Dr. Damon Horowitz quit his technology job and got a Ph.D. in philosophy -- and he thinks you should too. "If you are at all disposed to question what's around you, you'll start to see that there appear to be cracks in the bubble," Horowitz said in a 2011 talk at Stanford. "So about a … Continue reading The Unexpected Way Philosophy Majors Are Changing The World Of Business
Tag: Philosophy
Artificial intelligence is what we can do that computers can’t…yet
I think I've mentioned before that I listen to a number of different podcasts. One of them is Writing Excuses, a podcast about writing science fiction. One of the recent episodes featured Nancy Fulda to discuss writing about AI realistically. In the discussion, she made an observation that I thought was insightful. What we call … Continue reading Artificial intelligence is what we can do that computers can’t…yet
SMBC: Why the universe isn’t deterministic
This is a bit whimsical but seems relevant to some of our recent conversations on determinism. Click through to see the full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
The Marionette’s Lament : A Response to Daniel Dennett : : Sam Harris
Dear Dan— I’d like to begin by thanking you for taking the time to review Free Will at such length. Publicly engaging me on this topic is certainly preferable to grumbling in private. Your writing is admirably clear, as always, which worries me in this case, because we appear to disagree about a great many … Continue reading The Marionette’s Lament : A Response to Daniel Dennett : : Sam Harris
This View of Life: Why Sam Harris is Unlikely to Change his Mind
The New Atheist Sam Harris recently offered to pay $10,000 to anyone who can disprove his arguments about morality. Jonathan Haidt analyzes the nature of reasoning, and the ease with which reason becomes a servant of the passions. He bets $10,000 that Harris will not change his mind. via This View of Life: Why Sam … Continue reading This View of Life: Why Sam Harris is Unlikely to Change his Mind
The foundations of morality
Last week, I made a post on the fact that we have desires, urges, impulses, motivations, that are inherently not rooted in reason or logic, that while reason and logic are extremely useful, they are tools of these desires, these instincts. And that while reason can have an effect on how we resolve conflicts between … Continue reading The foundations of morality
Existential comics: How philosophy gets made
I would have just shared this on Twitter, but it seemed relevant to our conversation on the 'Philosophy that ignores science' thread, that I decided to highlight on the blog. Click through to read the whole thing. via existentialcomics.com/comic/14
Philosophy that ignores science risks impotence
Peter Hankins has a post up reviewing Harold Langsam's new book, 'The Wonder of Consciousness'. While the book sounds interesting (Hankins describes it as philosophically dense, so I probably won't read it), something bothered me while reading Hankins's review. It was the idea that we can determine things about the world without looking at it, … Continue reading Philosophy that ignores science risks impotence
Reason is a tool of emotion
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. David Hume Reason, logic, is a tool. It is a means to an end. It is never an end unto itself, never the goal. It is the journey, not … Continue reading Reason is a tool of emotion
Belief in immortality hard-wired? Study examines development of children’s ‘prelife’ reasoning — ScienceDaily
By examining children's ideas about "prelife," the time before conception, researchers found results which suggest that our bias toward immortality is a part of human intuition that naturally emerges early in life. And the part of us that is eternal, we believe, is not our skills or ability to reason, but rather our hopes, desires … Continue reading Belief in immortality hard-wired? Study examines development of children’s ‘prelife’ reasoning — ScienceDaily
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