Philosophers’ Corner

  • The Philosophy of History

    There are different ways the word ‘history’ might be defined, so we had better start out by defining our terms. For example, you could define history as the sum total of past events. But that’s not how historians or even philosophers of history would define it. The problem with that definition is that it encompasses every single event that has so far happened in the Universe – from the big bang to the emergence of humankind and everything in between. We do sometimes talk about history in this broad and inclusive sense, but that’s not what we’re talking about today.

  • Children as Philosophers

    While licking a pot, six-year-old Tim asks: “Papa, how can we be sure that everything…

  • The Power of Thought

    Human thought is an amazing thing. It has given us science, literature, morality, and last — but certainly not least — philosophy. Thought even has the power to create new realities. And I’m not primarily thinking of literature and the arts or even of technology. I’m thinking of the entire social world. Every size social reality from clubs to nations and every thing in between is a creation of the human mind, of human thought in particular. They all exist because we simply think them into existence.

  • Disagreement

    Isn’t it a bit odd that philosophers disagree? Consider Ken and I. We’re both a reasonably well-educated, fairly intelligent, pretty perceptive, not overly neurotic philosophers. Why shouldn’t we agree about everything? We need to distinguish between apparent and real disagreements. Suppose Ken says lima beans taste good, and I say that he’s wrong, lima beans taste bad. It seems there is no real disagreement here, just differing tastes. We only have real disagreement when two people hold opinions that cannot both be true.

  • Reading, Narrative, and the Self

    This week’s topic is Reading, Narrative, and the Self. I suppose everybody has a pretty good idea of what each of those things, taken individually, means. Reading is something that most people do. A good narrative — or story, to use a less fancy term — is something most people enjoy. And a self is something everybody has. But I think I need to explain what reading, narrative, and the self have to do with each other.

  • Civil Disobedience

    Civil disobedience is a great tradition. Particularly in America, where we have Thoreau, who refused to pay a poll tax, because the money supported the Mexican War and the Fugitive Slave Law. Then, there’s Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. And the Viet-Nam War protester. But then, as philosophers, we must ask, what exactly is civil disobedience?

  • Levels of Reality

    If you think about it, reality comes in many levels, each level involving different kinds of things, having different kinds of properties. Perhaps most people would think of things like dirt at the bottom level, then us at the next level, and the sky at the highest level. But philosophers have a different, more abstract concept of levels of reality.

  • The Idea of a University

    I’m really happy universities exist, and that they support philosophy departments, and seem to think…

  • The Occult Philosophy

    During the Renaissance, things like Alchemy, Astrology, White Magic, Hermeticism, Cabala, Numerology were intensely studied by some of the best minds in Europe. Literature from that period is often rife with references to the occult. The works of Shakespeare are a prime example.

  • Bargaining with the devil

    The title of our show, “Bargaining with the devil,” is supposed to bring to mind the issues of bargaining and compromise. These are good things, involved in virtually all cooperative and productive behavior. Everyone has to bargain. Even dictators need to bargain with other dictators and heads of state. But there are times when we shouldn’t compromise because basic principles are involved; and there are issues that we shouldn’t bargain about. Or so it seems.

  • Digital Selves

    A digital self isn’t really a person made out of numbers or fingers. It’s a computerized representation of a person. It can be a “VRS”—a virtual representation of yourself. Or a VRO — a virtual representation of another person. So, important distinction: we’ve got me, the real person. And then there are representations of me: My name in the paper, my image in a mirror, the picture of me on our website, even my idea of myself in my own head, and your idea of me.

  • The terror of death, and how to overcome it

    The title of this week’s program makes at least three assumptions that deserve to brought into the light of critical reflection: that death is terror-inducing; that being terrified of death is a bad thing; and that overcoming the terror of death would be a good thing. One can take issue with each of them.

  • Gandhi as Philosopher

    Most revolutionaries – or whatever exactly Gandhi was – are utterly and inalterably convinced that they have morality wholly on their side. Though Gandhi was a deeply principled man who constantly strove to be on the side of morality, he wasn’t big on claiming to know the moral truth. And he actually thought that the ethical condemnation of one’s opponent was itself a form of violence. And he rejected all forms of violence.