It is possible, given that we still understand so little of the brain, that it has evolved in such a way that it does bridge the gap between the subatomic world and the macroscopic world? Perhaps the free will of the quark is transmitted up through the intermediary of the brain and into the otherwise deterministic macroscopic world. But if this is true, does it preclude the possibility of a truly living simulation? Are the human beings inside the computer doomed to be dead, deterministic automata, lacking the quantum free will of the real ones?
Critical Thinking and/or Philosophy?
As new modes of technology-driven learning come to the fore, those who can take advantage of them will be both independent learners and critical thinkers. But below that surface, something that connects much of this work is philosophy, or more specifically, how to make philosophical principles relevant in today’s world.
Descartes’s Horror?
Examining Descartes’s Cogito, one can find that rather than philosophy and reason being a shield from horror and madness, the truth might be the opposite.
Foucault’s Madman and His Reply to Derrida
Michel Foucault’s response to Jacques Derrida’s assertion that Foucault misinterpreted Descartes’s Cogito.
Madness as Ontology: Catching Foucault’s Quote Mining
Jacques Derrida is known as the founder of deconstruction, a mode of critical analysis or hermeneutics that problematizes and complicates the act of reading and demonstrates how books cannot be reduced into comprehensible meanings. But in his book Writing and Difference, he delivers a rather cogent interpretation of Descartes’s Meditations, an interpretation that remains faithful to something as suspect as Descartes’s “intentions.” He does this in response to his mentor Michel Foucault
Topic for #43: Arguments for the Existence of God
On many episodes we’ve mentioned in passing, or given some author’s criticism of, the classic arguments for the existence of God: -The ontological argument, whereby some quality of the idea of God itself is supposed to necessitate that such a being exists. The most famous versions are by Descartes and St. Anselm. -The cosmological argument, which deduces from the fact Continue Reading …
In Praise of Nigel Warburton
After listening to “Philosophy: The Classics” several times and many episodes of “Philosophy Bites”, Seth feels moved to sing the praises of Nigel Warburton.
Ripping the Classics
An amusing article by Jeanette DeMain on Salon.com about Amazon one-star reviews of classic books caught my eye. Its thesis is that for every book our culture (or likely, you in particular) finds great, there’s likely a horrific review of it posted. Now, of course many of these reviews are by semi-literate anti-intellectual assholes. Still, I think that history and Continue Reading …
Episode 2: Descartes’s Meditations: What Can We Know?
On Descartes’s Meditations 1 and 2.