In “Soul Talk,” Stephen Asma says, “No self-respecting professor of philosophy wants to discuss the soul in class.” And yet using the Wittgenstein-inspired notion of “category mistakes,” he explains there are ways in which soul talk is meaningful and can’t be replaced.
Year: 2014
What is math about?
The mathematical world. Some philosophers — the Platonists — think math is about a mysterious other realm of eternal and unchanging entities. Others — the nominalists — think math is simply the manipulation of symbols according to rules we have made up. According to James Franklin, they’re wrong. His theory is Aristotelian realism: look around, and you can see math.
Nothing is truly alive
Why nothing is truly alive. “Life is a concept, not a reality.” But if there is no precise threshold between living and nonliving, wouldn’t it be as plausible to say nothing is truly not alive?
Faith and reason …
When and why did faith start to fade? An interesting review of the reasons and causes of contemporary disbelief. Or maybe faith isn’t fading: The False Equation of Atheism and Intellectual Sophistication.
Can metaphysics tell us what reality is really?
Tim Crane explains what metaphysics is about. “It’s abstract and not everyone’s cup of tea but, in many ways, inescapable. Cambridge University philosopher Tim Crane introduces the best books on metaphysics.”
This will change your life
What makes an idea valuable … that it is true or that it is startlingly new and different? “Even in the world of academia, most people aren’t motivated by the truth. What they want, above all, is not to be bored.”
More about Plato, Google, neuroscience, etc.
Colin McGinn’s review of Rebecca Goldstein’s “Plato at the Googleplex.” Here “Ms. Goldstein employs her novelistic skills to sparkling effect by weaving abstract concepts into concrete modern narratives. At a cable news station, he is grilled by one Roy McCoy, who is not a bit intimidated by his distinguished Greek guest: ‘Okay, so they tell me you’re a big deal in philosophy, Plato. I’m going to tell you up front—because that’s the kind of guy I am, up-front—that I don’t think much of philosophers.’ Plato coolly responds: ‘Many don’t. The term attracts a wide range of reaction, from admiration to amusement to animadversion. Some people think philosophers are worthless, and others that they are worth everything in the world. Sometimes they take on the appearance of statesmen, and sometimes of sophists. Sometimes, too, they might give the impression that they are completely insane.'”
#PlatoTweets
What would Plato tweet? Probably less about what he had for lunch and more about justice and wisdom. Rebecca Goldstein suggests Facebook and Twitter are ways we try to show that we matter … and then suggests philosophy is a better way to matter.
Older and wiser
Philosophy is the love of wisdom. At least that is the etymology of the word “philosophy.” But what is wisdom anyway? Perhaps “wisdom” is no longer a useful general term because it has been used to mean too many different things in and outside of philosophy. Even so, there have been many interesting attempts at a science of older and wiser.
Moral duties of artists and their audiences
Must artists, especially classical musicians, stand up for human rights? In particular, what are our moral expectations of conductors?
Is it morally required, morally permitted, or morally prohibited to boycott the works of an artist accused of moral depravity? Case in point: Woody Allen.
Socratically Speaking 