I learned this lesson intellectually some time ago, but it was driven home to me over the last week: philosophers with different paradigms will find no central question, no decisive claim, that will provide an objective ruling in favor of one paradigm or the other. The lesson was taught most famously by Thomas Kuhn in… Continue reading

… in southern Utah: Continue reading

I’m going to assume that if some kind of contemporary pantheism is plausible, then it has to have more going for it than merely intellectual or emotional support. What I mean is this. If the only reason you have for being a pantheist is that you can’t think of reality except as a single unified… Continue reading

Lately I have been thinking about Spinoza’s attitude toward God. Many contemporary scholars put Spinoza’s metaphysics in the center of his vision: he thinks there is one substance, and all particular things are expressions of its unchanging essence. That one thing can be called “God,” since it has many of the core features attributed to… Continue reading

What is it to be poor? A first answer might be along the lines of “Not having much money.” But money is just a measurement of wealth or poverty, and not a very meaningful one. Imagine someone who doesn’t have any money or property, but society feeds them and houses them and lets them borrow… Continue reading

This situation is sickening. 200k dead, maybe 300k; surely more if no one gets in there soon. A BBC interview today with a UN spokesperson revealed that the UN people cannot even get hold of the Burmese leaders on the telephone — no one picks up! Not even an answering machine. The UN says access… Continue reading

Last fall I was teaching a big class surveying the humanities. At some point we came to the topic of democracy, and I wanted to express the idea that democracy can be something more than merely the notion of “majority rules.” “How many of you listen to jazz?” I asked. Two or three hands went… Continue reading

Indeed, said Vivien Stern, a research fellow at the prison studies center in London, the American incarceration rate has made the United States “a rogue state, a country that has made a decision not to follow what is a normal Western approach.” NYT article here. Continue reading

Over on usuphilosophy.com (another blog I manage), an interesting discussion came up over whether blogs are useful for philosophical discussions. One contributor doesn’t think so, for the following line of reasoning (in my words, not his): A philosophical discussion requires (1) a large overlap of agreement, (2) a focus on a particular unresolved question, with… Continue reading

The Economist has an interesting essay here about the future of American “exceptionalism” (the way America takes its global role as special). The discussion is prompted by a book: Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation, edited by Peter Schuck and James Q. Wilson. The question is whether America will move past Bush’s own… Continue reading

What is life like when all effective law enforcement breaks down? Hobbes had an answer: life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. And all empirical evidence suggests he was right. When the police go on holiday, the nasties come out to play. Hobbes then set himself the task of explaining why it is that… Continue reading

Thanks for all the comments in the “Philosophy 2.0” post — they are really helping to give form to the sludge in my mind! I think the credibility problem (raised in the comments) has less to do with the label “philosophy” and more to do with “academic” or “professional.” Generally, when I tell folks I… Continue reading

You might sort out two different kinds of important change. The first kind is the sort of change that happens all the time – perennial change. You are born. You grow. You get sick. You get better. Empires rise. Empires fall. Friends come. Friends go. These are the sorts of changes, along with a few… Continue reading

In his new book, “The Post-American World,” Mr. Zakaria writes that America remains a politico-military superpower, but “in every other dimension — industrial, financial, educational, social, cultural — the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.” With the rise of China, India and other emerging markets, with economic growth sweeping much of… Continue reading

I was banging along with my thoughts about the new global changes (I really need a new term for this; “the coming revolutions”? … “new world order” (barf)? … “Philosophy 2.0”? That I like!), and I asked myself, “Self, what role will religion play throughout these massive changes?” And Self answered, “Religion will play the… Continue reading

Tom has had enough of Bush’s pathetic “leadership”: “Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.” Read the… Continue reading

Remember that spooky thrill when the Borg were first introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation? They were built up as being the ultimate enemy, or at least an enemy that might be too tough for the starship Enterprise. And they were scary. They lived in a giant flying cube and operated as a collection… Continue reading

Here is an interesting essay by David Brooks which argues, with some supporting data, that globalization isn’t the big causal force most of us take it to be. What’s really changing the manufacturing landscape is technological innovation — jobs are being shifted because of new and better machines and processes. It is the “cognitive age,”… Continue reading

Here in the NYT, by Roy Blount, Jr. Sounds like an uneven collection of things found in Kurt’s desk — but with enough jewels to make it worthwhile. Continue reading

Confession time. Here, in order, are the movies that make me laugh like a hyena: 1. Norbit 2. Honey, I Shrunk the Baby 3. Monsters, Inc. 4. Toy Story II I’ll add more as I remember them. Continue reading

The International Crisis Group recently offered an assessment of Iraq’s progress, somewhat rosier than one might otherwise expect. Here is the good news: “The Sunni insurgency has been seriously weakened. Previously marginalised Sunni tribes found in the U.S. a new patron and turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq. Increasingly divided and with several important groups co-opted… Continue reading

We just watched In the Valley of Elah last night. It stars Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron (both great actors) and is a kind of murder mystery which brings out the ways that war can twist a young mind. Really well made — patient, exciting, intelligent. Jones probably should have been nominated for some… Continue reading