I’m behind on my blog-posting. So, while I struggle to get caught up, I thought I’d offer a recap of what’s come so far in this “Science, Mind, and God” series. I hope to post the next installment on Descartes soon, within the next few weeks. Part I: The New Atheists The series was motivated … Continue reading SCIENCE, MIND, AND GOD: Recap
Science, Mind, and God. Part IV: Plato
Not long ago I developed and taught a class on the so-called New Atheists, a group of thinkers who put out books around the same time (2004 – 2007) arguing against Western religion. I only taught the class twice, and two unexpected things happened in the course of my delving deeply into these authors and … Continue reading Science, Mind, and God. Part IV: Plato
SCIENCE, MIND, AND GOD. PART III: THE GREEKS DISCOVER THE COSMOS
Not long ago I developed and taught a class on the so-called New Atheists, a group of thinkers who put out books around the same time (2004 – 2007) arguing against Western religion. I only taught the class twice, and two unexpected things happened in the course of my delving deeply into these authors and … Continue reading SCIENCE, MIND, AND GOD. PART III: THE GREEKS DISCOVER THE COSMOS
SCIENCE, MIND, AND GOD. PART II: THE (IL)LIBERAL COLLEGE STUDENT
Not long ago I developed and taught a class on the so-called New Atheists, a group of thinkers who put out books around the same time (2004 – 2007) arguing against Western religion. As a long-time devotee of Nietzsche, I was intrigued by these books and sympathetic towards many of the arguments they contained. I’ll … Continue reading SCIENCE, MIND, AND GOD. PART II: THE (IL)LIBERAL COLLEGE STUDENT
Science, Mind, and God. Part I: The New Atheists
Not long ago I developed and taught a class on the so-called New Atheists, a group of thinkers who put out books around the same time (2004 – 2007) arguing against Western religion. As a long-time devotee of Nietzsche, I was intrigued by these books and sympathetic towards many of the arguments they contained. I’ll … Continue reading Science, Mind, and God. Part I: The New Atheists
PLATO ON TRUMP AND THE CORRUPTION OF TYRANTS
In a recent New York Times column, “The Revenge of the Lesser Trumps,” Frank Bruni talks about those who have been sucked into Trump’s orbit, fell out with him, and now are turning against him. He writes: The problem with being Donald Trump isn’t just being Donald Trump. It’s all the other, lesser Trumps around … Continue reading PLATO ON TRUMP AND THE CORRUPTION OF TYRANTS
The Mind Projection Fallacy, or: Do You Exist Before I Look at You?
This is a fun piece from a while back. Have a look.
In my humble opinion, one of the wackiest things about contemporary physics is the notion of indeterminacy, or the idea that (as a recent essay put it): “Reality Doesn’t Exist Until You Look at It.” This title is doubly silly, since it equates reality with what goes on at the subatomic level, and not with trees, dolphins, mountains, gerbils, Buicks, and non-fat yoghurt (the yoghurt definitely exists before you look at it, fyi). This was Schrödinger’s complaint with his famous cat thought-experiment (read here for the details).
For a long time I’d been naming this the “fallacy of deriving ontological conclusions from epistemological premises.” Ontology is the study of being; epistemology is the study of knowledge. So, in other words, one has premises concerning what one can or cannot know, and one derives a conclusion about the structure of reality from those premises. This is as illegitimate as…
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Plato on the Rise of Trump, or: Philosophy in 140 Characters?
“The greatest punishment, if one isn’t willing to rule, is to be ruled by someone worse than oneself.” (Republic, 347c) “Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are not called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophize, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide…cities will have no rest from evils…nor, I … Continue reading Plato on the Rise of Trump, or: Philosophy in 140 Characters?
Woody Allen and Philosophy
I was recently interviewed by Ezra Zaid from BFM radio in Kuala Lumpur. He hosts an English-language show about comedy, "Finding the Funny," and he'd run across the volume on Woody Allen and Philosophy I'd co-edited. You can listen to the radio interview here. In addition, you can read my essay from the volume, "God, … Continue reading Woody Allen and Philosophy
The Mind Projection Fallacy, or: Do You Exist Before I Look at You?
In my humble opinion, one of the wackiest things about contemporary physics is the notion of indeterminacy, or the idea that (as a recent essay put it): “Reality Doesn’t Exist Until You Look at It.” This title is doubly silly, since it equates reality with what goes on at the subatomic level, and not with trees, dolphins, … Continue reading The Mind Projection Fallacy, or: Do You Exist Before I Look at You?
Mark T. Conard 