End Times archive

Here he discusses phenomenology, Husserl, his facticity and intersubjectivity, his relationship to Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, the self, why the anonymity and transparency objections fail, the unity of the self, temporality and selfhood, the self and others, empathy and shame, attitudes towards phenomenology, and why phenomenology is on the rise again. Dan Zahavi Published on: Jan 27, 2018 @ 08:17

Here he discusses what he believes metaphysics to be, the relevance of logic to metaphysics,vagueness, why metaphysics isn't philosophy of language, mereology, Leśniewski and Whitehead, temporal and modal considerations, tropes, what exists, non-existing objects, what lies between mereological atoms and continuous non-atomic gunk, the importance and brilliance of the Lvov-Warsaw School, the realism of Bolzano, Brentano and Meinong, and his anti-platonism. This is a long walk into the crucial depths... Peter Simons Published on: Jan 20, 2018 @ 12:35

Here he talks about what maths is, logic and maths, fictionalism, the a priori, sets, whether maths are about human activities, empiricism about mathematics, Quine’s indispensability argument, confirmations holism, whether there were mathematical truths before humans were around to entertain their truth, whether we can know a proposition in mathematics without proof, why inductive reasoning is crucial for mathematical knowledge, David Hilbert and mathematical instrumentalism, naturalism, the subtraction argument and the possibility of an empty world, and Fitch. Alexander Pasau Published on: Jan 13, 2018 @ 09:11

Here he shoots from the hip on the extended mind, flip flopping, Searles' mind-brain thesis, extended consciousness, lazy brains and rich world models, Terminators and Star Trek, something about Chinese rooms, cameras and understanding, Chalmers and dualism, a new paradigm of the mind, consciousness and the self, and playing ethical catch-up with the singularity. Va-va-Voom! Andy Clark Published on: Jan 5, 2018 @ 23:56

Here he discusses Spinoza's overall project, monism and how to understand Spinoza's version of it, infinite modes, metaphysics, God, Thought, Thought-Being dualism, Spinoza's relationship with German Idealism, German Idealism as a combination of Spinoza and Kant, his rationalism and German Idealism, Herder and Spinoza, determinatio est negatio and Hegel, and what Spinoza might have thought about German Idealism. Yitzhak Melamed Published on: Dec 30, 2017 @ 19:55

Here he discusses what a credence is, its pedigree, what an irrational credence is, what 'no drop' is, credence and accuracy, omniscient credences and uncentered propositions, the squared Euclidean distance, why we really can't live up the standards of rationality demanded by this, and what to do, the role of epistemic value, Probabilism, the Principle Principle, Indifference, updating, and understanding accuracy-first epistemology as something of an analogue of hedonic utilitarianism in epistemology. He ends by discussing the problem of how we decide something knowing we’re going to be changed in the future. Roll on... Richard Pettigrew Published on: Dec 23, 2017 @ 10:34

Here she talks about existentialism and romantic love, romantic loving, merging, Max Stirner, egotistical love, Kierkegarrad's aesthetic love, and why the religious alternative is a damp squid for romance even if a better bet, why Nietzsche thought friendship better than romance, Sartre's sado-masochism, De Beauvoir and her relationship with Sartre, her view of authenticity and how it relates to romance, and why ultimately she agrees with Nietzsche that friendship beats merging. One for all the winter existentialists out there .... Skye Cleary Published on: Dec 16, 2017 @ 11:52

Here he discusses how words refer, Kripke, descriptivism vs causal theory, Frege, Barcan Marcus, problems descriptivists face, why Kripke et al fare better, hybrids and Evans, how indexicals refer, do we have a unified theory of reference if we're not Fregeian, why not every meaningful expression refers, reference in the Matrix, psychedelic goblins, reference and metaphysics, Quine and Davidson on reference, the answering machine paradox, bullshit in politics, and whether we should eat fish. This is a good long trail somewhere. Winters coming. Take your time... Eliot Michaelson Published on: Dec 9, 2017 @ 09:49

Here he discusses why logic is important to philosophy, what kinds of logic he's interested in, in the work of Gentzen and Belnap, classical and non-classical logics, why it makes sense to talk about a correct logic, what proofs are, proof-theoretic understanding of validity, intuitionist logic, Dummett and Kripke, paraconsistent logic, dialetheism, Nelson's paraconsistent logic and computer science and the connexive logic of Aristotle and Boethius. Heinrich Wansing Published on: Dec 2, 2017 @ 10:49

Here he discusses both Frege and Dummett, plus vagueness, the liar paradox, compositionally and deflationism. Richard Heck Published on: Nov 25, 2017 @ 08:17

His current work focuses on the questions of what makes something a good artwork, and whether good artworks are intrinsically valuable. He is also interested in philosophical questions about poetry (for example, whether some thoughts can be expressed only in metaphor) and about beauty (for example, whether beauty is good primarily because it provides pleasure). James Grant Published on: Nov 18, 2017 @ 11:06

Here he discusses philosophical issues about globalisation, family-based immigration, its relation to freedom of association, the relevance of comparing this kind of immigration to same-sex marriage for Rawlsians, gang-related asylum claims, refugees, whether immigrants should be held to higher standards than non-immigrants, guest workers, the importance of persecution, the role of International Law in all this, climate change refugees, the role of liberal elites and what cracks in their hold over the values of people living in Western democracies auger. Matthew Lister Published on: Nov 4, 2017 @ 15:30