Philosophers are in the business of either drawing distinctions or collapsing them. A case of the latter is David Hume’s observation that, all this palaver to the contrary notwithstanding, causation just is correlation. A case of the former is the… Read More ›
rhetoric
COERCION
I argue that if the notion of coercion is given a non-normative interpretation, then it can do no work for us. Of its normative interpretations – any precisification of the term and condemnation of coercion arising from natural law is… Read More ›
A ‘DEFENSE’ OF RACISM
I’m convinced, or at least satisfied, that there’s nothing to be lost, and arguably a great deal to be gained, by naturalizing racism, if naturalized it can be.
Guest Post by Pamela Lindsay: A Crash Course in Rhetoric.
Apropos Paul’s post Of Decolonisation and Marranos , re: the perlocutionary force of language. The extent to which language controls thought is a hotly debated topic. John McWhorter, for one, argues language doesn’t control thought as much as some believe. … Read More ›
THE OUTCOMES FALLACY
The way to test your argument for validity is what we might call the that’s-like-saying test. You give me your argument, I provide an analogous argument – analogous in the sense of sharing what we call your argument’s argument form… Read More ›
SOME APT COMPARISONS
I tell my students that the only rhetorical overkill, no pun intended, worse than likening some perceived injustice to the Holocaust is likening some perceived villain to Adolf Hitler. But I never allow my advice to apply to me. Accordingly… Read More ›
THE SCRUM
*This post was first published on May 11, 2020 English has one distinct advantage over Italian. The distinction between an assertive and interrogative is embedded in the construction of the sentence. In writing Italians have to rely on the question mark,… Read More ›
WHITE SUPREMACY
There are a few people who think the Nazis had the right idea; they just got it wrong about which is the master race. There are more than a few people, myself included, who think that people of one race… Read More ›
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Note to self: Be careful how you sell yourself lest someone’s actually buying. Case in point? Fellow blogger Andrew Roman, may his tribe increase, has asked me to draw the distinction, if there is one, between justice and social justice…. Read More ›
THE NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE MANTRA
I wouldn’t have thought it necessary to weigh in on the civil unrest sweeping across the U.S., and now across the entire western world. I’d have thought it almost analytic that people who are pissed off, and are taking their… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 