It seems like I was just on here a few days ago – turns out that it has been three months! I’ve recently been working on the new website layout. It is live on the main page and the rest of the site will be converted shortly. I’ll blog soon – and I have photos to post shortly, too.
What does it mean, fairness? What is fair? Is nature fair, is society fair, how can we go about being fair? Are there levels of fairness and should there be? It seemed so clear to me when I was a child: fairness is when I got the good things I saw other people get. Fairness was ice cream and toys. Fairness was goodness. Group punishment was not fair, head lice was not fair, and the chickenpox was not fair – because they were not good, I did not want them....
I’m going to update this post throughout the next ten weeks with new information about mind and science fiction. It will consist primarily of summarization, although if I find something exceptionally problematic and decide to grapple with it immediately… then I will post a link to my further analysis. — 1st week of April :: robustness, universality, recognizing consciousness — This image was attached to a spacecraft and was intended to depict its ideas in a “universal language” – can you decipher it in its entirety?...
I’m going to update this post throughout the next ten weeks with new information about wonder and the aesthetics of magic or illusion. — 1st week of April :: the aesthetic dilemma, what is beauty? — In his book, Aesthetics: Key Concepts in Philosophy, Daniel Herwitz introduces a real conundrum: what is beauty? Indeed, it’s not a problem of his own invention… it’s a real problem that has been bugging philosophers for centuries....
I’m going to update this post throughout the next ten weeks with new information about political philosophy.
I’m going to update this post throughout the next ten weeks with new information about moral luck. It will consist primarily of summarization, although if I find something exceptionally problematic and decide to grapple with it immediately… then I will post a link to my further analysis. — 1st week of April :: different types of moral luck, empirical vs theoretical components — Thomas Nagel, in the third chapter of his book Mortal Questions, raises a real issue – what he calls a paradox – with moral accountability in a world of uncertainty....
You know, the operator of a website has a great deal of information about the people that visit his site. How long they hang around, how they get there, what operating system they use, what city they are visiting from – what they are looking for when they land on his site. It’s nifty really – and sometimes disheartening. This little blog of mine only gets about 20 visitors a day, not too bad – certainly not enough to feed myself on (thank goodness that was never its intention)....
For what reason is the ideal social unit a group of two? For every man desires a woman, and every woman a man… or, more broadly, every body generally desires a partner. Of course, there are exceptions, but one cannot doubt the “couple” is a prevailing trend. It is so pervasive that many feel it is the goal of life, necessary for”completion” – they seek their “other half” so that they may grow old together....
After my last post about the apparent appeal of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle… and a lively debate with my uncle, who claims the Obama administration is setting the USA up for socialism… I feel compelled to write more explicitly about my thoughts on the capitalistic system that exists today. For whatever reason, changing that system seems unfathomable to many people. That bothers me. As long as I have been alive, and for as long as my uncle before me, the United States has been infatuated with capitalism – and Americans have benefited from it....
I imagine a man in a thick forest, wandering around in search of berries or roots. He carries a sharpened stick for spearing fish. He has no dependents and is content to sleep in makeshift shelters. This man has few constraints. He requires food and water. To obtain these things it costs him significantly fewer than eight hours a day. With his free time he may do whatever he pleases, granted his options are somewhat limited....