My point in posting notes on Dennett was just to post notes on Dennett, not to start a whole thing, but the discussion there got so critical so quickly that I felt the need to defend at length why I think he's worth reading (to me, at least). Our friend Burl has posted a video of Dennett speaking in response that I thought was worth its own post: Watch on youtube. I Continue Reading …
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Notes on Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell,” Part 1
For our atheism episode (which has, incidentally been pushed back to be recorded in late May or possibly June... sorry, Russ!), I'm trying to read through the most popular of the "new atheist" books, and I'm sure we'll only end up discussing some select portions of the books in any detail, so as I'm going through these, I'm going to generate a few blog posts to fill readers in Continue Reading …
Mind Video #5: Daniel Dennett
Dan Dennett, who is not Santa Claus, has many clips on youtube, both as "new atheist" and as someone who wants to "deflate consciousness," i.e. show to us through optical illusions and things that we don't know as much of what's going on in our minds as we think. Here he discusses the "Cartesian theater," his starting point for argument in his big book Consciousness Continue Reading …
Ep. 253: Leibniz on the Problem of Evil (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode, or listen to a preview. Citizens can get the entire second part here. On Gottfried Leibniz’s Theodicy (1710), as considered by Mark, Wes, Dylan, and Seth. Why does God allow so many bad things to happen, from diseases and other natural afflictions to violence insane and premeditated? This question is often used as a challenge to the Continue Reading …
Ep. 251: Simone Weil’s Ideal Society
On "Theoretical Picture of a Free Society" (1934). What's the ideal living situation for us all, given the peculiarities of human nature? Nine years before Weil laid out her list of human needs, as covered in our last episode, she wrote a work that she hoped to be her magnum opus, Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression. This included the "Analysis Continue Reading …