Category Archives: philosophy
May 5 links: Missing word or sarcasm?
I was a little disappointed to learn that the word “million” was missing here: Olympic injury trending on Twitter launched $18 empire Via Andrew Sullivan, a lively meditation on the power of the phrase “I don’t know.” Isn’t a wise man … Continue reading
Conspiracy theories and why the intellectually insecure believe them
Brilliant photographical and philosophical takedown of moon landing conspiracy theories, including these comments that apply to “truthers” from 9/11 to Sandy Hook (and people who see media conspiracies where they don’t exist): The urge to believe drives people to trade … Continue reading
The apocalyptic cycle
The BBC reports that the Doomsday deadline has passed: Some said it would end at midnight on Thursday, while others gave the deadline of just after 11:00 GMT on Friday. Both predictions have failed to materialise. Another group of followers … Continue reading
A quick defense of the liberal arts
When I was 15 or 16, I was a full-blown computer geek. In those days, that meant I could program in BASIC on green monitors. I read sci-fi and watched a lot of Doctor Who – back when it was a whimsical … Continue reading
The depressing part of the “hookup culture” debate
“Warm bodies, I sense, are not machines that can only make money” – Live, Pillar of Davidson This Hanna Rosin video segment helped me figure out what bothers me about the “hookup culture” beyond the sexual issues — STD risk, pregnancy … Continue reading
Getting professors to write for the outside world
Today, a lot of academic writing looks like this: To a discussion by political philosophers a mere fact woman like me, an economic historian trained in the 1960s as a transportation economist, has really only one thing to contribute. It … Continue reading
David Lowery sets the record straight on the “free music” generation
As a writer, I fully appreciate what David Lowery (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven) has to say on music piracy, even if I envy his writing skills. I also find this all this sort of sad. Many in your generation are … Continue reading
Philosophy: Just a foreign concept?
It’s not that we Americans hate philosophy, the author argues here. We just have our own way of going about it. Which begs the unanswerable question: What is philosophy? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be picking up pieces of my brain, … Continue reading
Too Stupid for Satire: Manufactured outrage
Being a big fan of the Three Minute Philosophy series, I decided to see what else Australian philosophy-summarizer S. Peter Davis (apparently a real person, not a Monty Python character) was doing with his life. Turns out part of it … Continue reading
So yeah — take THAT, economists (and others)
Philosophy professor Gary Gutting gets to the heart of the problem with economics and other social sciences. While the physical sciences produce many detailed and precise predictions, the social sciences do not. The reason is that such predictions almost always … Continue reading
