End Times archive

With talk of 'post-truth' and 'fake news' all around us it seems right to talk to an expert about the nature of truth. So here he talks about the difference between axiomatic and semantic approaches to truth, why he thinks the axiomatic approach is superior, what conditions this approach must satisfy, the interplay between the two approaches, whether his approach is a kind of deflationary theory of truth, whether deflationists should be conservative, why consistency is out of reach of any knowledge theory, on voluntarism and whether Descartes was a voluntarist, what is meant when it is said that arithmetic is a computational structure, and self reference in mathematics. Volker Halbach Published on: Jul 30, 2017 @ 13:07

Here he discusses why the received view of the utilitarians is distorted, ad hominum arguments, utilitarianism and anti-slavery and anti-colonialism, Godwin's visionary philosophy, the strangeness of Bentham, his radical dream of a world without cruelty, why Foucault and Marx misunderstand him, his radical views on sex, J.S. Mill and his feminism, Henry Sidjwick and gay liberation, his impact on contemporaries like Parfit and Singer and the openness of the utilitarians as a group to the uncanny and weird. Bart Schultz Published on: Jul 22, 2017 @ 20:50

Here he discusses his project descrying the world of physics, how he answers Fodor's question 'why is there more than physics?, materialism, consciousness, the direction of time, the behaviours of micro and macro states, the Mentaculus, why he prefers Boltzman's realism to anti-realism, freewill, the status of probabilities used in physics, comparing Lewis's possible worlds with Everett's many worlds, and the philosophical challenges of cosmological inflation. Big Bang Bomb!!! Barry Loewer Published on: Jul 14, 2017 @ 14:44

Here he discusses Althusser, why his reputation faded, his early thinking on Hegel, Christianity and Marx, his work on Montesquieu, his work in the 1960's, why he returned to the early Marx, why and how he introduced hermeneutics to Marxism, the influence of Spinoza, Freud and Marx, gives a bravura summary of his non-empiricist theory of epistemology and philosophy of science, the role of philosophy in his thinking, whether he was a Marxist structuralist, his anti-humanism, the status of his later writings, and whether he is still of relevance. William Lewis Published on: Jul 7, 2017 @ 03:20

Here he discusses why the Gettier problem in contemporary epistemology is philosophy's version of 'fake news', experimental philosophy and psychology, assertion, factive norms, virtue epistemology, inability and obligation, why ableism should replace reliabilism and attitudes to breaking rules. John Turri Published on: Jul 1, 2017 @ 06:32

Here he discusses the necessity of laws of nature, why their necessity is contingent, whether these laws are immutable, what meta-laws are and what they're for, laws and objective chance, why laws are laws because they are necessary rather than because they are laws, non-causal explanations in science and maths, explanation by constraint and why we don't find them in maths, really statistical and dimensional explanations, why non-causal explanations are important in maths, and why despite their diversity non-causal explanations really are all explanations. This one needs time and a steady minds eye... Marc Lange Published on: Jun 24, 2017 @ 14:49

Here he discusses the foundation of modern metaphysics, Frege, why Dummett doesn't seem as influential as Quine and Lewis, bridging the analytic/continental divide, Nietzsche - Spinoza - Hegel, Husserl- Descartes - Wittgenstein, Heidegger's metaphysics, Collingwood's metaphysics as history, Derrida, Deleuze, Kant's ethical views, whether absolute representations are possible and some philosophical issues about infinity. This is one winding road... Adrian Moore Published on: Jun 17, 2017 @ 21:54

here he discusses Plato's notion of techne, its relationship to morality, Plato's use of rhetoric and its link to postmodernism, the importance of the dialogic and dialectical characteristics of Plato's works, why Talmudic readings of Aristotle are appropriate, why he prefers Aristotle's account of the cosmos to our contemporary one and Aristotle's phenomenology. David Roochnik Published on: Jun 10, 2017 @ 01:07

Here he discusses his understanding of a pluralistic approach to morality, the relationship between philosophy and anthropology in the matter of understanding morality, the hermeneutical requirement of similarity and difference, Confucianism and Western philosophy and the possibility of a synthesis, why it's better to talk of sustaining cultures rather than preserving them, the issue of diversity and increasing homogeneity, Aristotle and Daoist approaches to how we should live, the role of Rawls' Aristotelian Principle in approaching the complexity of understanding the good life, the Daoist's 'less is more' principle, the different faces of love in the good life, relational ethical approaches to the environmental crisis, how the notion of a relational self helps overcome conflicts between individuals and their communities, and how Mencius helps overcome the perceived division between desire and reason. David Wong Published on: Jun 3, 2017 @ 06:26

Here he discusses Nietzsche and art, his unpopular views about Socrates, the art of friendship, beauty in art, authenticity and why philosophy is not redundant. Alexander Nehamas Published on: May 27, 2017 @ 07:35

Here he discusses moral disagreement and contextualism, why disagreeing with someone doesn't have to mean you think the other person wrong, what that tells us about disagreement, modal disagreement, the distinction between indicatives and subjunctives, backtracking counterfactuals, Ramsey's thesis and its counterfactuals, and then he explains his ideas about how code-words like 'Inner'city' work to disguise toxic thoughts. Justin Khoo Published on: May 21, 2017 @ 09:44

Here she discusses absolute time, Henry More on time, whether More's Platonism and naturalism mixed, Samuel Alexander and substantivalism, spacetime,emergentism, matter, Spinoza, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, polytheistic blasphemy and how she avoids it, her feminism, Lockeanism, and Kantian Idealism, Hilda Diana Oakley, her idealism and her arguments about time defending jerk and whoosh and finally why idealism is important. And look out for her book Absolute Time in Early Modern British Metaphysics when it appears in the near future via Oxford University Press. Emily Thomas Published on: May 13, 2017 @ 08:38