Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Ring of Gyges (a story)

Posted on April 24, 2020 by

So, I’m no fiction writer (at least, not on purpose). I give it a shot now and then, for fun. A while back I had a plan to write a series of stories featuring the “wonder cabinet” of Dr Tenebris, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

3QD: Freedom and determinism – what we can learn from the failures of two pretty good arguments

Posted on April 14, 2020 by

The “Consequence Argument” is a powerful argument for the conclusion that, if determinism is true, then we have no control over what we do or will do. The argument is straightforward and simple (as given in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): … Continue reading →

Posted in 3QD essays, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Structure, Energy, and Reality

Posted on April 1, 2020 by

This past term I’ve been teaching a capstone class in which students are supposed to write a longer paper on some topic that means a lot to them. It’s meant to be a culminating event for their undergraduate work in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What we know when we know particulars

Posted on May 7, 2019 by

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 by

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

RNZ interview

Posted on September 23, 2018 by

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A poisoned peace

Posted on September 18, 2018 by

“I realize that if through science I can seize phenomena and enumerate them, I cannot, for all that, apprehend the world. Were I to trace its entire relief with my finger, I should not know any more. And you give … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment