My Contemplations on Tao blog series (at the Society of Friends of Epicurus site) was an attempt to explore the parallels between Taoism and Epicurean philosophy which become evident when we study Taoism and read the Tao Te Ching. Sometimes the insights we get from both traditions mirror, complete and complement each other. Nature must not be forced. - Epicurus The first Continue Reading …
Sean Carroll Interview @ 3:AM Magazine
3:AM magazine has a nice interview of the physicist Sean Carroll by Richard Marshall that's part of an ongoing series interviews, generally of philosophers, being done by the magazine. Carroll is an theoretical astrophysicist who has managed to avoid the pratfalls of physicists like Stephen Hawking who recently declared the death of philosophy. Carroll considers himself Continue Reading …
Evolution is Rigged! A Review of Thomas Nagel’s “Mind and Cosmos”
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 …
Do Phenomenal Concepts Negate Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument?
http://vimeo.com/10182737 Watch on Vimeo In the video above, Prof. David Papineau compares different "naturalist" theories of consciousness to propose that phenomenal concepts pose a problem for Wittgenstein's private language argument. (A version of this issue was briefly raised during the second episode discussing Philosophical Investigations.) Hint: If you're not yet Continue Reading …
Stephen Batchelor and Treatment of Magic on Buddhist Podcasts
In preparation for our Flanagan discussions, I listened to several episodes of both The Secular Buddhist and Buddhist Geeks. I still don't feel like I've really at bottom decided what I think of either of them, but both have articulate hosts and interview lots of people apparently big in the Western Buddhist community (I can't comment on how representative or penetrating a Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 54: More Buddhism and Naturalism
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Episode 54: More Buddhism and Naturalism (Citizens Only)
Continuing our discussion of Owen Flanagan's The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2011). Are the basic tenets of Buddhism compatible with a respect for science? In episode 53, Owen Flanagan outlined a science-friendly project of comparative ethics, and touched on Buddhism's empiricist theory of knowledge and its metaphysics of impermanence. If that was the lecture, Continue Reading …
Naturalized Phenomenology?
Here's a conference-lecture by Dan Zahavi (of the "Center for Subjectivity Research" at the University of Copenhagen/Danish National Research Foundation) that asks whether it's a good idea to try to "naturalize" phenomenology. Watch on YouTube. He distinguishes early on what Flanagan means by phenomenology (referring to Owen by name), i.e. reports on what things seem like to Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 53: Buddhism and Naturalism with Guest Owen Flanagan
This is a short preview of the full episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more Continue Reading …
Episode 53: Buddhism and Naturalism with Guest Owen Flanagan (Citizens Only)
Discussing The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (2011) with Owen Flanagan. What philosophical insights can we modern folks with our science and naturalism (i.e. inclination against super-natural explanations) glean from Buddhisim? Flanagan says plenty: Buddhism is founded on common human experience (not faith), and we can profitably put Buddhist ethics in dialogue Continue Reading …
Topic for #53/#54: Buddhism and Science with Guest Owen Flanagan
In episode 53, the full four-man PEL crew spoke with Duke University's Owen Flanagan, mostly about his book The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized, which has a number of aims: -To argue that supernatural beliefs can be removed (or "tamed") from Buddhism and still leave an elaborate enterprise relevant to modern life. -To put Buddhist conceptions of virtue and happiness Continue Reading …
Buddhism Naturalized?
Given our recent exploration of moral theory, the excitement around our announcement of a Euthyphro episode and my own current interest in Buddhist thought, I guess it was inevitable that I would stumble across and then buy this book. Or perhaps it was that Mark mentioned it in an email which I had overlooked. In any case, the author, Owen Flanagan (pictured to the right), is Continue Reading …
Naturalism & Philosophical Thinking
[editor's note: Here's our guest blogger Tom McDonald with a bit of original philosophizing. You can read more like this on his blog zuhanden.com. -ML] I want to pose some general questions to all readers, but especially to those scientifically inclined and favorable to a naturalistic worldview. The questions are about the naturalistic worldview that is presently normative but Continue Reading …
Naturalism & Philosophical Thinking
[editor's note: Here's our guest blogger Tom McDonald with a bit of original philosophizing. You can read more like this on his blog zuhanden.com. -ML] I want to pose some general questions to all readers, but especially to those scientifically inclined and favorable to a naturalistic worldview. The questions are about the naturalistic worldview that is presently normative Continue Reading …