If the UN calls a world philosophy day and doesn’t tell anyone… 20 Nov 2008 … has it still happened? Anyway, the BBC, bless ’em, has had philosopher David Bain pose four philosophical questions to mark the epistemologically problematic day: 1. Should we kill healthy people for their organs? 2. Are you the same person who started reading this article? 3. Is that really a computer screen in front of you? 4. Did you really choose to read this article? Or in more traditional terms: Utilitarian ethics, personal identity, perception and illusion, and free will and determinism. Sneaky. Get ’em in with a condundrum and then pervert the minds of those who stay to consider. Classic Socratic corruption of the youth. Well played, that man. Humor
Humor Just so we know who we’re talking about 7 Mar 2008 Below the fold is a humorous and possibly true account of reality TV trying to include geologists. With appropriate substitutions, the same thing could be said of any academic… Read More
Biology The relation between physics and biology 23 Jun 2009 … or, The Real Anthropic Principle… I was musing, as one does, about the relation between physics and biology. Usually we think of biology as some domain that can (or, depending on your personal position, cannot) be reduced to physics. I, on the other hand think of biology, like chemistry,… Read More
Biology The Velvet Underground of… 8 Oct 2010 Recently there have been a couple of “Velvet Underground” posts, of the kind that the VU were a very unknown but amazingly influential group. As Chad Orzel says, “only of order a thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every one of them went on to start a… Read More
Did a little round-up of a news article and some links – but then, Queenslanders are usually on the ball regarding Philosophy in Schools. 🙂 http://podblack.com/?p=1062
Did a little round-up of a news article and some links – but then, Queenslanders are usually on the ball regarding Philosophy in Schools. 🙂 http://podblack.com/?p=1062
Hmm… 1. No 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. Yes And BTW, the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin is 28. I counted.
Hmm… 1. No 2. Yes 3. Yes 4. Yes And BTW, the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin is 28. I counted.
1. It is an illusion to think that one can kill anybody 2. Do people really exist? 3. What’s real? 4. See 3! It is an illusion to believe that pins have heads!
1. It is an illusion to think that one can kill anybody 2. Do people really exist? 3. What’s real? 4. See 3! It is an illusion to believe that pins have heads!
What most people don’t realize is that the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin depends not on the angels but the style of dance the are doing. If they are doing dances that allow a large number to crowd into a small space like ballroom or line-dancing then you can get upwards of 40 on the head of a pin. On the other hand, there are dances that need a lot more space so you might only get 10 jitterbugging or breakdancing angels on the same pinhead. The wings get in the way, too.
1. No, not for organs but yes for a Fender Stratocaster. 2. Define person 3. Is this a monitor which I see before me, The mouse toward my hand? Come, let me click thee. I link thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal Vista, sensible To keyboard as to mouse? or art thou but A Window of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the pride-oppressed Gates? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I Corel draw. 4. No, I just pretended.
1. No, not for organs but yes for a Fender Stratocaster. 2. Define person 3. Is this a monitor which I see before me, The mouse toward my hand? Come, let me click thee. I link thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal Vista, sensible To keyboard as to mouse? or art thou but A Window of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the pride-oppressed Gates? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I Corel draw. 4. No, I just pretended.