End Times archive

Robert B. Talisse (on the right of the picture) and Scott F. Aikin (on the left of the picture) are the dynamic duo of 3Quarksdaily, thinking about the social nature and political significance of argument, about the two things the word 'argument' captures, about the straw man fallacy, about misfiring sound arguments, about the intimate connection between epistemology and democracy, about the nature of democracy, pragmatism and Rawls, about Dewey, Elizabeth Anderson and Pierce, about 'pluralism' as a halo term, about the truth orientation of our cognitive life, about Nietzsche's challenge, about being fearless about the fear of regress, about the use of tone, about the need for political arguers and the dangers of cognitive insulation, about when to revise ones beliefs, about civility in argument and about why their new book is keyed to all contemporary democracies. Epistemocracy doubled! Published on: Dec 25, 2013 @ 21:47

Peter Ludlow senses there's a crisis looming and we're not alert to all the troubles being downloaded. So he thinks all the time about the threat to philosophy, the way advances in technology and science are moving too quickly for the critical resources we have available, about how the imminent crisis in the humanities is a crisis for everyone, about why rating Frank Ramsey makes a point about the key problem in philosophy, about crypto anarchy, cyberstates and pirate utopias, about the Occupy movement, about Gen Z, about the rules of online meeting spaces, about the radical dynamic of meanings that blows away philosophical hangovers from Locke and Wittgenstein and Quine and Plato, about the politics of every conversation, about the lack of women in academic philosophy departments and about language and tenses and time. Come gather round people and don't block up the halls.... Published on: Dec 13, 2013 @ 05:34

Massimo Pigliucci keeps a beady mind's eye on the demarcation problem between science and pseudo-science, on the fun of getting philosophy out there, on the value of philosophy and how it makes progress, on the Rupture for nerds, on his Hume tattoo, on naturalism, emergentism and a luscious ontology, on when philosophers and scientists over-reach, on Fodor on evolution, on science and ethics, on the interesting work of xphi and why we need the humanities. All told, this one lays the money down... Published on: Dec 6, 2013 @ 05:20

Stephen Darwall takes his thoughts down the winding highways of second person ethics, touching on what happens if the second person stance is adopted, on why contractualism is the most naturally grounded position for it, on its juridical character, on its implications for autonomy, on Joseph Raz's challenge, on nuancing Jonathan Dancy's position, on morality, authority and the law, on honour, history, relationship and Adam Smith, on vengeance and John Stuart Mill, on Nietzschean ressentiment and a dark worship, on Kant, on what's to learn from psychology and xphi and the relative status of P.F. Starwson compared to Quine. No one can sing these particular blues like this. Go figure. Published on: Dec 2, 2013 @ 09:01

Brian O’Connor ponders the appeal of philosophy, German Idealism, Adorno and his response, the idea of a damaged life, the catastrophe of the Nazi era, what there is about Adorno that drives Hegelians crazy, the conditions for understanding the social world, philosophy's historical situation, Adorno's negative dialectic, immanent vs transcendent criticism, Adorno's moral theory, his relationship to music, his relationship with Benjamin, self-constitution, autonomy and the foolishness of analytic/continental restrictions. They should sell postcards for this one... Published on: Nov 23, 2013 @ 05:20

Howard Williams takes his philosophical thoughts into the battelfield of Just War Theory to brood on the point of philosophy and the humanities, on the state of philosophy in Wales, on Kant and how he doesn't fit with Michael Walzer's approach, on perpetual peace and its implications, on international humanitarian law, on Syria and what Kant might think, on the idea that current Just War theories are predominatly Hegelian, on Kant, Hobbes and sovereignty and cosmopolitanism, on what Marx didn't do next and what to do with neo-liberalism. This one's a digging deep craw-daddio. Published on: Nov 15, 2013 @ 05:17

Omar Dahbour is the philosopher whose thoughts turn all the time to how philosophical argument acquires structure from implicit narratives, to the debate between localists and nationalists, who broods on self-determination, on how Globalisation provides the basis for increasing ethnic conflict, on why nation-states are not good political communities, on liberal states and nationalism, on why there is no connection between self-autonomy and nation states, on ecosovereignty as a positive political structure, on problems of great-power hegemony, on responses to terrorism and what a non-humanist Marx might think about all this. Go get some. Published on: Nov 8, 2013 @ 05:16

Samir Chopra is a philosopher of liberation who broods deeply on FOSS's liberatory capacities, on the threats and opportunities of a cyborg world, on why we should hack ourselves, on robots and the law, on the threat of Amazon, on resisting Harry Potter, on why better treatment of artificial agents could help animals, on why there needs to be more women and non-white philosophers and on cricket and the relationship between nationalism and franchise. As Roy Batty says, 'All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.' But not yet... Published on: Nov 1, 2013 @ 05:49

Pamela Hieronymi is always brooding on forgiveness, on the two errors about it, on why blame is tough, about its core, its justification, on why vice can't exempt, on the minimalist attraction of the contractualist moral theory of Tim Scanlon, on two kinds of agency and 'the right kind of reason', on believing at will, on intending, Kavka's Toxin Puzzle, on trust as a test case and why we shouldn't confuse technology with college teaching. Yup, this is an original hair-trigger. Jiving. Published on: Oct 25, 2013 @ 05:31

Nickolas Pappas is the philosopher who brings some Ancient philosophy knocking on all the doors. He broods through time on the questions that matter, on the relationship of philosophy and aesthetics, on why Plato and Socrates are not totally to blame, on the role of empty headed ignorance, poetry, divine inspiration and magic in Ion, on art and beauty in Plato, on the Menexenus and why parody can be productive, on Nietzsche and Kierkegaard and anti-philosophy, on why Nietzsche disappoints, on art and fashion and the link between Hitchcock's Vertigo and the Alcestis. Dry your eyes, now aint the time... Published on: Oct 18, 2013 @ 05:09

Fred Rush is the amplituhedron of German Idealism and Critical Theory. He's modest as he broods on Hegel, Kant, Habermas, downgrades the philosophical importance of the Glorious Rebellion and the French Revolution, thinks on old atheists, where Idealism and Romanticism come apart, Schlegel, the continuing relevance of Romanticism, the appeal of the Critical Theory tradition, Horkheimer's role as the founding figure, Adorno's influence, and how Architecture enables a broadening of the philosophical discourse. Fundamental. Published on: Oct 11, 2013 @ 05:26

Susanna Schellenberg is the badass philosophical Shosanna of the puzzles of perceptual experience and consciousness. She is forever going deep to try and make sense of what is going on and why, is an analytic with broad horizons, thinks that perception isn't conceptually structured, doesn't think we need sense-datum theories, explains hallucinations very differently from the orthodox approach, aims at a unified view, is Aristotlelian about types, thinks there's a continuum between imagination and belief, is more influenced by vision science than xphi and thinks gender issues in academic philosophy will take a very long time to be sorted. Glourious!