Everyone once in a while I run across the opinion that non-Euclidean presents a serious problem for Kantian epistemology. While I've rebutted this notion before, it's common enough that I thought I'd have another go at explaining why it's a misconception. For Kant we can't know the universe to be spatial "in itself" (as in "things-in-themselves"), Euclidean or Non-Euclidean Continue Reading …
In Praise of Nigel Warburton
A few months back in response to a blog post where I lauded our podcast over/against other philosophy podcasts, Jon recommended Philosophy Bites, Little Atoms, and Philosophy: The Classics, among others. Two of these have in common that Nigel Warburton is involved, which is a very good thing. Warburton is a Philosopher and scholar of the history of Philosophy at The Open Continue Reading …
A Note on Kant’s Conception of Space and Time
Regarding space and time (and responding to Erik at http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/05/14/episode-19-kant-what-can-we-know/): Kant is explicitly worried about the same thing that troubled Leibniz, which is there is a discord between mathematics and the concrete -- what we consciously see and touch in the world "out there." Leibniz was concerned with the paradox of the Continue Reading …
An Analytic Philosopher Grapples with “Soul”
If Star Trek's Data were to write about the soul, it might be this self-parodyingly soulless: Soul talk is expressive in the same way as other nondescriptive utterances, like "oh my God" or "ouch" or "yuck" or (with head nodding to music) "Yeah, that's funky." There is no clear referent for those. They don't seem to refer to or represent anything—they seem somehow Continue Reading …