Facebook’s biggest contribution to civilization is the like button. Before we could like things, we had to decide whether something was 3 stars or 4 stars and I could never decide whether 3 stars meant this is pretty good or I … Continue reading
I’ve been following the RSS feed for Thinking Aloud. It’s a series of interviews with philosophers and other thinkers, asking about topics where philosophy meets our everyday lives. The quality of the interviews has been mixed at best. I loved … Continue reading
I am a bit of stickler for intellectual property respect. That’s a trait, I am proud to say, I have passed on to my children. I glowed when one of them opted to buy the latest Phoenix Wright rather than … Continue reading
This is as fine a definition of virtue as I have ever seen. Why is self-assertion important? “We have a responsibility to live well. Our challenge is to act as if we respect ourselves. Enjoying ourselves is not enough.” But … Continue reading
The Times has a great series of essays by Errol Morris on Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. According to the author, Structure is a post-modern work which makes the relativist claim that people in one paradigm (or culture … Continue reading
I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance three times. The first time I read it, I thought it was the best book ever and it got me reading Plato and interested in eastern religions and philosophy. I also … Continue reading
Daniel Kahneman describes two selves. Your experiencing self lives in the present. It cares about what is happening right now. Experiencing self is honest, forthright and direct. Ask your experiencing self if you are happy and it’ll give you an … Continue reading
My daughter’s favourite philosophy problem…
There a tiny storm in my corner of the interwebs. Bob Wright wrote a book – The Evolution of God – and Jerry Coyne wrote a review trashing it. Then Coyne and Jim Manzi got into a blogs ‘n’ handbags … Continue reading
Affirmative action is counter-productive. So is the minimum wage. And minimum standards of education. Technology is uninteresting. Well over 90% of science fiction is crap. Checked exceptions are stupid. I am afraid that pubic hair will go the way of … Continue reading