End Times archive

Tom Eyers is a continental who thinks all the time about Lacan and the Real, about whether Lacan is fundamental, about why many analytics are allergic to psychoanalysis, about what problem Lacan was trying to answer, about how the symbolic, subjectivity, Narcissism and the Imaginary connect with the Real, about Lacan and film studies, about Lacan and post-Hegelianism, about French post-rationalism, about questioning Foucault's division in French philosophy, about post-rationalism's connection to philosophy of science, about the politics of post-rationalism and the recent debates in literary theory and poetics. Out of freakin' sight funksters... Published on: Jun 20, 2014 @ 03:10

Andrew Bowie is the ice cool jazz-playing philosopher whose musical riffs can be heard here and gigs checked out here. But when he's not laying down mood and mellow he's thinking all the time about how philosophy can fit in with other interests, about the importance of Schelling for the debate about freewill, about the importance of metaphor for Schelling and metaphysics, about Schellings' links to Heidegger, Davidson and Wittgenstein, about the German philosophical tradition and Romanticism, about what's wrong with the way analytic philosophers do philosophy of music, about why the East-West Divan Orchestra is an important example, about whether he is a strange pragmatist, about Adorno and how he helps us see what is wrong with some of the contemporary forms of philosophy, and how it might be fixed, about the role of historicism, about Adorno and his criticisms of analytics and Hegelians, about Adorno's aesthetics, about whether Adorno is an Hegelian, and about Adorno's writing style. As Miles put it, this cat's just blue... Published on: Jun 13, 2014 @ 03:30

John Martin Fischer is the philosopher who broods on semicompatibilism, freedom, determinism and moral responsibility, on responsibility practices, on regulative control, guidance control, of the need for guidance control for moral responsibility, of the compatibility of guidance control with determinism and the beauty and elegance of that, on why death can be a bad thing for a person, on anti-Epicureanism, on asymmetric beliefs about death, on why immortality could be good, on why reflecting on death can help us find meaning in life, about deep control and superficial control, and why we need the former, on why total control is a kind of metaphysical megalomania, on why judgement sensitivity and conditional freedom aren't enough, and on why guidance control is compatible with indeterminacy. This one flies... Published on: Jun 6, 2014 @ 05:16

Alastair Wilson is a Vulcan somewhere else in the multiverse. He thinks about what a metaphysics of science might be and never stops contemplating the Everettian multiverse, which he thinks is one of the most beautiful ideas in the history of science. It's a theory that he thinks shows physicists to be less conservative than philosophers. He looks at the philosophical puzzles connected with it, criticises overlapping worlds, is puzzled by questions of identity criteria, thinks Sleeping Beauty has an important connection to the theory, is less sure about crystal balls and indecisive Gods, thinks it is definitely science and can't be junked, thinks the laws of nature are metaphysically necessary, has deep thoughts on quiddities, and has things to say about the spats between metaphysicians and scientists. This one boldly goes... Published on: May 30, 2014 @ 03:33

Greg Dawes is a philosopher who always thinks hard about religion, about the nature of religious faith and its relation to reason,about why philosophy as a handmaid of theology is frivolous, about naturalism, about the epistemological variety and the ontological variety and the methodological variety, on why Christians can't avoid the fact that Evolutionism contradicts the Bible, about what's wrong with intelligent design, on what theologians should do, about why belief isn't an issue and inference to the best explanation is, about claims about divine action, about the God of the gaps, about historicism and religion and about Maimonides and the limits to interpretation. Don't be fooled, this one's got razors... Published on: May 23, 2014 @ 04:24

Lisa Downing is the philosopher who thinks all the time about the early modern philosophers of Europe, especially 17th and 18th century philosophy, about how philosophical analysis and historical exactitude compliment each other, on adding to the canonical philosophers of the period, on why Malebranch is the closest to re-entry, and Robert Boyle, on Descartes vs Newton, on avoiding anachronism, on the dynamism of the period, on primary and secondary qualities, on resisting the idea that historical views have to be relevant, on Berkeley, on tensions in Locke, on women philosophers of the time and on rejecting the occult. This one is kick-ass! Yo! Published on: May 17, 2014 @ 04:00

Karsten Harries is a philosopher who has spent a lifetime thinking about the purpose of philosophy, about architecture, about Heidegger, about why Heidegger thought there was something wrong with aestheticism, about Heidegger's refusal to accept the separation of art from the sacred, on why this doesn't work anymore, on Heidegger's ontological conception of the beautiful, on why Heidegger's discussion of art is completely subordinate to his question around Being, on why the battle between idealism and realism has no resolution, on Heidegger's decorated shed, on pessimism, on Holderlin, on how his approach to architecture differs from Heidegger's, on the relevance of Kant, on the ethical function of architecture, on whether buildings should be treated as texts, on the valid way of life for the modernist, on whether modern architecture has lost its way and what philosophers can offer architecture. This one runs as deep as the riverrun... Published on: May 16, 2014 @ 04:49

Peter Kivy, you are a leading figure in the philosophy of aesthetics, with particular interest in music and literature. Can you begin by telling us what made you become a philosopher and what were the philosophical puzzles that interested you?. Can you then tell us about the music problem, and in particular how emotions get into the music? After that can you say how you approach the old literature problem as to whether fiction, in particular, a novel, could be a source of knowledge? In doing so can you say why and how music and novels enthral us? Published on: May 10, 2014 @ 19:11

Steven B. Smith is the political philosopher who would never call himself a philosopher but who is always brooding on the great political philosophers of the past, on why political philosophy is the oldest branch of philosophy, on why it is important, on why there are no mediocre philosophers, on the question of what makes the best regime as a fundamental question, on parochialism, Tocqueville, on the distortion of Leo Strauss's legacy, on Strauss and Dewey, on Strauss and Maimonides, on whether Strauss was right or leftwing, and on being an East Coast Straussian. This one has a spry engine... Published on: May 9, 2014 @ 04:37

John Heil is a big beast of analytical metaphysics who thinks all the time about the ontological point of view, about objecting to ontological conclusions coming from linguistic premises, on ontology not being an analytical enterprise, on Charlie Martin's gift, on why the picture theory is wrong, on why not every truth has a truthmaker, on rejecting the Special Composition Question, on accepting a level-free picture of the universe, on not accepting tropes, on the difference between higher order and higher level properties, on substances, on qualities and powers, on physics and substances and on what is fundamental. Freak out in a spaceage daydream, man ... and now enter this competition to win tickets to see him in action. Published on: May 2, 2014 @ 08:49

Sam Wheeler III is always brooding on Davidson and Derrida, on connecting deconstruction with analytic philosophy, on how to do this, on their approaches to metaphor, on the legitimacy of some of De Mann's ideas, of how Davidson improves on Derrida and Wittgenstein, on Quine vs Davidson, on an objection to naturalism, on being a fan of physics, on exotic objects, on anti-metaphysical strands in Quine and Davidson, on objections to contemporary semantics, on Kripke and metaphysical realism, on how Davidson can be compatible with Kripke and Aristotle, on the logic of ought, and on never figuring out what literary theory was doing. This one goes to the depths. Published on: Apr 25, 2014 @ 03:25

Agustín Rayo is the philosopher who broods on the concept of everything, of being blinded by metaphysical prejudice, on counting how many objects there are, on the all-in-one-principle, about what is logical space and whether what he's up to is metaphysics, philosophy of language or logic. This is like a Chirico poem. Published on: Apr 18, 2014 @ 03:58