for the first time the class is being broadcast online. The site for "Justice." "Justice" is a wide-ranging introduction to issues in normative ethics and political morality that aims to work as a kind of supplementary civic education: "In a way, . . . the course [tries] to model what public discourse would be like if it were more morally ambitious than it is." The video series is an ambitious (and expensive) production, using multiple cameras to capture student discussion as well as Prof. Sandel's words.

transcendental numbers rumble in the technium

kliuless — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:00:48 -0800

Extropy
How did life arise? What is information? In his recent dispatches from The Technium, Kevin Kelly would say extropy (cf. negentropy & Prigogine). [previously 1|2]

On the concept of horror and the horror of concepts.

Bookhouse — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:59:29 -0800

Collapse IV , "Concept Horror." The fourth issue of Urbanomic's "journal of philosophical research and development," Collapse, focuses on the relationship between modern philosophy and horror fiction and features essays by and about authors such as Thomas Ligotti, China Miéville and Michael Houellebecq and of course H.P. Lovecraft. Having sold out its print edition, Urbanomic has made the issue available for download as a 200 + page PDF. Some disturbing images (and ideas) within the download.

Perfect is the enemy of good

lucia__is__dada — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:56:07 -0800

Take three kids and a flute. Anne says the flute should be given to her because she is the only one who knows how to play it. Bob says the flute should be handed to him as he is so poor he has no toys to play with. Carla says the flute is hers because it is the fruit of her own labour. How do we decide between these three legitimate claims? This is the point of departure for Nobel Prize-winning Amartya Sen's new book The Idea of Justice ("his most ambitious work to date") in which he seeks to create in practically-minded way a political philosophy that aims to reduce injustice in the world rather than to postulate what constitutes the perfect, just society which is unachievable. And thus taking a swipe at Rawls, as the Economist put it. Lecture by Sen at the LSE (video).

Without Guilt & Justice

ageispolis — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:33:52 -0800

"Humanity craves but dreads autonomy." – Without Guilt & Justice by Walter Kaufmann argues that decidophobes employ ten strategies in order to avoid indecisive dizziness. He cites Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as an individual who demonstrated autonomy through "the most awesome courage".

Marcus Aurelius

homunculus — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:08:52 -0800

Marcus Aurelius: Was He Quite Ordinary? [Via] The Meditations

Leszek Kolakowski dies at age 81.

orrnyereg — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:52:17 -0800

Leszek Kolakowski, a distinguished Polish philosopher who critiqued the Communist system and helped inspire the Solidarity movement, passed away last Friday in Oxford, UK. Kolakowski was born in Radom, Poland in 1927. Largely self-taught as a youngster, he received his doctorate from Warsaw University in 1953. In 1950, he came to reject Marxism following a Party-sponsored visit to Moscow. In 1956, his publication What is Socialism? coincided with unrest throughout Poland and was formally banned. In 1966 he was kicked out of the Polish United Workers' Party; lost his professorship in 1968; and went to live in exile. Adam Michnik, one of the founders of Solidarity, called Kolakowski "one of the most prominent creators of Polish culture." Some of the awards he received throughout his life: the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honor; a MacArther "genius" grant; and the first John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities and Social Sciences from the Library of Congress. One of his key beliefs was that the cultural role of philosophy was “never to let the inquisitive energy of mind go to sleep, never to stop questioning what appears to be obvious and definitive, always to defy the seemingly intact resources of common sense.”

Why We Must Ration Health Care

grouse — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:16:03 -0800

Why We Must Ration Health Care by Peter Singer.

Blogging the Philosophers

anotherpanacea — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:05:36 -0800

The Guardian's How to Believe series summarizes some great philosophical works in the reversed-date format we all know and love. Giles Frasier evaluates the lasting value of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals, Julian Baggini tells us what to believe about Hume's critique of religion, Mary Midgeley begrudgingly accepts the majestic contributions of Hobbes' Leviathan, and Simon Critchley throws himself into the hermeneutic circle of Heidegger's Being and Time. Perhaps most entertaining are the responses to comments. Hurf Durf Über Alles!

He laughed like an irresponsible foetus

TheophileEscargot — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:30:17 -0800

Parts 1, 2, 3 of a 1959 interview with philosopher, mathematician and peace campaigner Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). Works and pictures online include Anti-suffragist Anxieties, Why I am not a Christian, the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against nuclear weapons and the book The Conquest of Happiness. Russell is also known for his pithy quotes, his teapot and was the subject of poem Mr Apollinax by T.S. Eliot.

I am a strange loop.

loquacious — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:30:41 -0800

Douglas Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has been recorded as a series of video lectures for MIT's Open Courseware project.

Carvaka

homunculus — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:18:17 -0800

Atheistic Materialism in Ancient India. Interesting piece on the ancient Indian philosophical school of Carvaka.

