Jeanne Warren on a philosopher of personality. I have to confess to spending the last twenty years mystified by what philosophers mean by consciousness. There seems to be a mismatch between my categories of thought and theirs. Mary Midgley’s recent article (‘Souls, Minds, Bodies & Planets’ in Philosophy Now Issue 47) has thrown some light …
William James famously writes: We must know the truth; and we must avoid error—these are our first and great commandments as would-be knowers; but they are not two ways of stating an identical commitment, they are two separable laws (James, 1896). The core insight in this passage is that as epistemic agents we face competing …
John Lent explores three dimensions of philosophy in 2D comics. The interrelatedness of comic art to philosophy is both long-lived and far-ranging. The three areas I’ll survey are: philosophies about life embedded within comics; depictions of formalized philosophies in comics; and theorists’ and cartoonists’ philosophies about the comics profession. Gems of philosophy have permeated comics …
Published in Blackwell’s Contemporary Social Issues series, Taking Moral Action has as its goal, “to provide a first overview of the emerging but highly fragmented field of moral psychology. . .for both those beginning in the field and those deep in the weeds and thickets of theoretical controversy” (xiii). Chuck Huff, an American social psychologist, and Almut …
Mary Midgley meditates on mind and meaning among the mutations. Researchers report that people who are asked to give their reason for converting to Creationism often say that they have done so because they see it as the only possible alternative to ‘Darwinism’, which they equate with atheism and find intolerable. What does ‘Darwinism’ mean …
Nearly twenty years ago in West Nickel Creek, Pennsylvania, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered a one-room schoolhouse and gunned down ten schoolchildren. Six of the children died. In the aftermath, the Amish community whose children were the victims, did not respond with demands for retribution. Instead, they extended forgiveness. They not only posthumously forgave Roberts, …
Michael Langford talks about the language we use to talk about the mind and brain. Rejections of freewill have been common in recent philosophical debate (e.g., in Norman Bacrac’s article ‘Epiphenomenalism Explained’ in Philosophy Now 81). The question is, are the choices we make really free, or are they predetermined consequences of the laws of …
Niccolò Machiavelli (born May 3, 1469, Florence [Italy]—died June 21, 1527, Florence) was an Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman, secretary of the Florentine republic, whose most famous work, The Prince (Il Principe), brought him a reputation as an atheist and an immoral cynic. Early life and political career From the 13th century onward, Machiavelli’s family was wealthy and prominent, holding on …
Jan Deckers and Dominic Hall ask whether relatives of patients with a genetic disease should be told that they themselves are at an increased risk. Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease is the commonest cause of dementia, and one of the most prevalent diseases in those over 65. It must be distinguished from familial (early onset) Alzheimer’s disease, …
In 1998 Andy Clark and David Chalmers published an article entitled “The Extended Mind” in which they argued that the mind extends beyond the skull. This was, and to many still is, a rather remarkable thesis. To be clear, they weren’t the first to challenge the boundaries of the mind. Others had argued that the …