Author Archives: Huenemann

About Huenemann

Curious about the ways humans use their minds and hearts to distract themselves from the meaninglessness of life.

The impact of Boris Hessen

Posted on August 26, 2019

Reading: Gerardo Ienna and Giulia Rispoli, “Boris Hessen at the Crossroads of Science and Ideology from International Circulation to the Soviet Context”, Society and Politics, 2019, 13:37-63. [These are just some preliminary notes on a very complex story I am … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical episodes, Items of the academy / learning | 7 Comments

Is there such a thing as the history of philosophy?

Posted on July 31, 2019

(Reading Christia Mercer. “The Contextualist Revolution in Early Modern Philosophy.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 57, no. 3 (2019): 529-548.) Christia Mercer has revisited the methodological battles that have waged among scholars of the history of philosophy. She uses … Continue reading →

Posted in Items of the academy / learning | 2 Comments

Hobbes and coins

Posted on July 7, 2019

Thomas Hobbes saw humans as purely mechanical devices. External objects press against us in one way or another, setting off a chain reaction of interior pulleys, wheels, and ratchets that engage one another and result in some version of “Cuckoo!” … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical episodes | 2 Comments

What we know when we know particulars

Posted on May 7, 2019

Some reflections on the early sections of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: If we try to think about what is most obvious in our experience, and what the most basic elements of knowledge are, we turn to sense perception. For it … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical episodes, Kant and/or Hume, Metaphysical musings, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Unvatting the Brains: Putnam, Bostrom, and thinking the unthinkable

Posted on February 7, 2019

The worry is familiar. All of my experience comes to me via my central nervous system, which is a biochemical electrical network. It can be hacked. The data coming from my eyes and ears and so on are converted to … Continue reading →

Posted in Metaphysical musings, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Minds as predictive engines

Posted on January 4, 2019

(Reading Andy Clark, Surfing Uncertainty (Oxford UP 2015)) I’m no longer sure I know what an “ordinary” theory of mind would look like, but I’m guessing that it would resemble an organized camp of explorers. The explorers, or our senses, venture … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Meanings of life / death / social & moral stuff, Metaphysical musings | Leave a comment

RNZ interview

Posted on September 23, 2018

The Sunday Show of Radio New Zealand interviewed me about my Delphic maxims piece. It was a delight to speak with Jim Mora, the host. You can listen to the interview here, if you like. We vacationed in New Zealand nearly … Continue reading →

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