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

ornate insect — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:22:36 -0800

Earlier this month, to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edmund Husserl (born April 8, 1859; yesterday marks the anniversary of his death in 1938), the Husserl Archives in Leuven, Belgium, hosted a conference (audio files of the keynotes are available: here's Robert Sokolowski on "Husserl on First Philosophy") in his honor. Husserl's influence on philosophy is difficult to overstate, and continues to this day: as the founder of phenomenology, his contributions to logic, philosophy of mathematics, psychology, philosophy of mind, epistemology, existentialism, and many other areas of thought, has been immense.

Marjorie Glicksman Grene (1910-2009)

ornate insect — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:14:41 -0800

The philosopher Marjorie Grene died last month at the age of 98. Author of over 30 books, pioneer in the philosophy of biology and one of the first interpreters of existentialism, Grene was an iconoclastic thinker fondly remembered by many. Her contributions span the whole of philosophy, and her long career began with a bachelor's in zoology from Wellesley; from there she studied with Whitehead and C.I. Lewis at Harvard, with Jaspers and Heidegger in Germany in the 1930s, and alongside Carnap, Hempel, and Polyani in Chicago. Hence she was one of the few modern philosophers who was as conversant in existentialism as she was in logical positivism.

PhilSci Archive

aniola — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:15:07 -0800

The PhilSci Archive is an electronic archive for preprints in the philosophy of science. The goal of the Archive is to promote communication in the field by the rapid dissemination of new work.

The New Atheism is Destructive

Roach — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:10:01 -0800

Julian Baggini, British philosopher and author of Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, on the destructiveness of the New Atheist movement.

Philosophia Islamica

ageispolis — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:21:17 -0800

Meet the Islamic Philosophers. Arabic philosophy sought to reconcile the science and empiricism of Aristotle, the metaphysics of Neoplatonism, and the revelations of the Holy Qur'an. From the first thoughts of Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, to the 20,000 pages of Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd, the influence of these Muslim polymaths profoundly shaped Western thought. The "Golden Age" of Islamic Philosophy: 1. Al-Kindi (and the Mu'tazili) (c. 801–873 CE) - On First Philosophy. 2. The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan as-Safa') (10th century). 3. Al-Farabi (“Second Teacher") (~872 - ~950) - The Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. 4. Ibn Sina (~950 - 1037) - Remarks and Admonitions. 5. Omar Khayyam (1048-1123) - The Rubaiyat. 6. Al-Ghazali (1058 - 1111) Tahafut al-falasifah and The Mysteries of the Human Soul. 7. Ibn Tufail (1105 - 1185) - The Improvement of Human Reason. 8. Ibn Rushd (Averroës) (1126 - 1198) On the Incoherence of the Incoherence.

I'll be back... again and again

Drainage! — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:56:07 -0800

Wired.com is really pimping the Terminator franchise right now. With the success of the television series and the upcoming fourth installment hitting the big screens at the end of May, is the continuing appeal simply science fiction geekdom or is the concept really a deep philosophical metaphor? Also featured is creator James Cameron himself on the franchise's origins and a timeline of its existence up to this point. If this seems frivolous for a simple shoot-em-up piece of science fiction, consider the original movie is going into the National Archive as an example of progress in science fiction and also as a historical film, what with its star being the current governor of California.

Beyond Real and Fake

Joe Beese — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:09:38 -0800

I both loved and resented that wealth of warmth which Elisabeth brought to me in those unexpected hours of the night. I was usually in the midst of a sound sleep when she got into my bed, and thrilling as I found the ministrations of her fat little fingers, it also meant my being kept awake for hours and hours. Besides, though in my conscious nature I knew nothing about what was going on, I must have had a feeling that my sister was bringing to my life as accomplished facts sensations whose real value to a boy was in their being discovered as part of the experience of growing up. She was presenting me with triumphs I should by right attain only by my own efforts in a much more restricted world… My Sister and I was a publication - and possibly, commissioned forgery - of Samuel Roth. He is not included in lists of notable American Jews. But our freedom of expression owes him a considerable debt.

"So Say We All"

zarq — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:07:01 -0800

Fantasy Meets Reality. The very best works of science fiction illuminate controversial current events and the intricacies of human nature. So, it's no surprise that the United Nations Public Information Department and the Sci Fi (SyFy?) Channel co-hosted a panel yesterday evening on "humanitarian concerns" at the UN, with the creators and actors of Battlestar Galactica -- a show which regularly explores those themes. A 2-hour video webcast is archived here. (RealPlayer video). Entertainment Weekly has an additional write-up. SciFi.com will eventually have a transcript up of the event. The first link in this post is a review by the television critic of the NJ Star-Ledger. More on why the UN decided to host the panel. Topics discussed last night include human rights; terrorism; children and armed conflict; and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faiths. The panel was moderated by Whoopi Goldberg, with Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos, Ron Moore and David Eick participating.