Strange and upsetting things have been happening in the world recently. A great many people are believing weird things and acting on them. Conspiracy theories such as Q-Anon (QAnon – Wikipedia) abound, whilst the consequences of irrational motivations can be terrible. Theodore Schick has offered one of the best primers I’ve come across for […]
How to Think About Weird Things by Theodore Schick Read More »
The Liberal Party in Britain is at a low ebb in its fortunes with a tiny number of MPs in the Commons at the start of 2018. Behind the poor showing, though, stands a tradition which, arguably, has brought in more positive social change to Britain than any other. Should you wish to read up
Liberalism Ancient and Modern Read More »
Waking up on New Year 2018 may have brought some random thoughts like ‘Oh! God’, ‘Why me?’ ‘Why here?’, accompanied by a general sense of apprehension. Pressing the doubt and unease further may lead to a question which has troubled many for centuries, namely ‘Why is there Anything rather than just Nothing?’ The question was
Why there is Something rather than Nothing by Bede Rundle Read More »
In order for you to be reading this sentence you must be conscious. You have a private, direct and intimate possession of consciousness. Awkwardly though, science and philosophy are having a devil of a problem defining what consciousness actually is. There has been a whole crop of theories, some competing, some overlapping and many deeply
Consciousness by Keith Frankish Read More »
Lies, distortion, ignorance and falsity now saturate our culture. A fresh acme was reached during the US Presidential Trump campaign in late 2016 when ‘post-truth’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth_politics) became celebrated. Fact checkers couldn’t keep count of the lies which were being spewed out. Thank goodness the cool voice of reason and a love of truth still exist.
Skeptic by Michael Shermer Read More »
Psychology professors Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski offer this look at how the knowledge of mortality drives human culture. The authors’ contention is that fear of death has been a primary driving force of human creativity. They began working together on the elaboration of what they now call ‘Terror Management Theory’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory) in
The Worm at the Core by Sheldon Solomon et al Read More »
Standard histories of philosophy treat the subject in a methodical and scholarly fashion, attempting to encapsulate the whole business in a short number of volumes. Bertrand Russell’s ‘History of Western Philosophy‘, Freddie Copleston’s ‘A History of Philosophy’ (11 vols.), and Anthony Kenny’s ‘A New History of Western Philosophy‘ (originally 3 volumes) have been ready to
The Dream of Enlightenment by Anthony Gottlieb Read More »
A recent discussion on Radio 4’s “All in the Mind” programme concerned wisdom. Is wisdom a state of mind or a trait? The podcast is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083p88h. A central topic in philosophy and religion, obviously, there always seem to be new ‘takes’ on what actually constitutes wisdom. It reminded me what a rich vein of reading
Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett Read More »
You may enjoy this compelling hybrid of memoir, narrative and philosophy. Previously the author of academic works (Thinking Through the Imagination: Aesthetics in Human Cognition, 2014, and others), John Kaag (http://scholar.harvard.edu/jkaag/biocv) here teaches philosophy through narrative. It concerns the discovery of 10,000 books in a neglected building on the rural New Hampshire estate of William
American Philosophy by John Kaag Read More »
