End Times archive

Pete Mandik is the character Keanu Reeves always plays in cyber-phi movies. 'PrayerBot 2.0' is a short story of his that 3:AM would have published but he never asked. He is currently uploading This Is Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction. He has written Key Terms In Philosophy of Mind and The Subjective Brain and makes grooving connections between fiction and philosophy. He used to build robots but not so much these days. He’s in a band. He writes about Swamp Mary, including her revenge, and about Transcending Zombies. He has written to warn people of the Unicorn and other things that don’t exist, especially those who are trying to figure out a theory of consciousness. He has a tendency to dismiss contemporary philosophical neo-dualist freak-fests led by Dave Chalmers but only in the name of alternative freak-fests. His hobby is dissing qualia. This outrages fellow music-doodling phi-minder Richard Brown. But Pete says Spinal Tap’s on his side even if Quine is torched. And he does it all from an unscorched armchair, dismaying Josh Knobe and his x phi pyromaniacs. But his style and approach is kind of indie kool out of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, so Josh is still grinning. Published on: May 1, 2012 @ 06:37

Katerina Deligiorgi is a top Hegelian philosopher. She is a top Kantian philosopher. She philosophises on history, on art history, on creativity, on literature, on the Enlightenment and what it means today. And what it meant back in the day. And how it has things to say about education. She wonders about action and how we intend to do things. She wonders about morality and autonomy and has a podcast on the theoretical challenges from cosmetic neurology. She has written a cutting edge book on Kant and the Culture of Enlightenment, and edited a book on Hegel: Hegel: New Directions. She has a new book coming out in June, The Scope of Autonomy: Kant and the Morality of Freedom which will dazzle us. She hasn’t burned her armchair like Josh Knobe, but is still a groove sensation. Published on: Apr 27, 2012 @ 06:39

Patricia Churchland is a kick-ass naturalist philosopher. She wrote Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain in 1986 which caused a stir. Her others, such as The Computational Brain, Neurophilosophy and Alzheimer’s Disease, The Mind-Brain Continuum, On the Contrary: Critical Essays 1987-1997 and Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy have kept making waves. Her latest book is Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality which she wrote after going to medical school to learn about the brain’s circuitry. She thinks we are hardwired to care. She took a flame-thrower to her armchair so she ought to have one of Josh Knobe’s t-shirts. She is an eliminative materialist and a genius, which suggests that she doesn’t believe that there is a coherent neural basis for her genius. This makes her very groovy. Published on: Apr 10, 2012 @ 09:30

Alan Gilbert is a groovy political philosopher in Denver. He knows the Occupy movements and the Arab Spring are significant. He murders oppression and injustice. He thinks about Marx and Rawls a lot. Published on: Apr 3, 2012 @ 06:00

Japa Pallikkathayil is a funky new philosopher in New York University. She discusses the relationship between morality and politics. She knows there are layers to the problems facing women in philosophy. She often disagrees with Kant. She broods on what an ideal government should be like, on bodily rights and on coercion. She is a rising star. Published on: Mar 30, 2012 @ 16:44

Kit Fine is a groovy metaphysician. He keeps asking questions about the fundamental questions of reality. He has the cool title of Silver Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at New York University. He has written the books Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers, Semantic Relationism, The Limits of Abstraction, and Reasoning With Arbitrary Objects. He has brooded on Aristotle's account of logic and modality. He often writes out of curiosity rather than commitment. This curiosity led him to his theory of abstraction. You can get his flavour by looking at this lecture at the INPC 14 conference at Boise, Idaho, in April last year where he proved it is possible to discuss the determinate/determinable distinction under the influence of an indeterminate number of glasses of wine. He thinks we should do our metaphysics clean and clear of empiricism. He doesn’t think we are currently in a position to answer many key philosophical questions, such as whether freewill is possible, or what consciousness is. He doesn’t burn his armchair. Published on: Mar 23, 2012 @ 08:12

Graham Priest is one of the giants of philosophical logic. He has written many books about this, including Doubt Truth to be a Liar, Towards Non-Being: the Logic and Metaphysics of Intentionality, Beyond the Limits of Thought, In Contradiction: A Study of the Transconsistent and Introduction to Non-Classical Logic. He can be found in Melbourne and New York, and sometimes in St. Andrews. His big theme is paraconsistency and dialetheism. He is also interested in Buddhism. He is very, very smart. Published on: Mar 17, 2012 @ 15:16

Kieran Setiya is a chillin’ philosopher in Pittsburgh. He’s thinking hard about knowing right from wrong and has written a book about this coming out soon. He wrote a book called Reasons Without Rationalism and wonders whether moral theory corrupts youth. He wrote about knowledge of our intentions in the recent seminal book Essays On Anscombe’s Intention. And he has a thing for baseball, including a link on his site to the now defunct Fire Joe Morgan. Groovy. Published on: Mar 10, 2012 @ 11:00

Claire White burned her armchair a long time ago and started to philosophise about mourning, life after death and other cool stuff in an ex phi sort of groove. ‘So I meet you by the cemetery gates’ are lines that Morrissey could have written about this funky cog scientist of religion. Claire has just been appointed assistant professor in the first ever cognitive science of religion position at Northridge, California.  Published on: Mar 2, 2012 @ 08:30

Out of the smoke of his burning armchair Florida State University philosopher Alfred Mele has been awarded a $4.4 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation to get to the bottom of the question for the ages. Mele, the William H. and Lucyle Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, will oversee a four-year project to improve understanding of free will in philosophy, religion and science. 3:AM asks the man, are we free? Published on: Feb 24, 2012 @ 08:00

Hilde Lindemann is a philosopher who bites! She is a key figure in the philosophy of bioethics, feminist bioethics, the ethics of familes, feminist ethics and the social construction of identities. She writes essential dangerous books such as Holding and Letting Go, Damaged Identities , Narrative Repair, and calls us all out to speak truth to power. Published on: Feb 14, 2012 @ 07:32

Eli Friedlander has written a book about the philosophical Walter Benjamin, who would be 120 this year. Previously he has written about Rousseau and Wittgenstein. Friedlander is always wondering about our modes of existence. He's a very soulful kind of philosopher.   Published on: Feb 6, 2012 @ 09:30