Subscribe to more of my writing at https://www.wesalwan.com Follow me on Twitter Thomas Nagel, a famous philosopher if there is such a thing in America, has written a book a bold title: Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False. The main title invites you to settle into your armchair for an evening of speculative Continue Reading …
An Objection to Sharon Street’s “Darwinian Dilemma”
I’ve been stalled for some time now in my attempt to write a review of Thomas Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos. My primary stumbling block has been his reliance in one section on Sharon Street’s “A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value”, which attempts to show that natural selection (in its current form) is not compatible with moral realism. Where Street takes this Continue Reading …
The Good as Simple Idea
At some point during the episode, Dylan and Wes were arguing about Moore and referred to the good as a 'term'. I corrected them that Moore actually calls it a 'concept' as if something hung on that distinction. I guess it is incumbent upon me to explain. First off, Moore never uses the word "concept" in the chapter - my bad. He uses "idea" and "notion". But my point is Continue Reading …
Sam Harris Derives Ought from Is
Via OpenCulture.com, Sam Harris seems to think he has come across oughts in the wild. We just needed a big enough microscope to see them. As physicist Sean Carroll notes, there once was a man named Hume: Morality and science operate in very different ways. In science, our judgments are ultimately grounded in data; when it comes to values we have no such recourse. If I Continue Reading …