I think there might be some tension in my position. ‘Tension’ is the term professionalized philosophers have been trained to use in place of the less charitable terms ‘inconsistency’ or ‘contradiction’. Okay, I think I might have inadvertently saddled myself… Read More ›
Angst
THE RECURSIVITY OF SELF-DOUBT
If I retired now – which not long ago, at sixty-eight, people would have thought was well overdue – how would my life change? I might have to tighten my belt a little, but probably by only one notch. I’d… Read More ›
DESIDERATA
What Donald Trump has done, both during the campaign and in the year and a half since, is tapped into the backlash against both political correctness and what’s correct politically. The backlash against political correctness was long overdue. In saying… Read More ›
NOTES FROM THE JUNGLE
Whenever I give a talk, one of my favorite opening schticks is, “Of the things I care least about, the historicity of the Empty Tomb and global warming are pretty much in a dead heat. What I do care about,… Read More ›
THE CRITICAL THINKING PROFESSOR’S DILEMMA
S asserts that not-p. S is paid. Therefore S is paid to assert that not-p. The likelihood of the truth of not-p varies inversely with what one is paid to assert it. If one’s been exposed to the evidence… Read More ›
HOW TRUE BELIEVING CAN BE A CRITICAL-THINKING-SKILLS PARALYTIC
I’m not a neurologist but … I’m told that when the doctor tests your reflexes with that rubber hammer and your lower leg springs forward, the message isn’t going all the way up to the brain. I guess that’s because… Read More ›
WHAT DO REVENGE FANTASIES TELL US ABOUT ETHICS?
I am not going to claim that all of us play host to revenge fantasies, because then I couldn’t deny – which I categorically do – that I certainly do. So everything I say here is prefixed by an I-hear-tell,… Read More ›
NECESSITATED HYPOCRISY
There are a few things that I get that other people don’t. If this weren’t so I wouldn’t be of much use to them, now would I? So no, since it’s not hubris, no apology warranted, so none forthcoming. And… Read More ›
TENNYSON’S ULYSSES
I’m told that “May you live in interesting times!” was actually an old Chinese curse. I guess the Chinese are ill-disposed to excitement. “Soooo,’ I ask my Chinese friend, “what’s happenin’ that’s interesting?” “Nothing,” he answers. “Thank God,” he adds…. Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 