Samuel Scheffler on the importance of the afterlife … seriously. “Astonishing though it may seem, there are ways in which the continuing existence of other people after our deaths — even that of complete strangers — matters more to us than does our own survival and that of our loved ones.”
Month: September 2013
What is time?
Reviews of Lee Smolin’s Time Reborn. See especially Tensers, Time Regained!, and Resetting the Clocks, Smolin explains: “I used to believe in the essential unreality of time. Indeed, I went into physics because as an adolescent I yearned to exchange the time-bound, human world, which I saw as ugly and inhospitable, for a world of pure, timeless truth…. I no longer believe that time is unreal. In fact I have swung to the opposite view: Not only is time real, but nothing we know or experience gets closer to the heart of nature than the reality of time.” Even the laws of nature, Smolin says, are in time and change over time.
Analytic theology
The problems and questions discussed in analytic philosophy of religion. “… videos … shot during an international philosophy conference on “Minds – Human and Divine” in Munich 2012.”
Uncertainty.
A new look at an indeterminate world. Many very interesting articles about uncertainty … what we can know, how we can know it, and the degree to which we can know it.
Rationality as a kind of escapism?
Occam’s moisturiser. “Out there is the messy chaotic suffering of humanity, but the philosopher, like Plato, retreats to the safety of his academy, and polishes his concepts.”
Examined lives
What it means to lead a good life. A. C. Grayling’s review of James Miller’s Examined Lives. “His conclusion is a negative one: the combination of wisdom, self-understanding, and self-possession that Socrates’s successors took to be the gold standard for the philosophical life proved impossible for most of them to attain, and, in some cases, what they preached and what they practised fell widely apart.” Sarah Bakewell’s review in New York Times.
Argument over Kant ends in shooting
Debating Kant … or “nerds gone wild.” “… a headline worthy of instant fame on Reddit or Buzzfeed: ‘Man shoots another man following argument over philosopher Immanuel Kant.’ ” Was the fight about the categorical imperative or perhaps the categories of the understanding?
Happiness and/or meaningfulness
Do you want a meaningful life or a happy one? “Happiness is not the same as a sense of meaning. How do we go about finding a meaningful life, not just a happy one?” From a psychology professor at FSU, some psychological research … and philosophy … about “the meanings of life.”
Personal identity v. personal brand
You are what you tweet. Does personal identity equal personal brand? “So, to reiterate: wear the right clothes, attend a well-squeegeed church, and project seamless consistency and competence across every department of your life—you know, be yourself. “
The moral dilemmas of doctors during disasters
Katrina and medical ethics. “Which patients should receive priority in a disaster? Should doctors abandon the critically ill? What should they do if they believe those patients will suffer? Should they receive legal immunity for decisions made under duress?”
Socratically Speaking 